All of the high schools in the county play a football game Friday night, and all of the coaches have their teams ready to go.

A.L. Johnson plays host to R.C. Hatch on Friday night, and the Eagles look to continue their strong defensive play from their jamboree and scrimmage games in the past weeks.

The Eagles faced off against Southside-Selma and won by a score of 16-6. Head coach Mose Jones said that he went into the game wanting to throw the ball better than the team has in the past, and he came out of the game thinking they threw the ball too much.

In another scrimmage, ALJ took on Ellwood Christian, and that game ended in a 0-0 tie.

“Our defense played extremely well in both games,” Jones said, “but we need to go into the game against Hatch and run the ball better than we have been.”

The Eagles have not had a fumble in any of their exhibition games, but Jones feels like his backs need to step up and play better out of the backfield this weekend.

The Linden Patriots are coming off of a jamboree victory over Pickens County, and look to build on that success in the first game of the season against the Leroy Bears.

Coach Andro Williams said that his team has a few things to work on after giving up 35 points last week.

“We need to tackle better in space,” Williams said. “We also gave up a lot of points that we shouldn’t have because of mental mistakes, and I’m not one who likes to give up those kind of points, and we know that. We just have to go to work this week.”

Marengo High School travels to Gilbertown take on Southern Choctaw on Friday night. The Panthers are coming off of a 40-0 loss to Millry in their jamboree last week.

“We have gone back and looked at film,” head coach Dredrick Bell said, “and we will work on some of those things this week.”

Southern Choctaw is the second of three Class 2A teams that the Panthers will face this season.

“I scheduled three 2A teams to help us prepare for the region schedule,” Bell said. “It will help us find what we need to work on so we can keep chipping away at it.”

John Essex hosts Sunshine High School on Friday night in their first game of the season.

The Hornets did not schedule a jamboree game for last weekend like the other schools in the county.

“We wanted to make sure we came into the first game healthy,” head coach Jerome Antone said. “With the small numbers we have, it is important for us to stay as healthy as possible for as long as we can.”

Antone has been working hard on conditioning for his team in camp this fall because most of his players will have to play on both sides of the ball.

“We have been doing a lot of teaching and conditioning,” he said. “We have been stressing aligning and assigning. If we line up right and get our assignments right, I think we will be okay.”

The Hornets only have about 15 players on the team this season, but Antone feels like they are ready to play.

“Our kids are excited,” he said, “and they are going to be excited Friday night to get out on the field. We will be ready to take the field.”

The Hornets defeated Sunshine 28-0 last season.

In other action around the county, Sweet Water travels to Thomasville to take on the Tigers and Marengo Academy hosts a first-year program in Eastwood Christian.