By Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



The Fultondale Wildcats just missed out on a region title last Friday, as they fell by one-point to the J.B. Pennington Tigers in a winner-take-all region crown showdown game. Now, the Wildcats must regroup and play a tough 3A ball club this Friday, before they travel to Piedmont next week for a first round 2A state playoff game.

West Blocton comes to Fultondale with a 4-5 mark so far this season, but Wildcat head coach Keith Register warned Wildcat fans and players alike not to be fooled by the Tigers record because this is a solid team.

“They’re a very good ball club,” Register said. “They play in probably the toughest 3A region in the state. They’ve played Winfield, Gordo and Cordova, some of the best 3A teams there are. They’ve had a tough schedule.”

The Wildcats will see a mirror image of themselves Friday night as the Tigers the Wing-T offense and the 4-2 split defensive look.

According to Register, the Tigers run only five different plays on offense.

“They run buck sweep to the strong and weak side. They run option to the strong and weak side, and they have a play-action pass they run,” he said. “That’s it, they’re not very fancy.They keep it very simple on offense.”

The contest could be a high scoring one, as West Blocton has been involved contests with the final scores of 48-25, 49-21 and 42-35.

For Fultondale, halfback C.J. Mixon suffered a knee injury last week and may be held out until next week’s game. He would be replaced in the backfield by Jake Estes, who played the fourth quarter in last week’s game.

The Wildcats are hoping to rebound from back-to-back region losses, but Register pointed out his club is only four points away from being unbeaten.

“Our program has come such a long way this season,” he said. “We a couple of plays away from being 9-0. We’ve played well the whole year and we’ve still got our goals of ahead of us.We need to come out and play well and get a win Friday night and then start working on making a playoff run.