AHS looks to rebound after first regular season loss since 2008

“You have to be good enough defensively when you have that type of yardage and score that many points,” Wildcat head coach Shane Davis said. “You have to find a way to win. We just didn’t get that done and it falls on me. I take full responsibility for not having the defense ready to play. We have to be prepared and we had two weeks to get ready. It’s a good thing we didn’t have three weeks or they might have scored 70 points.”

The coach knows, however, the team will have to forget about last week.

“We can’t dwell on it,” Davis said. “We have to correct some things this week. However, we don’t have time to worry about what happened last Friday.”

The Salem Seminoles will role into R. Harold Harrison Stadium this Friday. Salem is 2-1 after defeating Habersham Central 33-18 last week.

“They are awfully big,” Davis said. “They will be as big as anyone we’ve played in a while. They have size on the offensive and defensive lines.”

The Seminoles, who have a new head coach this fall in John Starr, will run a Wing-T offense operating under center as well as from the shotgun.

“It’s a traditional Wing-T but they add a few wrinkles,” Davis said. “We will have to run to the football. They have good speed with their backs.”

Defensively, Salem will use a four-man front, similar to Flowery Branch from a week ago.

"It will be the same defense we have seen the first few weeks, a 4-4," said AHS offensive coordinator Joel Miller. "Salem is big, fast and very athletic. They run to ball well and are very well coached. We must continue to improve. Even though we had a huge statistical night last week, we still had too many turnovers, penalties and missed assignments. Salem will be able to capitalize on our mistakes if we don't fix them. The game plan will again be to lean on our offensive line and try to control the ball and keep their offense off the field.

Injury-wise, Davis said the Wildcats are only suffering from hurt pride.