Coming off their first win of the season, the Florala Wildcats look to build on last week’s momentum as they host Class 1A, Region 2 opponent McKenzie on Friday night in Florala.

“This is going to be a big game for both schools,” Florala head coach Scott Mason said. “We are trying to get to .500 and they are trying to hold on.”

Mason said that he knows they are in for a good game on Friday night.

“McKenzie is a good team,” Mason said. “They are athletic, big and they are very well coached. We can play with them, but we have to make sure we do the little things right.”

Still learning a new system, Mason said he still isn’t so much concerned with the scoreboard.

“I’m not so much worried about wins and losses at this point,” Mason said. “I know that sounds funny, but we are just still trying to get better each week. We haven’t played a complete game yet, and I want to see that.”

Mason said what he doesn’t want to see is for his team to take a step back.

“Right now, the biggest thing for us is to keep improving each week,” Mason said. “The one thing I don’t want to see is for us to regress. We’ve got to keep moving in the right direction. So far, we’ve been doing that each week. If we do that Friday, night we should be able to be competitive.”

One challenge that McKenzie will pose will be the running game, Mason said.

“They like to line up and run it right at you,” Mason said. “That has been our Achilles heel. They also have some very talented skill players that are capable of making plays. We are just going to have to score with them. Our system on offense is good enough that it’s going to keep us relevant.”

This week at practice, Mason said his players have been eager to improve.

“They have been very up beat this week at practice,” Mason said. “They love what we are doing. We get a lot out of them at practice, and sometimes they don’t even realize how much running they have been doing. They are very into what we are doing.”

Mason said that he has been impressed with how quickly the team has picked up his “Thunder and Lighting” offensive system.

“We getting to the point where we can open up the offense,” Mason said. “Right now, we are further along than I thought we would be at this point in the season. I thought it would be around week five or six before the offense started clicking, but it’s already started to come together.”