The Tigers took a 27-20 win against Glynn Academy last week and the Yellow Jackets suffered a 0-20 loss to Appling County. But Tiger head coach Jim Walsh said the Yellow Jackets are a physically strong team and have improved since last season.

"We are going to have to play smart," Walsh said. "Defensively we are going to have to tackle a little bit better than we did against Glynn and offensively, and I feel like a broken record saying this, but it’s going to come down to executing the play. We have to do better than what we did this past Friday night. There are a lot of things we need to clean up. If we can do that then we’ll give ourselves a chance."

Walsh said his young linemen played better, but still came up short against Glynn Academy. Walsh said he was pleased with the 222 yards his offense put up against Glynn, but he thinks there is room for improvement.

"We should have been a little bit better in the passing game," he said. "We had some passes that were catchable balls that we didn’t handle really well. We have a couple of kids that can catch and we know we have a quarterback who can throw. We gave him plenty of protection the other night we just have to keep working at it. We are going to have to throw the ball to keep people from putting nine in the box at us so it’s something we definitely want to improve in."

The Yellow Jackets were only able to muster 83 offensive yards on the ground and 30 yards in their passing game. Yellow Jackets coach Mark Daniel said he planned to limit his two-way players against the Tigers to keep fresh legs in the game.

Walsh said his younger players gave him the edge in last week’s victory.

"The best thing I can say about the other night is that our kids fought and that was the most important thing," he said. "When you have young kids and they are fighting you have a swinging chance."

Panthers at Beach

Still riding the wave of their first victory against the McIntosh Academy Buccaneers, the Panthers head to Memorial Stadium in Savannah to play the Beach High Bulldogs.

For the Panthers it’s game two, for the Bulldogs it’s their season opener after a bye in week one. The Bulldogs didn’t scrimmage this season and Panther coach Kirk Warner said with too many unknown variables they can only prepare for the game by watching film of last season’s Bulldogs squad.

"They very multiple last year," Warner said of their offensive formations. "They came out in three different formations … and we expect them to be in multiple formations so we are preparing this year looking at last year’s game film. Beach is going to be a tough hardnosed team."

Warner said he spent the week trying to reduce mental errors from last Friday’s game.

"On the offensive side, we missed a ton of reads," he said. "On the sidelines on Friday it seemed like we had 40 penalties but in reality, we only had three. But it cost us three big plays, so I guess that’s why I put so much emphasis on it. Defensively, we only had two penalties but we had missed assignments. The guys played hard but we have to play harder and smarter."

Warner said his team earned its share of the normal bumps and bruises associated with a hard-won victory. Now they are keeping the entire season in mind.

"They are hooting and hollering but they are keeping everything in perspective," Warner said. "And now their focus is on Beach."

Kickoff for both games is 7:30 p.m.