The Pike Patriots look to get back on track Friday night when they host the Autauga Academy Generals.

After falling for the first time this season last Friday night against Monroe Academy, the Patriots hit the field this week with a sense of urgency.

“It’s been good,” said Patriots head coach Gene Allen.  “Coming off a loss is never a good thing. Hopefully we learned a little bit from it. We have had good practices and hopefully we can carry it over into Friday night.”

This week’s game features the Patriots’ third non-region opponent in Autauga. The Patriots so far are 2-0 against teams outside of Region 2.

“We don’t like to lose,” Allen said. “It is non-region so it doesn’t have the importance of a region game, but we don’t like to lose and we want to get back into winning. They have a really good football team so there is no time to feel sorry for yourself.”

The Generals enter the game with a 4-0 record and fresh off a victory of 54-12 victory over Pickens Academy last Friday night.

“They have been spread,” Allen said. “Monroe was spread all year and they came out and did some stuff that I haven’t seen in five years. We have to be ready for everything. With Bobby being there, in their first four games they have been all spread.”

Last week the Patriots struggled containing the run-heavy Monroe Volunteers, allowing 303 of Monroe’s 311 yards to come on the ground. The Generals come into Friday night’s game averaging 60 points in the three games played; they won their second game of the season after Edgewood forfeited the contest.

“I think last week hurt their pride a little bit,” Allen said. “We didn’t play very well and we didn’t tackle good. We did some good things and got them in third and long and we let up a first down, jumped offside, or gave up a touchdown. We did some things that we can’t afford to do.”

The Patriots totaled 165 yards on the ground on Friday night and has been a steady force for the Patriots all season long.

“It was good, but we thought we should have gotten more than we did,” Allen said. “The running game opened up. We have to get back in the running mode that’s what we do. We have to play better up front. We all felt like we got beat up front on both sides of the ball.”

The passing game also took a step in the right direction last week. Quarterback Reed Jinright completed seven of his 14 passes for 154 yards and one touchdown. Allen would like to push the passing game a bit further this week, but only if the game dictates it.

“The game will dictate it,” Allen said. “We need throw it a little bit to open it up. We aren’t going to throw it just to throw it. We are going to try and complete it. We are going to try and run it first– that is what we do.”

The Patriots will kick things off with Autauga at 7 p.m. Friday night from Dewight Ward Field.