In the Week 1 Brad Embry was pleased with the progress shown in their 13-7 loss to Eupora. After last week’s decisive win over Coffeeville in the Railroad Rivalry game, the head coach’s mood is even more upbeat.

The Blue Devils remain home this week and will try to keep the momentum they managed to bottle when they take on J.Z. George on Friday (7 p.m., 105.5 FM).

“We played good in spurts,” Embry said. “We came out and played well, like you want to, from the beginning. We got a lead and lost a little focus, offensively. It was mental mistakes more so than physical. Which, you know is not really unexpected. That’s where we are right now. We’re learning how to win.”

The offense was nearly perfect last week with a run game that produced 260 yards and five touchdowns against Coffeeville. Through the air, it was successful with Ty Varner throwing for 111 yards and a touchdown. Defensively, the Blue Devils (1-1) picked off Coffeeville four times and held them to two touchdowns after the game had gotten out of hand.

“We really clicked on offense (in the second half) for a couple drives and kind of shut it out” Embry said. “We made some good plays in the secondary. There’s room for improvement. Tuesday is our defensive day (in practice). We worked really hard on technique.

J.Z. George is a team that is struggling and searching. The Jaguars have lost their first two games by a average margin of 37.5 points. They lost to Okolona 48-0 in their season opener then lost to Noxapater 33-6 last week.

Preparing for Harvey

The weather projections have decreased in severity in terms of rain totals for north Mississippi, but today is a key day if Water Valley wants to play football on Friday.

The Blue Devils play on a natural grass field and have made proper preparations in advance of the remnants of Hurricane Harvey. Embry and his staff have intentionally dried out the field in the days leading up to allow for the field to soak up as much rain that falls as possible to make the conditions playable come Friday night.

“Our main concern is how much rain do we get?” Embry said. “We haven’t added any water in a while, so that will help. We’ve done everything we can. So now it’s just a wait and see.”