FAYETTE — The Jefferson County Tigers will have to play as close to a mistake-free game as possible if they are to upset the sixth-ranked South Pike Eagles on the road in Region 7-3A action Friday night at 7 p.m.

Last Friday, Jefferson County had to come from behind to defeat Amite County 21-12 in its region opener to improve to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in 7-3A. South Pike also got off to a slow start before scoring 19 points in the third quarter of a 31-0 win over Wilkinson County in just its second game of the season.

What concerns Tigers head coach James Herrington the most about South Pike is its running game and its speed on defense.

“South Pike was a pretty young team that won our (region) last year. They’ve got a lot of players back, including their quarterback and running back,” Herrington said. “They run the football well. We’ve got to stop their running game Friday night. That’s their bread and butter. They’ve got a speedy defense. Big at the ends. Two of the bigger ends we’ll face this year. Not as fast, definitely big and quick. Their linebackers are very speedy and aggressive.”

Among the Eagles’ standout players on offense that the Tigers’ defense will be keying on is Tevin Martin, who had touchdown runs of 24 and 46 yards to go with an 85-yard touchdown pass last week.

“We’re not going to change much from what we’re doing defensively. Keep their guys from going outside. Playing disciplined,” Herrington said. “It’s going to come down to the inside tackle play. Keep them off the edge.”

Offensively, Jefferson County will continue to use its balanced attack to try to keep South Pike’s defense guessing. But that may be tough against the Eagles, who have yet to allow any points in their first two games.

“Try to run as much as we pass. Main thing, erase the penalties and take care of the football. Several of their touchdowns have been defensive touchdowns. If we can keep them from scoring defensively, we’ve got a good chance of winning the ball game,” Herrington said.”

But for that to happen, Jefferson County senior quarterback Jeffrey Collins will have to play better than he did against Amite County as he completed less than 17 percent of his passes against the Trojans and threw for just 51 yards and two interceptions.

“Even with only completing four of 24, two of those were for touchdowns. If we can get two touchdowns even with going 4-for-24, I’ll take them. Main thing is just settling them down,” Herrington said.

Actually, Collins had two touchdown runs and one touchdown pass in the comeback win. For the Tigers to have a chance to pull off the upset, they will have to put points on the board early and force the Eagles to become one-dimensional on offense.

“We’ve been averaging between 350 and 400 yards a game. We had a bad game offensively. Thankfully that was last week and not this week. It’s going to come down to defense. Our defense played well last week and hopefully we’ll continue that trend,” Herrington said.