McKenzie will host their homecoming game this Friday versus the Kinston Bulldogs.

According to coach Miles Brown, this could be one of the best Bulldog teams he’s seen in a while.

“Coach Jason Wambles has done a superb job with his players coaching to their ability,” Brown said. “They are going to end up making the playoffs for the first time since 2001.”

Brown said he expects the Bulldogs to come in and try to shut down his offense.

“They are going to try to keep our offense off the football field as much as they can,” Brown said. “When they wear down teams, that’s when they start running play action passes and stuff of that nature.”

Offensively, Brown says the Bulldogs like to “see how many people they can fit in a phone booth.”

“When they run, it looks like they have 9 players at the point of attack,” Brown said. “They get everyone gathered around the ball.”

Coach Brown said his team would counter Kinston’s hard-pressing offense with physical, assignment football and capitalizing when his offense has the ball.

Brown will also keep try to keep the Bulldog’s possessions down as much as possible, which they managed to do versus Georgiana with a slough of interceptions and onside kick recoveries.

“You never know when those onside kicks are coming,” Brown laughed.

Last year, the Tigers defeated Kinston 50-8, despite only having 34 offensive snaps.

Brown said this number should be doubled.

As for key players in next week’s match up, Brown did not list any one player but instead said he expects big things from both his offensive and defensive lines.

“We are really going to have to control the line of scrimmage,” Brown said.