Sneads and Holmes Teeing it up This Friday in This Week’s Diego’s Game of the Week.

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - The Sneads Pirates are traveling over to Holmes County to face the Blue Devils in this week’s Diego’s Burrito Factory Game of the Week.

The Blue Devils getting the home field advantage in this one, so let’s begin with coach Womble and his crew. The Blue Devils began the season with a tough road loss to Marianna in week one. They’ve bounced back nicely though in week’s two and three. They beat North Bay Haven 44-14 two weeks ago, and then scored a huge rivalry win at home over Chipley last Friday, 46-36 that score.

That win significant in many ways for the Blue Devils, says coach Womble.

“Anytime you beat Chipley it’s a good win. But certainly for this season, we’ve got a really big group of seniors that had never done that, had never beaten Chipley in their careers on the varsity level. And quite frankly you know Chipley’s kind of been the team around this area for the last several years. While yes a rivalry win is huge, but in terms of 1A playoff scenarios, that game meant a lot.”

As for coach Thomas and his Pirates, well it’s been a pretty good start for them. They opened in week one with a high scoring win over Cottondale on the road. Then their week two game with Arnold was postponed by ton of rain in Sneads. That, the coach says set them back a bit in terms of football game shape. But they came back in week three with a win over Graceville. Coach Womble talking about the win over Chipley big in terms of playoff seeding. This matchup means the same says coach Thomas.

“Just besides the fact that we’re playing a very good football opponent. They’re a good football team. Besides that, when you start getting down to the end, and you’re talking about quality wins and how these computers do all the rankings. A win over a team, and they’re gonna have a really good year. A win over a team like that that’s gonna have a good record, and very well possibly be in the regional championship on that side, it means a lot. I went and talked to my kids today, I don’t care if they’re in our region or not, this one certainly does a lot for us, if we could win it.”

After starting 2-1, with a win over Chipley, Womble says his squad is a fairly confident bunch.

“We’ve had a lot of guys that have started for several years now. We’ve got 17 seniors in our senior class. And a lot of those guys played a lot of minutes two years ago when were able to upset Blountstown, and when we were able to upset Sneads a couple of years ago. So they know we’re capable. They’ve bought in, they believe in what we’re doing. Coach Lee laid a fantastic foundation that they’ve just continued to build on. So confidence is high, obviously we don’t want it too high, we want to stay humble with it. "

So a confident team playing at home, getting set to face a confident Sneads team that is unbeaten with wins over Cottondale and Graceville. A third game postponed by weather in week two. Coach Thomas and his guys with a lot of wins the past few seasons, and plenty on the road, so they look forward to playing in Bonifay in couple of nights.

“It’s a good atmosphere, it’s loud, it’s fun, it’s a neat place. You always remember as a kid playing at the rodeo. I think it has hometown advantages, big time. That ground is hard, it’s harder than your average football field. Staying healthy’s big when you’re there. And holding on to the football when you’re there’s big. I always tell our guys make sure you have two hands on it when you hit the ground.”

The game scheduled for 7pm this Friday at Holmes.

Copyright 2023 WJHG. All rights reserved.