The Ariton Purple Cats won their second consecutive game last Friday night against Daleville. They look to turn it into a three-game winning streak on Friday when they host Slocomb.

The Purple Cats traded wins and losses all season long leading up to last Friday’s 42-20 win over the Warhawks. Now they hope to win three in a row for the first time this season.

“It felt good,” said head coach Steven Kilcrease. “It was a good win. Their record doesn’t indicate it, but they are a good football team. They have athletes and they made some plays on us.”

The win improved the Purple Cats overall record to 3-2, but more importantly, their region record jumped to 2-1, good enough for second-place tie behind undefeated Abbeville (3-0).

“We sort of got behind things with the loss to Geneva County,” Kilcrease said. “We had to go on the road to get two wins against Houston Academy and Daleville. I thought that was big and it showed the resilience of our kids and it showed what we are capable of doing.”

The Purple Cats were able to move the football thanks to the run game, which has been a weapon for Ariton all season long.

“Maddux Herring had a good game,” Kilcrease said. “We ran the ball well with Jackson Blair, Bryce Peavy, Daniel Hicks and Maddux Herring all really carried the load in the rushing game. We were able to throw the football and that sort of opened up the run game.”

Being able to pass the ball is an essential piece to Kilcrease’s offense.

“We have to be able to throw the football,” Kilcrease said. “We can throw it. I’m one that tends to play on the safe side, but I know for us to achieve what we want to do, we have to be able to mix it in and be able to throw the football.”

For the second time this season, the Purple Cats will play a team from a higher classification. The Class 3A Slocomb Red Tops head into Friday’s game with a 2-2 record and are coming off a 31-14 loss against Providence Christian.

“We know it’s going to be a tough game,” Kilcrease said. “They have a really good quarterback. That is really the reason we wanted to play them. We felt like we saw two really good quarterbacks last year and they were our two losses. We really wanted to find good quality teams with good quarterbacks out of region.”

Kilcrease expects a familiar looking team on Friday night.

“They have good athletes and they are big,” Kilcrease said. “They do a lot of the same things that we do. They have a good football team and it’s going to be a challenge.”