Monterey Football Focused On Rebounding

Following a 42-0 loss to Clay County last Thursday night, the Monterey Wildcats enter this week 2-2 and fully focused on the incoming Westmoreland Eagles.

After starting the season 2-0 and being tied with East Robertson deep into the fourth quarter in week 3, the Wildcats find themselves 2-2 and on a two game losing skid. Head coach Scott Hughes said the Wildcats are not discouraged and that the team knew the season would have its ebbs and flows with such a difficult schedule.

“It’s not the first time we have ever been 2-2 or anything along those lines,” Hughes said. “They understand that there’s still a few obstacles ahead, but it is something they’re working to overcome and they understand the challenge of what we have rolling in this week.”

And rolling into Monterey will be the Westmoreland Eagles, fresh off a 51-0 win over Jackson County in week 4. The 3-1 Eagles are on a three game winning streak after dropping their opener to Macon County, and in those three games the Eagles have outscored their opponents 110-34. Hughes said the Eagles have an impressive offensive unit that features seven or eight skilled players that have stood out to him.

“They have multiple high level athletes when you look at them film.” Hughes said. “Skilled guys are phenomenal. Big and athletic and they run really well. They do everything the right way and just really impressed with a core group of guys.”

Hughes said Westmoreland’s Cooper White is a difficult player to game plan against due to his ability to turn an ordinary play extraordinary in all three phases of the game.

He said that this week’s practices would be used to shore up the turnovers and costly errors that kept them from scoring against Clay County. But, Hughes said that he and his coaching staff are going beyond football in their practices and workouts.

“When you’re dealing with high school athletes, there’s so much more than just the sport,” Hughes said. “There’s so many more aspects that you have to deal with, you know, there’s so many life lessons you have to deal with. And that’s a big part of what we’re fighting right now, it’s trying to teach the game of life as well.”

Kickoff Friday night at 7pm.