The Pike Liberal Arts Patriots hope to avoid all the distractions that come with homecoming week when they host the Abbeville Christian Generals this evening.

The Patriots celebrated homecoming with a glow party on Thursday evening. The Patriots now focus on game day.

“It’s one of those things, as a coach, that you’re happy when it’s over with,” said head coach Gene Allen. “We tell the kids enjoy it, but remember the primary goal is to win the game on Friday night. They have done pretty good. We have had good practice this week.”

The Patriots are finishing up a brief two game stretch outside of region play on Friday night. They won their first game last week against Lee-Scott 35-0.

“We feel pretty good about it,” Allen said. “We are going to have to throw the ball better. We didn’t throw really well last week. We have been running the ball well, so that’s a big plus. Later down the line we know we are going to have to be able to do both against the teams that we will be playing.”

The Patriots went into last week’s game without running back Cody Hollis, who suffered a shoulder injury in the Patriots’ win over Macon-East the week prior. Chip Faircloth helped fill the void by rushing for over 100 yards and two touchdowns.

“He had a big night,” Allen said. “He was around 125 yards or so. Jade (Sikes) stepped in too and had over 200 yards. It’s nice to know that with Cody out of the game we can still run the ball and do things that we want to do.”

Hollis will be out of the lineup once again this evening. Coach Allen and the Patriots will continue to be patient with his recovery.

“He is out at least one more week,” Allen said. “He will be out until the doctor tells him his shoulder is strong enough to play. We are not going to do anything to risk him. Hopefully he will be back next week, but if not, a couple weeks from now.”

The Patriots (6-0) are off to their best start since the 2008 season when they also started 6-0. That year, the Patriots went on to win the state championship 20-17 over Fort Dale. This year’s squad is sticking to the old adage of taking things one game at a time.

“I’m going to be honest, I think our guys this year have done a really good job at taking things one game at a time,” Allen said. “They are not looking ahead too much. They got Abbeville this week and that’s all they are worried about. Come Saturday, we will work on our next opponent.”

The Generals ride into Troy in search of their second win of the season. They lost last week to Lakeside 35-6. Their lone win came in week two against Northside Methodist 7-6.

Their offense has scored more than 10 points just three times and they are averaging 10 points per game.

“The first couple of weeks they were running the spread,” Allen said. “They had two or three guys that got hurt, so last week they came out in a completely different formation. I know he has one or two guys coming back. With that said, we are not sure if they are going to try to run spread or if they are going to change altogether again and try something else.”

The Patriots pulled out a 36-34 win over the Generals in 2017. Kick is scheduled for 7 p.m.