Clements has prided itself on its defense this season. Tonight, the Colts defense will face its toughest test in Colbert County.

The Indians’ speed will be a big challenge for Clements to defend, coach Cody McCain said.

“This is my fourth year of seeing (Colbert County),” McCain said. “They always have speed at skill positions all over the field. It is so tough to try to contain on defense and tough to beat them on offense.”

McCain said the Colts have had a good week of practice since last week’s 40-6 win over Hanceville, but it’s difficult to prepare for a team with that much speed at multiple positions.

“It’s one of those things you can’t simulate in practice, because we don’t have anybody as fast as they have,” McCain said. “The good thing for us is that defensively, we’ve been solid this year and our guys have tackled well. What we’re showing them on film is that against Colbert County, if you’re out of positions, some of those runs that might go for 5 or 6 yards against most teams, they’ll break loose and take it to the house. We really have to be sound defensively to overcome that speed factor.”

After being shut out in two consecutive games, the Colts broke loose for 40 points last week, and while two of the touchdowns were interception returns, the offense performed well, scoring four touchdowns and rushing for close to 400 yards.

McCain said it finally appears players are getting comfortable in the offense, with Kaleb Fletcher, Seth Harbin, Cole Wales and Crimson Bivens hitting their strides running the ball.

Fletcher had 123 yards rushing last Friday while Harbin had 99, Wales 90 and Bivens 42.

“Even though we had the majority of our players back from last year, two of the big gaps we had to fill on offense were our two leading rushers from last year,” he said. “We are trying to replace 1,800 to 1,900 yards rushing from those two guys. Now we’re using four guys on those carries and are trying to find a way to most effectively use the talent on the field at one time was a challenge in the first few weeks. But last week, we were able to mix it up and divide the carries and balance the load we’re putting on our guys.”