Diego’s Burrito Factory Game of the Week - Walton at South Walton

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - This week’s Diego’s Burrito Factory Game of the Week, is a big rivalry game in Walton County, the Walton Braves vs. the South Walton Seahawks.

Walton at South Walton. Let’s talk about the visiting Braves first. Coach White and his team a perfect three and oh so far this season. Road wins at Blountstown and Flomaton up in Alabama. Then a hard-fought win in week three over Union in their home opener, a 31-28 overtime victory. Coach White saying that game was a very physical one, left them a tad beat up, so last week’s bye coming at the right time.

Now they’re getting set for one of their biggest games on the schedule, the game with the team from the south side of the county!

“We only have three schools in our county that have football. Freeport, you know they don’t play us or South Walton at the varsity level. So it’s kind of like for the county deal, whoever is best in the county pretty much. You know since I’ve been here, they beat us our first year in a good one. And then we beat them last year. So, it’s a much-heated rivalry even though we’re not in the same district. We’re in the same county. You know we can’t figure out why the FHSAA don’t put us in the same district? When we’re like 25 miles apart, but it is what it is. We have to play all the Pensacola schools and they’re in there with the Panama City schools. But for our county, it’s a big one”, Coach White said.

As for the Seahawks, they are 3-1 this season, they’ve yet to have their bye week. They opened with a win at Baker, then a home loss to Fort Walton Beach. They bounced back with consecutive wins at St. Joe and at Arnold. This some of the video of that latter game. They scored 40 plus in each of those last two wins, so the offense is humming, and coach Tisa says his guys are ready for a game they too circle on the calendar.

“It’s been great, it’s been a back-and-forth battle over the last couple of years. They got us pretty good last year. We got them the year before I believe. So it’s been back-and-forth. And as far as Friday night action, we talked about this at practice yesterday, this is playoff type atmosphere. I mean this is the place to be this coming Friday. I think it’s going to be packed here at the Hawk’s Nest. I think you’ve got to really good football teams and this is what it’s about on Friday night”, Coach Tisa said.

As for sizing up their opponents, coach White said this about preparing for the Seahawks “Yeah, they’re a spread team and they throw it all over the place. But they have added a little running game to their stuff which in the past you know they didn’t run the ball very much. But now they’re running it. They’ve got a couple of good concepts there. They throw it very well, the quarterback is good, the receivers catch a lot of passes. There are no huddle and fast paced, it’s going to be a tough challenge.”

And coach Tisa believes Walton will be one of the most physical teams his guys face all season. “You know they are athletic upfront, on their defense probably the best front for, you know six, that we’ll see probably this year. And then they have athletes at the skilled positions on their offene. So I mean it’s going to be electric.”

That game at South Walton set for 7 and is one of several we’ll feature on Friday Night Overtime.

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