VIDALIA &8212; There will be no rest for the weary, as the Vidalia Vikings (1-1) &8212; fresh off a frustrating loss last week &8212; host Rayville Friday night at 7.

Vidalia head coach Dee Faircloth said last week&8217;s loss at University Lab in Baton Rouge really stung the team.

&8220;We should&8217;ve won that game,&8221; he said of the 21-8 loss. &8220;We controlled that game until about four or five minutes left in the fourth quarter. We were leading 8-7 then it just got away from us. We had a lot of chances to win the game but we just couldn&8217;t do it.&8221;

Things won&8217;t get any easier this week as the Hornets (2-0), ranked No. 10

in the LHSAA&8217;s class 3A, travel to face Vidalia.

&8220;I hope we&8217;re ready,&8221; he said. &8220;We&8217;re playing probably the best team on our schedule. They&8217;re 2-0 right now. They beat Oak Grove and they beat Sterlington 22-7. Another interesting thing is the coach is my nephew, so it&8217;s a family reunion.&8221;

The family reunion may not be safe for the kids, however, as Faircloth said the Hornets come with plenty of weapons.

&8220;They&8217;re loaded,&8221; he said. &8220;One of their tackles has already committed to LSU. They&8217;ve got some huge linemen. They&8217;ve got great receivers. We don&8217;t match up well with them. They like to spread you out and run straight up the middle at you. You can&8217;t bunch in on them because they can beat you with the throw. That quarterback can sling it.

&8220;The first two times we played Rayville, we kicked their butts. The last two times, they&8217;ve kicked the crap out of us. This will be the fifth meeting.&8221;

Block vs. Jena

A few days of soul-searching following Friday&8217;s 64-0 loss at Ferriday have just made things tougher for Block head coach Scott Green.

&8220;We didn&8217;t show up, didn&8217;t play, and probably took the worst beating I&8217;ve seen in 17 years of coaching,&8221; Green said. &8220;&8230; It had nothing to do with who was or wasn&8217;t at the game and who was or wasn&8217;t hurt, we just got beat.&8221;

The Bears will now host the Jena Giants, who received votes in the latest LHSAA poll. They have defeated their first two opponents by a combined score of 96-3, which isn&8217;t good news for a club which has been outscored 94-13 so far.

&8220;I&8217;ve seen Jena so far ever year for the last 15 years or so and I think they&8217;ve got the best backs they&8217;ve ever had,&8221; Green said. &8220;Their offensive line is pretty decent and their backs run the ball extremely hard. They have a well-schemed offense. They run with three wide receivers and two backs and the line is good enough to open holes with just the five of them. Offensively, they&8217;re tough. They&8217;re going to score a lot of points.&8221;

Green felt the Bears&8217; best hope would be to keep the ball away from the Jena offense.

&8220;I think the only thing we&8217;re going to be able to do is line up and run straight at them,&8221; he said. &8220;They have good team speed on defense. We&8217;re even size-wise, but they&8217;re a little faster than us.

&8220;Defensively, we&8217;ve got to start tackling, no matter what we do. If we continue to tackle like we&8217;ve been tackling it&8217;s going to be another long night.&8221;

The Bears will host the Giants at 7 p.m. Friday.

Ferriday (Bye)

After entering the LHSAA 2A Top 10 at No. 10, the Ferriday Trojans will have a week off to enjoy it.

Originally scheduled to host Newellton Friday night, the Trojans now have an off week before they host Country Day next week.