Extra Point Game Game of the Week Preview: Week One – Rehobeth hosts Carroll

REHOBETH, Ala (WDHN) — Friday night, two teams will face off, both familiar with each other over the past few years. One team is coming off a tough Week One loss, while the other is looking to clean up mistakes after narrowly securing a win in double overtime. The Rehobeth Rebels will host the Carroll Eagles in our Week One Game of the Week.

“We just need to have a bounce back,” said Carroll head coach Matt Mellown. “I didn’t think we played very well in Game One. Our kids were super nervous with a lot of new stuff—many young faces, a lot of new guys who have never been on the varsity stage before. We need to play better and cut out some penalties. Our kids played extremely hard Friday versus Russell County. That was a pretty good Russell County team, but we just have to play better and be cleaner. I know Coach Greene does a really good job; they’re really well-coached.”

The Rebels were victorious in Week One, but the win was far from flawless, and Coach Greene sees plenty of areas his team needs to address.

“We’ll have to really make sure we know our assignments and alignments on defense,” Rehobeth head coach Toby Greene remarked. “We’ve got to do a better job tackling. We had a lot of missed tackles last week, and that’s expected in Week One. We need to clean up a couple of penalties we had on defense that extended drives for Ashford and get those things worked out.”

Rehobeth hasn’t beaten Carroll since 2019, but Greene hopes his team can build on the momentum from Week One to break that streak.

“I don’t think Rehobeth has beaten Carroll in four or five years,” Greene admitted. “We’ve lost a lot of close games—really close games. Maybe that extra effort and focus will hopefully get us over the top.”

Rehobeth linebacker Heath Mathison is eager for the challenge. “We definitely want to beat them,” he said. “It would be a big step for us, but we’ve got to be very, very physical. They’ve got a pretty good line, and they’re going to really test us up front, but I think we should be able to stop it.”

The Eagles struggled in Week One, failing to score in their matchup against Russell County, but they believe they can get things cleaned up by Friday night.

“Offensively, we’ve got to slow down,” said Carroll H-back/linebacker Qua White. “Stop overthinking and take everything play by play.”

This Carroll team features a lot of new faces, which can pose challenges, but it could also play to the Rebels’ advantage.

“It takes a lot of what they had out,” noted Rehobeth quarterback Patrick Banda. “But it’s new, so we really don’t know how they play. But we watch film, and it’ll get better. They also don’t know what we’ve got or how we play, so it’s going to be nice and different.”

One challenge in playing Rehobeth is the difficulty in finding time with the ball, as the Rebel offense is built to dominate time of possession.

“You know, anytime you play the single wing, you’ve got to try to maximize your possessions,” Mellown explained. “You’re not going to get many of them. They’re going to hold the ball. They’re good with four yards at a time. You’ve got to make sure, A: you score when you get the ball, and B: you try to force a turnover here and there. You’ve got to try to get one extra possession out of it because it’s going to be a really fast game. You’re not going to get a lot of touches, and you’ve got to make sure those touches you get are putting points on the board, and, like I said, you’re trying to force one extra turnover.”

Carroll lineman Jermorian Rumph is focused on the goal. “We’ve got to beat them,” Rumph emphasized. “We can’t go 0-2 to start the season. That’s terrible. Keep your eyes on your keys, read the right guy, and be physical.”

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