The Fort Dale Eagles take a break from area competition this week, when they play host to AA Patrician Academy from Bulter.

"They throw the ball all over the field and they do a good job," James Sampley, coach of the Fort Dale Eagles said. "They throw 35-40 times a game. Defensively they play a 5-3 and they are tough as heck and we are going to do a lot better than we did last week."

Last week, the Eagles lost home field for the first round when Morgan Academy picked up a 14-7 victory.

The Senators held the Eagles to under 200 yards offense and held junior running back Tim James to under 100 yards rushing for the first time in three games.

Before the Eagles played the Senators, they pulled out a 26-21 victory against Cottage Hill.

In that game, James carried for 236 yards. As a team, the Eagles rushed for 345 yards.

Last week, the totals weren't that impressive.

Fort Dale finished the regional meeting with 183 yards of total offense – 154 rushing.

Quarterback David Moore threw six times completing two of his passes for only 29 yards.

Backs James and Taylor Hawsey carried the ball 20 and 15 times apiece respectively for 71 and 55 yards.

"We are trying to work on being more physical than last week," Sampley said.

Monday afternoon during practice, the Eagles were running full-contact strength-on-strength to find out who was tough enough and in preparation of this week's opponent.

"I'm not worried about a region break we are working to get better," Sampley said.

"We've got three weeks before we play our first playoff game and we need to get better each and every day."

Two weeks ago the Patrician Saints picked up a 29-13 victory over Tuscaloosa Academy.

The Saints have also secured a playoff spot in their AA East region.

They are currently the No. 2 team behind Clarke Prep and ahead of Pickens Academy and Southern Choctaw Academy.

Next week, the Eagles will find out who their first round opponent will be and where they will be playing. The No. 3 and 4 teams from the regions travel to face the No. 2 and No. 1 teams. In the West region, Bessemer is No. 1 and Edgewood is No. 2

Fort Dale and Mobile Christian are tied for No.3 in the region with two region losses.

Next Friday, No. 3 and No.1 will be decided.

Fort Dale will be in Mobile playing the Leopards for the No.3 spot in the standings and Faith will be playing Morgan for the Regional Championship.

The Faith vs. Morgan game is a rematch of last year's regional and state championship games. Faith won the region and then Morgan won the state.

The Eagles have two regular season games left before the first round of the playoffs.

Kickoff for Friday night's game is set for 7:30 p.m. and will be played at Fort Dale Academy.