No turnovers and ball control.

Those are two things Pleasant Home head football coach Ronnie Douglas said are the keys to success for the Eagles in tonight’s home region contest against Kinston.

Last week, PHS beat McKenzie 24-12. Douglas said the region victory was due to no turnovers and ball control, and “it’s going to be the same thing this week.”

“Defensively, we have to play tough (tonight),” he said. “With Kinston, they have a little size to them. They’ve got 10 seniors, but they’re fairly young for the most part.”

Kinston (0-2, 0-1 in Class 1A, Region 2) suffered a region 42-6 loss to Brantley last week, and a 34-8 loss to Ariton in week one.

“The two teams they played previously are good teams,” Douglas said. “They started out the same last year, and ended up winning six of their last eight games to get the third seed (in the playoffs). They’re looking to do the same (this year).”

Pleasant Home didn’t practice Monday due to tornado sirens going off during the afternoon.

However, once the rain stopped, the weather cooled down and allowed the Eagles to practice longer than usual, Douglas said.

“The kids were more upbeat,” he said. “Practice has been good the last couple days, and hopefully we can get a good practice in (Thursday).”

Douglas said Kinston middle linebacker Hunter Sparks, and DeVant’e Henderson on offense are two players he’s keeping an eye on this week.

“On defense, they play the ball pretty well,” Douglas said. “On offense, they’ve just had their backs on the wall. They’re young on offense, and every week they’re getting older (more experienced).

“They’ll be a lot better this week for sure,” he said.

Kick off in Pleasant Home is at 7 p.m.