Coming off of their first region loss against Ariton last week, the Pleasant Home Eagles (1-1, 0-1) are ready to take the field again Friday night to battle against the Geneva County Bulldogs.

Last week, Geneva County scored its highest point total since 1988, posting a total of 67 points.

Eagles coach Robert Bradford said the team right now is not too phased at the score from the Geneva game last week.

“Anytime you put 67 points on anybody that shows you’ve got talent, taking nothing away from them,” Bradford said. “If you remember, Samson scored 44 points against Kinston in three quarters, so the amount of points you score against a team doesn’t always necessarily mean how good you are either, though.”

Bradford said going into the game Friday night that Geneva County will utilize its “wide-open offense” to move the ball.

“They have a wide-open offense and have just a really sound defense,” he said. “To be honest, it looks like they’re going to try to outscore you and they’re going to play a bend, don’t break defense.

“They’re going to keep everything in front of them and not make any big mistakes,” he said. “They’ll make you drive it down the field on them and they will try to score as quick as they can. They will throw the ball everywhere and they’re pretty good at it. Whenever you watch them, it almost reminds you of McKenzie a little bit with their style of play.”

At practice this week, Bradford said simply that the team went back to the fundamentals.

“We just really went back to fundamentals and I think we have the schemes to compete this week,” Bradford said. “You know we’ve had a game plan to win, but we have to execute it this week. Not just going to the right place, but doing your job when you get there. That’s kind of been the thing we’re working on this week.”

Bradford said his team has the ability to win some more games.

“I think we’re more athletic this year than we’ve been in a while, but the outcome on the scoreboard has not been the equivalent to the ability that we have,” he said. “Of course anytime you play a team with that caliber offense, you’ve got to do something to get them out of their rhythm. That’s one of the biggest things we plan on doing on defense and that’s to throw something at them they haven’t seen before.”

Bradford added that mental toughness is something else the team is working on in preparation for Friday night.

“We’re trying to get ourselves in a position where when we walk out on the field on Friday, not only feeling like we can win, but in a state of mind where we mentally can come out and be prepared to win,” Bradford said.

Two of the Eagles were injured last week, but Bradford said they are healthy and ready to go.

“We get a couple of players back this week because they were injured last week,” he said.

Bradford added that after this week, the landscape of region play will be clearer.

“After Friday night, we’ll be ready to look back and see especially all over the region who you’re able to see who’s putting themselves in a good position,” Bradford said. “If we’re real lucky to win this game, it would put us in the driver’s seat. If we fall short on this one, than we’re going to have to really get on it to make the playoffs.”

The Eagles play at home and kickoff is at 7 p.m Friday.