Wildcats, Eagles take the field

Published 12:00 am Saturday, August 26, 2017

The Florala Wildcats and the Pleasant Home Eagles went back-and-forth in Friday’s preseason game with Florala inching out a 35-34 victory.

It was a high scoring game that saw a lot of long balls through the air.

Pleasant Home jumped out to an early 19-0 lead in the first quarter, after starting quarterback Robert Scott ran a 20-yard scramble for a touchdown, and threw a 48-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Nicolas Woods, followed by a 9-yard dump off pass to Jon Cooley for a 9-yard touchdown.

After a quiet first two drives, Florala quarterback Jacob Hammac led the way to 20 unanswered points over the course of the next three drives, highlighted by a quarterback sneak for a 1 yard touchdown, a Pleasant Home fumble and two touchdown passes from Hammac that were 50-plus yards each, one to Shun White and the other to Anthone Stone.

Trailing 20-19, Scott and the Eagles chipped away on a 10-play drive that ended in another rushing touchdown for the quarterback Scott to put them back on top, 26-20.

After empty trips by both sides, the Eagles came away with a big interception of Hammac on their own 18-yard line that would close out the first half.

The second half was quiet until Hammac broke loose for a 54-yard rushing touchdown, his second of the day, to put the Wildcats back on top 27-26.

Hammac and Scott had four touchdowns each.

The final score was 35-34 in favor of the Wildcats, but the game didn’t count toward either team’s record.

Head coach of Pleasant Home, Rick Mercer, said that he felt the team was just a couple of ticks away from finding its groove.

“It seemed like every play we were one step away from getting it right,” said Mercer. “We got what we needed to get those things fixed. We have to prepare for Fruitdale, and get better between now and then, and that’s what we will do.”

Head coach of Florala, Scott Mason, was happy with the way his team responded to adversity.

“They got up by a couple of touchdowns, and I think our guys realized that this was real,” Mason said. “They steered the course and did some good things bouncing back. Just have to come ready to play next time from the start.”