With West Limestone’s bye week happening so early in the season, Wildcats coach Shelby Davis used it as an opportunity to continue to drill fundamentals into his team before they begin Class 4A, Region 8 play.

“We just went back to fall camp mode,” Davis said of the week off. “We really got focused on some things we had not done so well the first couple of weeks.”

Davis hopes those lessons take hold tonight when the Wildcats host Elkmont in their first region game of the season.

West began the year with a 21-2 victory over Tanner before falling to East Limestone 26-15 two weeks ago. Davis said the players are itching to get back on the field for a game, as indicated by the physical practices they went through last week.

“We went full pads one day and had to shut them down because they were getting after it too hard,” Davis said. “We were afraid somebody was going to get hurt.”

While West Limestone is opening its region season tonight, Elkmont (0-3) has already played one region game, falling 55-0 to region championship favorite Deshler last Friday.

The Red Devils have struggled offensively, scoring a total of 14 points in the three games and not gaining more than 105 total yards in any game.

Elkmont coach Duane Wales could not be reached for comment.

Davis said it is important that his team retains its physical nature, because that is what it’s going to take to win games in region play.

“We played our first couple of games, and they were real physical games,” Davis said. “We’ve kind of established our identity as far as playing physical. We got a week off and now we get to start our region play.”

This is the 66^th meeting between the two county rival on the gridiron, with West Limestone holding a 46-18-1 advantage in the series. West won last year’s game 27-7.

West Limestone has already played two games against county opponents, and will face each of the other five county schools this year. Davis said it’s important for the team to win games against county rivals.

“When it’s in the county it means a little more,” Davis said. “Throw on top of that it’s our first region game, and it means much more.”