TC Central will try to stay in the Class 1A Region 3 race tonight when they travel to take on Verbena at 7 p.m.
“Things have been going good,” Wright said. “We have had a real good week of practice. It has been a while since TC has opened up a Monday after a win. The guys have been excited and I have been excited. We are going on the road to Verbena trying to make it two in a row.”
Holding off a late surge to defeat Blue Devils 37-28 last week gave the Fighting Tigers (1-5,1-3) some confidence going into tonight’s game.
“The confidence level has picked up some,” Wright said. “Sometimes in sports all it takes is that one spark, that one win or that one thing that you do right that gets you sparked and going into the right direction. This season we have had a lot of near misses. We played well, we have had a lot of pats on the back, and we have heard you are playing well or you doing this good, but no W behind it. So it really felt good to be able to get a win behind some positive play.”
Verbena (1-5, 0-4) enters tonight’s game looking to bounce back after a 21-20 lost to the Fayetteville Wolves.
“They are a very disciplined football team,” Wright said. “They get after you on defense; offensively they want to try to take advantage of where they feel like you are weak at. They are they type of team that will just hang around and bite you in the tail at the end. They have a couple of good running backs. I think the starting quarterback broke his foot. The new quarterback is young, but he is a ball player and that definitely bothers me. When you are on the road anything can happen. We are going to go down and try to play a good disciplined and physical ball game. Hopefully, the ball will bounce in our favor.”
Wright said he was impressed with the way his team handled adversity in the fourth quarter of last week’s game.
“The guys definitely showed a lot of character out there on the field,” Wright said. “Even when the game started looking like it was going Notasulga’s way we kept our composure, we stayed in the ball game and we played poised. We didn’t fold and we didn’t begin to complain amongst one another. The guys stuck together and we were determined that we were going to win the ball game and that showed up big for us on Friday. If we want to make the postseason we have to win out on region games and they knew it going into the game. I feel like we played like we have an ultimate goal.”
Offensively, the Fighting Tigers got several players to contribute against Notasulga.
“Offensively, it was probably as balanced as we have been,” Wright said. “Usually it is a one-man show with Kendarious (Swain), but last week it was Kenadrious, Ze’Kyle Stockdale, Ramone Russell, Damien Staples and Tyree Garrett. Ever single one of those guys contributed in a big way Friday. The forgotten five is those five offensive linemen. They play a heck of a ball game. We came in at halftime and I drew a couple plays on the board. I said ‘This is what we are going to do,’ and they went out and they blocked it. We executed the three plays to a T and that is sports — halftime adjustments. You have to be able to make halftime adjustments and the guys did a good job at it.”
Eliminating the big play and not turning the football over are two of things the Fighting Tigers will have to accomplish if they want to leave Verbena with a vital region win.
“Fundamental football on defense, holding on to the football on offense and executing,” Wright said. “If we do those things we will have a chance to win the ball game.”
