It’s been an up and down season thus for the Ariton Purple Cats. After winning the opener against Goshen, Ariton has traded wins and losses. They hope to win their second consecutive game this week when they take on Daleville.

The Purple Cats got back on the right path last week with a 34-0 win over Houston County.

“We got back to what we pride ourselves on,” said head coach Steven Kilcrease.  “Hopefully we will continue that this week.”

Physicality was lacking for the Purple Cats in their 36-29 loss to Geneva County in the region opener two weeks ago, last week they got back to what they do best.

“We had physicality on both sides of the ball,” Kilcrease said. “That is something against Geneva County that we didn’t have on either side of the ball. We worked hard on that and I thought we came out and dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Ask any coach – if you can do that, you have a chance to win a ball game.”

Now Kilcrease would like to see it done a consistent basis. The Purple Cats hope to win two in a row for the first time this season.

“We just have to keep plugging away and getting better at what we do,” Kilcrease said. “Our guys have to understand that everyone on our schedule can beat us and I think we can beat everybody on our schedule. There are no cupcakes and if you let up, you are going to get beat.”

This week the Purple Cats make the short trip to Daleville to take on the Warhawks. The Warhawks, new to Class 2A, come into the game with a 1-1 record in region play. They won last week against G.W. Long 32-8.

“It’s going to be a very tough game,” Kilcrease said. “We are hoping we can come out and get things going early.”

Ariton hopes to once again win the battle at the line of scrimmage against a big Warhawk offensive and defensive line.

“They are really big up front,” Kilcrease said. “Overall, they might be the most athletic team that we have played. They have a lot of team speed that obviously concerns us. They have a good quarterback with a good arm. They will play you straight man and blitz everyone else. They will play with no safeties most of the time. We have to be able to throw the ball in that situation.”

Albeit early in the region schedule, no team is running away with things. Abbeville leads the pack at 2-0 with everyone else trailing at 1-1.

“We have to go in and not look back,” Kilcrease said. “We have to take this game and worry about this game. The mindset we have been preaching to our players all year has been one game at a time.”

Kick is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Warhawk Stadium in Daleville.