The Pike Liberal Arts Patriots step outside the state of Alabama this evening when they travel to Florida to take on the Freeport High School Bulldogs.

The trip will take about two hours for the Patriots, but head coach Gene Allen doesn’t envision it being any different than a normal road game.

“It’s only a couple of hours,” Allen said. “It would be like going to Escambia. We are kind of used to a lot of long road trips in AISA.”

The Patriots (2-0) are coming off a 24-7 win over Crenshaw Christian Friday night in Luverne. It was a game the Patriots were able to get many of their younger players some meaningful playing time.

“That was one of those tough, physical football games,” Allen said. “We knew coach Grant was going to do some things to stop the run. We made a couple of adjustments and did some things. We played a lot of young kids. We started playing the young kids in the middle of the third quarter. It was good for us.”

The Patriots forced five turnovers last week that they turned into 17 points against Crenshaw Christian.

“That was great,” Allen said. “We had some big hits that caused some turnovers. We had a pick on a play that we worked on all week. Most of the turnovers we had were because of big licks or because we stripped the ball out. It was kind of disappointing not being able to get more points, because a couple of them were down there close.”

The Patriots entered the season with multiple options at the quarterback position and that will be the case again this evening. Jade Sikes, Drew Nelson and Davis Allen all saw action a week ago and could be doing so again this evening.

“We are still trying to find the best combinations,” Allen said. “We are still seeing who we need to have where to give us the best advantage to do what we do offensively. If the opportunity arises, we will probably get them in again this week.”

The Patriots will have a rare opportunity to play a public school when they take on the Bulldogs. Freeport is a 1A school within the state of Florida.

“It’s not going to be a lot different than a lot of teams we play around here,” Allen said. “We know they have a few more numbers than we do. I think we will be fine.”

After watching film, Allen believes a lot of what the Bulldogs do is similar to the Patriots.

“They are similar to us,” Allen said. “They are a spread team and run a lot of the same stuff that we do. Defensively they play a 3-4 like we played a couple of years ago. They do a good job and it’s going to be a challenge for us to go down there and perform.”

Kickoff between the Patriots and the Bulldogs will be at 7 p.m.