Fayette — Jefferson County has two teams in the way of its quest to reach the 3A playoffs.

First up is North Pike, a 3-5 team who lost to Franklin County, Tylertown and Lawrence County — also the last three teams to which the Tigers have fallen.

North Pike did beat Wilkinson County 20-12, but the Wildcats are still winless this season.

Despite the record, with the Jaguars’ other wins coming against Loyd Star and Amite County, Jefferson County coach James Herrington won’t overlook North Pike.

“They run a base 4-4 defense, and they run a spread option on offense,” he said. “Their quarterback seems to be one of the most skilled players they have on the team, and their best running back returned from last year.

“He seems to be pretty tough. He’s not big in size but appears to be pretty strong on film.”

Herrington hopes the Tigers will build off Friday’s game.

Despite losing 33-30 to Lawrence County, Jefferson County played its most solid defense of the season.

“If we can come out and play a game like we played last week, not only will that enable us to go to playoffs but hopefully to go forward,” Herrington said.

The Tigers offense will have to step up equally well Friday, but Herrington is confident that quarterback Jeffery Collins and the corps of running backs can take care of business.

He also said the offensive line has slowly improved over the season.

“Basically what we’re going to try to do is build off what we did last week, and we’re going to try to run the ball,” Herrington said. “Going into playoffs, it’s very important that our running game is established. We just need to stay balanced, have a balanced attack.”

Herrington said the Jaguars are not a tall team, but are by no means small.

However, he said, their size will not factor into the Tigers’ game plan.

What is that game plan?

“Just win — bottom line. It’s at that point now.”