After a tight 10-6 loss to rival Charles Henderson last Friday night in jamboree action, the Pike County Bulldogs officially open the regular season this evening at home against Alabama Christian.

Pike County will host the Eagles inside Bulldogs Stadium in Brundidge this evening beginning at 7 p.m.

“I think we learned a lot about ourselves last week,” said head coach Fred Holland. “We saw a lot of things that we needed to work on. Our coaches have been very enthused about working on those things and pushing the guys to where they need to be. We are very excited about our first game.”

The Bulldogs remained in the game until the final minutes last week. The defense held the Trojans to just 10 points, but their offense lacked a big blow and a big scoring play. This evening, they hope to execute and put more points on the scoreboard.

“We need a little more execution,” Holland said. “We need to pay attention to more things and finish plays both offensively and defensively. We saw a lot of things that we could have corrected and things that we could have done better. As you go along, those things are going to happen, you just have to learn to capitalize.”

They will have to capitalize this week. They will be going up against an Eagle team that can put up points in a hurry. Last season, the Eagles averaged over 32 points per game.

“They are going to be a really tough team,” Holland said. “They have a real big quarterback and some big lineman. They are big on both sides of the ball. They scored a lot of points last year and they have a lot of returning guys. It will be a tall task for us to slow them down. We just have to try and stay there and keep things close.”

Holland expects them to primarily be in the spread offense, where they will feature a heavy dose of the run-pass option.

The last time these teams met came back in 2005 when the Bulldogs defeated the Eagles 62-0. The Eagles fell to Saks last week 35-22.