FERRIDAY &8212; With three big wins &8212; all coming at home &8212; under their belts, the Ferriday Trojans will get their first test of the season this week.

The Trojans (3-0) will hit the road for the first time all season when they travel to face Lake Charles Boston (2-2). The 3A power&8217;s two losses came to a 4A and a 5A school.

Head coach James McFarland said the 2A Trojans would have their hands full.

&8220;Man, they&8217;ve got two of the fastest backs I&8217;ve ever seen,&8221; McFarland said. &8220;They&8217;re elusive, and that No. 5 &8212; I don&8217;t know his name &8212; may be one of the best I&8217;ve seen this year.&8221;

McFarland said the game could also be tough due to some old bad blood.

&8220;We know that that&8217;s not going to be an easy game for us &8212; especially on the road,&8221; he said. &8220;All my time here, regardless of what&8217;s going on, when we play teams they play their best. It must be from some of the whoopings we put on teams in the past. The last time we played (Lake Charles) there we beat them. That&8217;s been a long time ago. We beat them in the playoffs. There&8217;s still some people around that remember that. They didn&8217;t like it much.&8221;

McFarland felt Ferriday may be outmatched in both size and speed in some areas of the game.

&8220;Their running game is their strength,&8221; he said. &8220;They are elusive, and quick. No. 5 could be the quickest one I&8217;ve seen this year. They are very fast. They&8217;re big up front (on defense). They&8217;re going to be bigger than we are. Our only hope is that we can get on the edge and make some things happen. We feel like we won&8217;t be able to run the ball as successfully as we have. They outman us.&8221;

When taking on a quick-strike offense, the best strategy is often to shorten the game, and that&8217;s just what the Trojans hope to do Friday night.

&8220;What we&8217;re going to try to do is use our offense as a defense,&8221; McFarland said. &8220;We&8217;re going to move the ball on them, and hopefully keep the ball away from them. If we can keep the ball for a while and score, that&8217;s less time they can have it. Special teams is going to be big in this game.&8221;

With the fast start, the Trojans have already garnered attention from the state-wide media, reaching a ranking of No. 8 in the latest LHSAA polls. McFarland said he, his staff and his team were paying no attention to that.

&8220;We&8217;re not going to even talk about that,&8221; he said. &8220;(Rankings) don&8217;t matter at all. I was hoping that no one would even say anything about that. If we&8217;re coming out and we&8217;re No. 1 or 2 at the end of the year, that&8217;s nice. Until then I don&8217;t want to hear about it.&8221;

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Lake Charles.

Vidalia at Jena

Dee Faircloth said following Vidalia&8217;s win over Mangham last Friday that he was glad to be back at .500 heading into the Jena game this week.

It may be difficult for the Vikings to stay there.

The Giants (4-0) head into the game averaging almost 53 points a game and allowing only 5, and Faircloth expects the Vikings will have their hands full.

&8220;We&8217;re playing one of the top teams in 3A,&8221; Faircloth said. &8220;They&8217;ve got a really good team. They&8217;ve got a good running back. One of the best players on the team is No. 10, Michael Bell. His nickname is TD Bell. They run a spread I, and they do a good job of running it. They&8217;re averaging 53 or more points a game. They&8217;re mainly a running team, which is good for us because we can&8217;t cover anybody.&8221;

Faircloth said the biggest concern when Jena&8217;s defense is on the field will still be Bell.

&8220;Defensively, No. 10 is everywhere,&8221; he said. &8220;They&8217;re usually in a 4-3 set, and he lines up at safety. They almost use him more as a rover, and let the corners man up on everybody. It&8217;s going to be a tough ballgame.&8221;

Faircloth said the Vikings (2-2) would have to stop the Jena running game to have any chance at winning.

On the injury front, Vidalia will be without two starters this week.

&8220;Lance Moore, our tight end, is out with a knee injury,&8221; Faircloth said. &8220;We&8217;re not sure how long it&8217;ll be. Josh Brewer, one of our defensive linemen, has got a bruised elbow, so he won&8217;t play this week. We&8217;re okay outside of that.&8221;

The Vikings will hit the road to take on Jena at 7 p.m. Friday.

Block at Mangham

Two winless teams will get a chance to get back on track Friday night when Block (0-4) visits Mangham (0-4).

Big things were expected of the Dragons heading into the season, as they received votes in the preseason LHSAA poll. After a 45-6 season-opening loss to Ferriday, things have all come crashing down.

Both squads have faced Ferriday and Vidalia in the opening weeks of the season.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday.