Pats gear up for highly-ranked Monroe Academy 

The Pike Liberal Arts Patriots travel to Monroeville to take on the Monroe Academy Volunteers in their final region game of the season.

The Patriots are coming off their best performance of the second half of the season in a 38-27 loss to Hooper Academy.

Head coach Gene Allen said the Patriots started slow but picked up momentum in the second half. “We started slow and didn’t really run the ball well,” Allen said. “We threw the ball well though. It was our best throwing night of the season.” Senior quarterback Brian Adams tossed for over 200 yards and two scores in the loss.

Once again it was the big-play-bug that bit Pike and stopped them from pulling out a victory. “ We gave up those big plays to end the half,” Allen said. “We corrected those mistakes at halftime and played very well in the second half.

Monroe Academy is undefeated on the season while the Patriots are winless in region play. Going up against the Volunteers promises to be a tall order for Pike.

Allen said his team is not worried about facing off against the third-ranked team in the AISA. “We know that Monroe is going to be a big test,” Allen said. “We’re trying to get better. We want to get better defensively. We’ve been working on tackling in practice.”

The Patriots are still dealing with injuries to a number of their athletes, and depth has become a concern for Allen. “We’re still moving guys around trying to get them into their best positions,” Allen said. “We want to go down to Monroe and do what we do. That’s our focus.”

The Patriots will attempt to get a little revenge against the Volunteers.

Monroe blanked Pike last year in Troy 48-0.

In fact, in six games played between the Volunteers and Patriots, Pike has never won. The Volunteers have outscored the Patriots 233-33 in those six meetings.

This year, kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Volunteer Stadium in Monroeville.