After enduring a tough four-game stretch to open the season, Elkmont had last week off. Red Devils coach Duane Wales believes that off week gave his team a chance to heal up and improve as they get set to face Lexington in a non-region contest.

“We took Monday off to sort of get healed up from bumps and bruises from the first few weeks, and then we went full pads Tuesday and Wednesday and worked on fundamentals almost like two spring training days,” Wales said. “Then Thursday, we started putting in some of our game plan for Lexington, looking at some of the game sets and things they use offensively and what we want to do with our offense versus their defense. I think (the week of practice) did make us better in our blocking, tackling and execution.”

Wales said that good week of practice rolled over into this week, as the team finished putting in its game plan for the Golden Bears Monday.

“We’ll use the rest of the week to sharpen up everything and give us every chance to be successful Friday night,” Wales said.

Elkmont (0-4) had a rough first three games of the season, but showed signs of promise in its last game. The Red Devils held a 7-0 halftime lead over West Limestone before fading in the second half and falling to a 27-7 defeat.

Wales said the team can build on the positives of the first half of the West Limestone game.

“We’ve been working on trying to be more physical up front with our offensive and defensive lines,” Wales said. “We had several injuries early in the season along the lines, and we finally had the same group of guys the last two weeks, and that showed against West. We had more continuity as to what we were doing as a group.”

Wales said he wants to see the lines becoming more physical, which will improve the team overall. The offense in particular has struggled, being shut out the first three games before scoring a touchdown against West Limestone.

“We want to be more of a downhill running team, and build off of the success we had in the first half against West Limestone,” Wales said. “We’ve really worked on that very hard last week and into this week. Our main goal is to go into Lexington Friday night and be physical.”

Lexington brings a 1-3 record into Friday’s game, having defeated Phil Campbell 35-12 and having lost to Rogers (34-7), Westminster Christian (39-0) and Lauderdale County (48-22).

“They’ve got a spread-based offense but they run the veer option outside with that,” Wales said of Lexington’s offense. “We’ve got to do a good job this week of stopping the dive play inside, plus being able to force the quarterback to pitch off the veer. Plus, their quarterback throws the ball well, and they’ve got a couple of tall wide receivers.”

Wales said the key to Elkmont’s offense lighting up the scoreboard will be to penetrate the first line of Lexington’s defense.

“Their defensive line is real strong, but if we can get past that first level, maybe we can have some success exploiting their secondary,” he said. “They are a lot smaller than Lexington teams of the past.”