Bozeman and Liberty set to meet in our American Charlie Grill and Tavern Game of the Week

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -It’s Bozeman and Liberty in this week’s American Charlie Grill and Tavern High School Football Game of the Week.

That game et for Bristol as coach Gerald Tranquille and his Liberty Bulldogs host Jason Griffin and his Bozeman Bucks. The Bucks coming off a tough opener at home last week, having to go up against 4A Geneva, out of Alabama. A team that was just bigger, stronger, faster, the game ending 46-21.

Still the Bucks scoring three times, leaving coach Griffin feeling like there were some positives to take away from it.

“When we executed well, we move the ball at will.” coach Griffin said. “I don’t think they really stopped us as much as we stopped ourselves. We consistently moved the ball when we executed well. Our offense was functioning at times at a high-level. We just did some things to shoot ourselves in the foot with busted routes, mistakes, dropped footballs, bad reads. So the things we did Friday night were mostly self-inflicted. I think it probably should have been a better football game than the way it ended up.”

As for the Bulldogs, well coach Tranquille able to notch a win in his first game back as the head coach of his alma mater. Liberty beating Vernon 21-0 last week. The coach saying it was nice to be able to play that one on the home field, good for the fans, the team, and the coaches. And getting another one at home before having to hit the road is big as well.

“It’s good for us to, good for me and my new staff being at home and having familiarity.” coach Tranquille told me. “Being in our comfort zone, we can work out some kinks and hopefully try to get things rolling and get two wins in a row. It’s been along time since they had two wins in a row here. So that’s the game plan, but we know we’ve got a tough opponent coming in and we’ve got to take it one day at a time and just try to have a good week of practice.”

As for this match up, well Tranquille says he knows the Bucks were playing up last week, and he’s expecting to get a really good test come Friday night. “Coach Griffin does a great job over there. He’s been there for a while now and has really built that program up. The quarterback, the (Peyton) Gay kid he has a phenomenal arm, probably one of the better arms in our area. There’s no throw that he can’t make. They’ve got a receiver number eight (Colton Gee) that’s really good. They’re big up front, the offensive line, the defensive line. They don’t mind being physical. They’re a pretty good ball team and we know we are going to have our work cut out for us.”

Coach Griffin adding though the score seemed a bit lopsided against Geneva, well he felt his team held its own to some degree, despite eventually losing 46-21. Still there was something to be gained, to be carried over, the coach says, from going up against a much bigger foe.

“We’re not in the moral victory business but at the same time you know our guys did play well against a very tough opponent. So I think moving forward our guys should feel like they can stack up against just about anybody. And play well against tougher competition. So the fact that we are going to play a school that’s more like us , you know our guys should be prepared and have at least some confidence knowing that we should be able to match up fairly well with these guys”

That game at Liberty Friday set for 7 eastern time, 6 central. It’s one of several we’ll feature on Friday Night Overtime.

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