Wildcats look to secure playoff spot against Jeff Davis

The Enterprise Wildcats (3-5, 2-3) return home one last time this season as the Jeff Davis Volunteers (2-6, 1-4) travel to Wildcat Stadium on Friday, Oct. 25.

The Wildcats are coming off an emotional 29-27 win over R.E. Lee last week, while the Vols dropped their second straight loss to Central-Phenix City after losing to Prattville the previous week.

Both teams will be coming in motivated as Enterprise looks to do its part in wrapping up a post-season berth, while Jeff Davis wants to ensure that doesn’t happen.

“We have to stay hungry,” Enterprise coach Rick Darlington said. “We’re playing for a playoff spot on the line. That’s the mental side of things. The hunger and drive to compete and win.”

With a win over Jeff Davis, the Wildcats will tie R.E. Lee for fourth place in the region, and as long as Prattville defeats Smiths Station then Enterprise will be playoff bound. If Prattville losses, however, it will cause a three-way tie between Enterprise, R.E. Lee and Prattville that brings in a number of tiebreakers to resolve that issue.

The Wildcats, however, can only control their part of it and Darlington says that’s what they are focused on.

“Earlier in the year we were talking (mostly) about competing and now we’re talking about winning,” Darlington emphasized. “That’s what we talked about last week. If we win, we have a chance to get into the playoffs and we did, so now if we win this week that chance remains alive. That’s huge for the program.

“We can’t get comfortable for a second, though, because we have to win this one. I don’t think we’ll have to battle complacency too much but I do think we have to stay hungry.”

If the Wildcats lose focus, Jeff Davis has the athletes to make them pay, according to Darlington.

“Jeff Davis is very athletic,” Darlington emphasized. “They have some really good players, a good scheme and just like everyone else in our region they’ll be coached and ready to go.

“We have to continue to try and clean up the physical fundamentals of the game but also the mental side of things. Understanding down and distance, how to play that and do what we’re suppose to do each play. We’re still not a polished football team but we will get there and we found a way to beat a good team last Friday.”

Last week saw the return of Enterprise Elite 11 running back/safety Josh McCray as he rushed for 55 yards and three touchdowns, while also recording 4.5 tackles, 0.5 tackle-for-loss and two pass breakups on defense.

The Wildcat coaching staff managed McCray – who was coming off of a painful hip injury suffered earlier in the year – by using him on offense only in short yardage situations for the first three quarters. Meanwhile, he played defense for the entirety of those three quarters.

When the fourth quarter began, McCray switched to offense and the bruising runner punished an exhausted Lee defense. While, Darlington was pleased with the way things went for McCray last week, he said that he still hopes to work the junior runner more into the offense more regularly as the season continues.

Enterprise spread the ball around to eight different runners against Lee and also got some big yardage in the passing game as junior Jared Smith hauled in three passes for 85 yards.

Another change the Wildcats boasted last week was a number of new offensive schemes, including the old “flexbone” and “I-formation” offenses, to go along with the “spread” and Enterprise’s bread-and-butter “single wing” offense.

“Mixing in the other sets I think really helps the ‘single wing,’ too,” Darlington said. “They can’t just key in on one thing.

“Now, everyone will have to look at all the things we’re doing and have to prepare or all of it. That’s what we want to be. We want it to be simple for us (to play out of multiple formations) but difficult to prepare for.”

Something Enterprise will look to reverse this week is snapping an eight game losing streak that dates back to Sept. 7, 2018.

In 2016, Enterprise went 6-0 at home but since that time the Wildcats have gone 2-12 at Wildcat Stadium, which includes 0-4 this season.