It might be a non-region matchup, but Clements coach Michael Parker and West Limestone coach Shelby Davis both know Friday night’s contest between the two schools will help prepare both teams for a stretch of four consecutive region games beginning next week.

“Going down the stretch, everything is still in tact for us,” Davis said. “The potential for this team is high, but are we going to reach that potential? Are we going to do what it takes to keep improving week after week?”

Both teams are coming off disappointing region losses last Friday. Clements (3-1) fell to Westminster Christian 59-34 after having a 22-18 third-quarter lead, while West Limestone (2-2) couldn’t hang on to a fourth-quarter advantage in a 42-37 defeat to Central-Florence.

“Last week was a tough loss that definitely hurt,” Davis said. “That’s a game we should have won. But we’ve still got a lot more region games. We’ve only played two of them so far. We’ve just got to keep working and improving every week.”

Davis said Clements is a team similar to Central, in that it relies on a strong running game with a featured standout in the backfield. Central had Dalton Hanback, who rushed for more than 200 yards and five touchdowns against the Wildcats, while Clements has Jairrice Pryor, who has rushed for more than 200 yards in each of the Colts’ four games this season and been responsible for 15 touchdowns.

“He’s an elusive back and a power back,” Davis said of Pryor. “He has pretty much run all over everybody he’s played. Our kids are eager and ready to rebound from (last week) and see if we can stop him.”

Parker is also trying to clean up some things with his team, mainly penalties and open field tackling. The Colts had numerous penalties in last week’s game, including a blindside block infraction that negated a long touchdown run which would have put Clements up by two touchdowns in the second quarter.

“Our penalties are killing us and our open field tackling is killing us,” Parker said. “We’re just not very good at it. We’re working this week to try and fix those problems and overcome some of the penalties we’re getting. I don’t mind the holding penalties every now and then, but just some of these penalties we should know better.”

Westminster Christian’s Jackson Billings was responsible for seven touchdowns against Clements, including rushing for five scores. Most all of those came on cutback runs, where Colts defenders overran the play. That also hurt the defense in the Phil Campbell game, Parker said.

“All four of Phil Campbell’s touchdowns were missed tackles and three of them were on cutbacks,” Parker said. “We’ve got players who try to take the kill shots and leave their feet instead of shuffling their feet and holding on until help gets there. We’re aggressive and get after it, but we don’t know how to shuffle down and wait for help instead of taking the kill shot. You want them to be aggressive but you want them to be smart and make good tackles.”

Parker said his defense will face another big challenge with West Limestone. The Wildcats are averaging 37 points per game, and have quality players at quarterback, receiver and running back.

“They’re big, physical and play hard for coach Davis,” Parker said. “Those kids believe in him, play hard and do things right. It’s going to be quite a challenge for us. I hope we’re up for it, because if we’re not, it could get bad.”