“We’re trying to really push in our guys that the main focus for them is the football game.”

That’s what Florala head football coach Brad Rhodes said to describe the Wildcats’ homecoming game against Akron on Friday night at Matthews Stadium.

“We have a lot going on, obviously, and the big thing is that at 7 o’clock on Friday we need to be ready to play sound football,” the coach said.

The Wildcats will face an AHS team that utilizes the “I” formation on offense with a 4-4 defense.

Rhodes said that Akron is big up front.

“They have the biggest offensive line we’ve seen all year,” he said.

Additionally, the Rams (0-4) have a good running back and full back on the squad.

“It’s a pretty athletic group,” Rhodes said.

When asked what the key is on defense to counter the Rams’ size up front, Rhodes said it’s all about playing “assignment football.”

“We’ve got some size up front with our two tackles and our ends will need to be playing tough on the edge,” he said. “We had our best defensive game this season last week.

“We want to keep building on what we do,” he said.

The Wildcats beat McIntosh 20-0 in a non-region contest last Friday in a game where Rhodes said the guys played with a lot of intensity all four quarters.

“We had 11 guys getting to the ball,” he said. “We did a much better job of tackling — it was our best night of the season in tackling.”

In addition to it being homecoming, the Wildcats will be celebrating 100 years of football.

“We’re excited that it is homecoming,” Rhodes said. “We hope to have a big crowd with maybe a lot of alumni.”

Kick off in Florala is at 7 p.m.