AHS to host Clarke County tonight for homecoming

Clarke County won’t provide Andalusia the traditional easy homecoming win tonight, AHS head football coach Brian Seymore said.

Instead, the Bulldogs will have to fight CCHS (3-2), who is currently tied for the No. 1 spot in Class 4A, Region 1 to get a homecoming victory.

Don’t let the 3-2 record fool you — CCHS lost to two ranked opponents — Class 5A’s Jackson and Class 3A second-ranked T.R. Miller.

“That just kind of tells you what kind of an opponent they are,” Seymore said about CCHS’ season so far. “It’s not your typical homecoming opponent. We’re just kind of unfortunate a little bit with the way the schedule fell.”

Last week, turnovers almost cost Andalusia a rivalry victory against Opp. The Bulldogs had six turnovers and big plays reared their heads on the gridiron.

“The other ones were center to quarterback exchanges,” Seymore said. “We spent extra time after practice to work on that. They almost cost us this past week.”

Andalusia held on late in last week’s game and beat the Bobcats 22-14, despite a late threat.

With every homecoming comes a bevy of activities and distractions for students and players.

Seymore said he thinks the team has handled a lot of the activities well this week, while staying focused on the task at hand — Clarke County.

“I think (the players) understand the importance of the game,” he said. “We feel like the team who wins this game will be playing for one of the top two or three seeds in the region.”

Seymore said Clarke County has a solid offense and defense and his Bulldogs will have to execute well to be successful.

“I think limiting the big plays and tackling better on defense (are the big keys),” Seymore said. “(Opp) got the big play on a pass and that set up one score and of course, they hadn’t probably got in good position unless we had tackled. Offensively, getting up to 450 yards of total offense and putting 22 points doesn’t get the job done. I think the kids understand if we move the ball like that, we’ve got to make sure we get some points in the end zone.”

In his team’s 19-7 loss to T.R. Miller, Clarke County’s Airion McRae, at 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds, finished with 147 yards on 23 carries to account for more than half of his team’s 246 total yards, al.com reported.

“He’s probably the best running back we’ve seen all year,” Seymore said. “You’ve got to hit him and hold on to him. I saw him get a big run against Hillcrest and T.R. Miller (on film). He also runs a lot of power.”

Seymore said the team works on ball security every week and didn’t defended his team for giving up so many loose balls.

“We’re very mindful of how important it is, but I’m not here to defend people fumbling, but we had a running back play the entire game with a broken hand,” he said. “Javonte (Johnson) lost a couple fumbles, and then we found out Tuesday he had a broken hand, so he’s out.”

Seymore said Johnson will be assessed on a “week-to-week” basis, but will not play in tonight’s game.

“We had a good physical week of practice,” the coach said. “We’ve got to take the preparation of the week and carry it over on Friday night. That’s the main thing.”

Kick off tonight at Andalusia Municipal Stadium is at 7.