Choctaw's Thomas says Pensacola 'by far the best team defensively I've seen'
The big question for the Indians heading into tonight’s 7 p.m. contest against their visiting District 1-3A rival is can they tame a Fighting Tiger unit that has generally been impenetrable?
“I’ve been here for two years. It’s by far the best team defensively I’ve seen — size, speed, physical toughness,” Thomas said. “We’ve got a big challenge, and we’re going to have to play really good and they’re going to have to make some mistakes.”
Pensacola (3-1, 2-0) allowed a mere 20 points over its first four games, including shutouts over Tate and West Florida. Even more alarming is that the Fighting Tigers limited reigning Class 5A state semifinalist Pine Forest to six points. They suffered their only loss of the season in that matchup, which the Eagles won 6-3.
“They’ve got a lot of great players and a lot of good speed, so we’ve got to step it up and go all out,” tight end Ryan Born said.
Pensacola presents Choctaw (1-2, 1-0) with its third top-flight opponent of the year following games — and losses — to 2B No. 6 Pensacola Catholic and 4A No. 2 Niceville. The Fighting Tigers are receiving votes in the 3A poll and are coming off a 40-14 rout over Washington.
The Indians are looking to build off a dominant 33-14 victory over Rutherford where the offense displayed balance and capitalized with touchdowns in the red zone, and the defense swarmed to the football, tackled well and came up with turnovers.
“It gave us a lot of confidence,” Born said. “We’ve been trying to step it up, and everybody is just pumped up and ready to go.”
Choctaw was energized offensively by the return of quarterback Jesse Adams from an MCL injury, and tailback Freddie Gray was as healthy as he’s been all season. For the Indians to move the ball on the Fighting Tigers, they’ll likely need those two key cogs to shine.
And the Choctaw defense must expect itself to deliver another shrewd effort like it did against Rutherford.
“We’ve just got to play to their level,” cornerback Jackie Bush said. “We’ll play down to certain teams’ level sometimes. We’ve got to play up to their level because they’re a lot more athletic than we are. We can handle them. We’ve got to play smart. We don’t really have the athletes, but if we can out-smart them, we’ll be OK.”
