The Red Level Tigers (0-1) will have another intense match up Friday night when the travel to Macon County to take on the Notasulga Blue Devils (0-2).

“It’s a very long away game,” Tigers’ head coach James Wise said. “I’m not sure how we will react to the long drive, but other than that I feel pretty good about the game.”

Last week, the Tigers fell in what their coach called a “hard-fought” game. Wise said that the Tigers have shown improvement, and have also shown willingness to grow in practice.

“They are coming along,” Wise said. “There are guys stepping into leadership roles, and we are continuing to improve as a team.”

This is only the second time that the two teams have matched up on the gridiron with Notasulga getting a win in the first game in 2014.

Wise, though, has dealt with the Blue Devils a few times when he was coaching in Lanett.

“I’ve faced them the past four seasons in Lanett,” Wise said. “They have some size, but we will be about equal in that aspect. They are very athletic, and they have some speed. It should be another hard-fought game.”

Offensively, Wise said the Blue Devils will try to spread the ball out.

“They are going to try and run a Malzhan (fast paced) offense out of shotgun with two backs,” Wise said. “From there, they are going to try to attack the edges and corners with their playmakers. They want to use their speed to spread it out. That’s what I would do if I was them.”

Defensively, the Blue Devils will come out in multiple sets, and will revolve around their speedy players disrupting plays, Wise said.

Wise said that his Tigers would do their best to control the clock when on offense.

“We want to establish the run first and then see what we can do from there.” Wise said. “We want to control the game and the clock the best we can.”

On defense, Wise said the Tigers will focus on keeping the play in front of them, and not giving up big plays.

“What we want to do is try and keep them in front of us,” Wise said. “We want them to have to try and nickel and dime us, and not give up so many big plays.”

Wise said the main thing that the Tigers will focus on this week in practice is tackling. Wise also said that he would continue stressing the importance of holding onto the football.

“If we play like we are supposed to, we can win,” Wise said. “But we are going to have to run better, block better and tackle better for us to do that.”

The Tigers and the Blue Devils will kickoff at 7 p.m., Friday in Notasulga.