Cullman running back Will Crenshaw looks for yardage during the Bearcats’ season-opening loss to Arab late August. Crenshaw and the Black and Gold will welcome in Florence on Thursday eve.

Only three weeks into the fall, Mark Britton has already seen the good (a 35-8 road rout of then-Class 5A No. 9 Etowah) and the bad (a season-opening 21-14 loss to fellow 6A newcomer Arab) out of his Cullman football team.

Now the coach is hoping the Bearcats can avoid the ugly in a tough home and region opener against No. 6 Florence that’s slated for Thursday-night TV. The 7 p.m. game will be broadcast statewide on Raycom affiliates, including Huntsville’s WAFF 48 and Birmingham’s WBRC Fox 6.

Britton pegged the Falcons as the Region 8 front-runner entering the campaign. They’ve given the coach no reason to alter that assessment even slightly, debuting with a close 37-35 loss to 7A stalwart Shades Valley and then manhandling Muscle Shoals — Britton’s No. 2 team in the region — 39-20 last Friday.

“On film, they’re probably one of the best high school teams that I’ve seen in my coaching career,” said Britton, who’s been on the sidelines for decades and the head man at Cullman for going on 14 seasons.

Florence dominated Muscle Shoals in just about every facet of the top-10 clash.

Blake Hawkins, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound transfer from Mississippi, stretched the field with four touchdown tosses — his long was 69 yards — and 87 rushing yards. Shifty running back Roland Adams broke tackle after tackle, accumulating 90 receiving yards, 54 rushing yards and three total touchdowns.

“It’s going to be an extremely tough challenge, but I think our kids are excited about the game,” Britton said. “We need to try to prevent them from having the big play. I don’t know 100 percent if we’re going to be able to do that, but that’s what we’re going to try.”

As impressed as Cullman’s all-time winningest coach was with the Falcons’ offense, he had equally high praise for the team’s D. To counter a unit that forced three Trojan turnovers, Britton said the Bearcats will need to move the chains, keep the ball out of Florence’s hands and avoid falling into too deep of a hole.

“That’s the thing — if you do get behind them, then you’ve got to take some chances,” he said. “That’s what happened to Muscle Shoals, and it kind of snowballed on them.”

Among the Falcons’ several defensive standouts, Britton pinpointed Keaton Anderson as “the guy that makes them go.” The senior linebacker committed to take his talents to Tuscaloosa in late May.

“I don’t remember Alabama really signing too many dud linebackers in years past,” Britton said.

Cullman is coming off a productive bye week that followed an overwhelming win against Etowah. Had the ’Cats played with the same intensity in Week 1 that allowed them to handle the Blue Devils, Britton believes the Black and Gold would’ve greatly increased their chances of beating Arab.

Instead, the team went in “more not to lose” and were a wee bit apprehensive, understandable for a slew of key players making their first starts on the varsity level. Kids were too careful and tried too hard to not mistakes, which, when focused on, “seems like that’s about the only thing you can do.”

“In football, you really can’t play careful,” Britton said. “You’ve got to take chances, and you’ve got to go wide open. And sometimes, even if you’re wrong, if you’re going full speed, you can make a positive play.

“I don’t think we ever got full speed.”

The same could not be said a week later.

Will Crenshaw controlled the ground game with 175 yards and a touchdown, while Owen Lovell helped fellow sophomore Ross Crocker settle in behind center with five catches for 120 yards and three scores.

On defense, Britton said the Bearcats controlled the line of scrimmage, swarmed to the ball carrier and tackled pretty well. The unit’s highlight was a third-quarter interception by Brontae Harris — the senior’s first in a Cullman uniform — that resulted in a 2-yard touchdown tote from Justin Patterson, the Black and Gold’s trusty defensive end.

“I think that’s a fun thing from the coaching part of it,” Britton said. “When our kids play well, they can beat some teams. And when they don’t play well, it tends to be be our youth and some of the things right there that we make a poor decision. Unfortunately Week 1, it cost us the game.

“But that’s the kind of year I think we were expecting going in. I think the kids are going to play hard every week. I don’t know if we’ll always play well. That’s what we’re trying to do as a coaching staff is eliminate mistakes and get our bad plays out of the way, so to speak.”

Regardless of the outcome against Florence, Cullman still has a lot of football to play after Thursday night. Wins against the Falcons and Muscle Shoals would obviously be nice, but a great deal of the Bearcats’ prospects for a 10th straight playoff bid will depend on how they eventually fare against the rest of the region — Austin, Athens, Hartselle and Decatur.

Hartselle edged Athens 24-21, and Decatur topped Austin 28-21 in last week’s action.

“For us, it’s the very beginning of region play,” Britton said. “I think we’re going to be fine.”