NATCHEZ — Although they play each other tonight, Trinity’s and Huntington’s football teams have a little bit more than a game on their minds.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav, players on both sides have dealt with a lack of electricity and running water.

Ferriday is still under a boil-water notice, and Huntington did not resume practice until Wednesday.

“It’s been a tough week on everybody,” said coach Chad Harkins. “We haven’t really been able to get outside. What little practice we have had has been in the gym.”

Harkins said the Hounds had one more short run-through on Friday, even though school there was canceled until Monday.

Trinity coach David King was not impressed by his team’s performance in a 54-14 win over Adams County Christian last week. He said he expected little improvement this week because of the weather problems.

We had kids missing here and there, but we had a decent crowd for the most part,” he said. “We had to practice on our football field so we didn’t want to damage it too much, so we were very limited.”

The Saints were unable to use their practice field, and they did not get to watch film because of the lack of power.

King said he tried as best he could to keep his players in their usual routine.

“We normally watch a lot of film,” he said. “We just tried to make it as fun as we could during all the circumstances.”

Harkins’ biggest concern is keeping his players focused on the upcoming game with so much distraction at home.

“It’s got to be tough on them to go home and sleep in the heat,” he said. “Most of them didn’t have electricity, and all of them still didn’t have water.

Players’ families and a few stores in the Ferriday area donated bottled water for use during practice and the game.

Harkins said he plans to take Saturday as any other game, hoping the Hounds can win two straight.

“It’s going to be tough,” he said. “Their speed is tremendous. Matching up with their speed and trying to contain it is going to be the key to us winning the game.”

King said Huntington is used to winning and would work as hard as it could for four quarters to secure a victory.

He said the game would be a shock compared to Trinity’s most recent win, a game that was over “pretty quickly.”

“We’ve just still got so much youth on our team that I’m not sure we’re ready to play a talented team like Huntington,” King said. “This game is going to be totally different than last week.”