VIDALIA, La. &045; The way Vidalia head coach Dee Faircloth pointed out former players he coached and coached against, shook hands of admirers and fielded congratulations all over his Vikings home field Saturday, one might have mistaken him for a mayoral candidate.

If Vidalia keeps up its dominating pace from its own jamboree for an entire season, folks on the west bank might just write him in.

The Vikings rolled in two wins over Crowville, 22-0, and rival Ferriday, 12-0, to tie with Jena as the big winners from Saturday’s jamboree.

&uot;You can’t beat experience, and that is exactly what this ball club has,&uot; Faircloth said. &uot;I thought we did real well. We handled the mental part of the game very well.&uot;

Vidalia got touchdown runs from quarterback Tony Hawkins (1) and tailback Michael Randall (3) in a dictating victory with its Concordia Parish neighbor Ferriday.

From the looks of a win and a tie performance in the jamboree, the airwaves are wide open for the Cathedral Green Wave this season.

Quarterback Turner Smith’s 65-yard hook-up with Michael Blain netted Cathedral its only touchdown to salvage an 8-8 draw with Block, who beat Newellton in the first game 8-0.

In the Green Wave’s matchup with Newellton, Jonathan Jackson’s two scores propelled Cathedral to a 14-8 win over Newellton.

&uot;We’re still learning it, but I thought they did a good job of running it tonight,&uot; Green Wave head coach Ken Beesley said of the no-huddle, shotgun offense. &uot;We’re going to stick with it until we get it down pat.&uot;

Cathedral, who ran the ball just twice with Jackson in the first 12-minute game against Block, pounded the senior running back four times for 23 yards, bulling his way in for both scores.

&uot;He’s capable of doing that for us all the time,&uot; Beesley said of Jackson, who replaces his brother Ja’Mel who graduated last year. &uot;He doesn’t usually like to go inside a whole lot. But if we catch a team playing the pass, we’ll run it. We’re going to take whatever they give us.&uot;

Ferriday got to the stadium late for their first game against Jena, and it showed throughout the night for the Trojans.

On their only two drives in the matchup against Jena, the Trojans fumbled twice in an 8-0 loss.

Against the Vikings, Ferriday was simply overmatched, again fumbling on its first play from scrimmage and never recovering.

&uot;We stunk it up out there tonight. We didn’t even show up,&uot; McFarland said. &uot;We couldn’t get the ball from center a couple of times, and when we did we fumbled it. That’s what really stood out to me.&uot;

As to why his team’s bus was tardy, McFarland said they were misinformed on the start.

&uot;I don’t know if showing up on time would’ve made any difference tonight, to tell you the truth,&uot; he said.

Guarding against a letdown from last year’s district 4-1A championship and a trip to the playoffs, Block head coach Chad Harkins lectured his team for more than 30 minutes after its tie with Cathedral.

Harkins was disappointed in his Bears’ effort throughout the evening, not really knowing what to attribute it to.

&uot;We’ve got a ways to go to be able to compete in the playoffs. They have to learn to get out there and play for four quarters,&uot; Harkins said. &uot;I’ve said it since I’ve been here, and I’m going to keep on saying it until somebody hears me. They have to realize the effort has to be there for every second of every game for us to win.&uot;

Beesley was tickled pink to see the performance from his defense.

Senior defensive end Eric Lee had several sacks and a forced fumble during the Newellton victory.

&uot;The defense played better than I anticipated,&uot; Beesley said. &uot;I didn’t have any idea how good they were going to be because most of them play on offense during our practices. We spend more time on the offense, and this was their first time to go under fire.&uot;