NATCHEZ — Playoff hopes were alive all around the public school football stadiums this weekend as teams fought either to get a postseason berth or to keep theirs.

Natchez High got a bit tougher game than expected from 0-9 Wingfield on Friday, a team that had kept them out of the 5A South State playoffs the last two seasons.

The Bulldogs won 31-6 but were only ahead by 6 in the first half.

“They were motivated, surprisingly,” said Natchez coach Lance Reed. “Usually when you face a team that hasn’t won a game, sometimes their body language and their efforts are pretty low. But they played hard against us, and they kept it a contest in that first half.”

Neither team scored in the first quarter, but Joel Davis ran 22 yards and quarterback Javon Washington ran 2 yards for two scores in the second quarter.

Washington exploded, however, in the second half, throwing three scoring passes with no interceptions.

Two of those were to Rico Richardson for 25 yards apiece, and the third was to Nick Brooks for 12 yards.

“I told him all along he’s the leader of our offense,” Reed said. “How he plays will really dictate a lot about how our offense will go.”

The Bulldogs were equally strong in the air and on the ground, something Reed said he had hoped to accomplish prior to the game. Natchez recorded 191 rushing yards and 233 in the air.

They will host Hattiesburg (7-2, 4-2) for their final Region 3 game of the season before starting the playoffs.

“We’re playing for the third-place spot,” Reed said. “We’re still in home playoff mode. It’s just as important a game as any.”

Ferriday is still fighting for a long-shot spot in the LHSAA 2A playoffs, and they did not help themselves any by losing to Farmerville on Friday.

The Farmers used two key plays to overrun the Trojans 20-7 in Ferriday.

The first was a 69-yard pass on a fade route on the first play after forcing Ferriday to punt on a three-and-out drive.

“I don’t think they overpowered us,” coach Freddie Harrison said. “They made some adjustments, and only two big plays changed the game. Other than that we were playing together.”

Still, Harrison has hopes for the playoffs, considering Louisiana uses a power ranking system to determine the postseason.

Thirty-two teams will reach the playoffs, and the rankings depend on the strength of the teams played.

Ferriday is 0-3 in District 2-2A play with one game left, against Lake Providence.

“The crazy thing about it is we still have a shot,” he said. “The last couple weeks I’ve told them they were playing for our playoff lives, but now we really are. We step out here and win this game, I really thing we’re going to be in the 32.”

Even if they don’t make it, Harrison thinks the heart his team has shown and the improvements that have been made in the young players is a sign of good things to come.

“You make sure you re-ensure the kids that trouble don’t last,” he said. “Eventually it’s going to come to the time when you’re going to be on top. We’ll be in contention next year.”

Franklin County’s playoff spot has been sealed for two weeks, so their 28-6 win against Amite County really didn’t matter.

Still, coach Trent Hammond said it was nice to see Amite County show up for the game, and for the Bulldogs to get out of the game healthy.

“Last year when they played Amite County, it had some implications in the playoffs,” he said. “This year it didn’t affect either team. With a win we don’t go up, and with a loss they still don’t get in. But they did play like it was their playoff game. They did the same thing to Tylertown a couple weeks before.”

The Bulldogs started out slowly, but quarterback Jamie Collins, who was out last week against Wilkinson County, returned for big action.

He intercepted a pass toward the end of the second quarter and returned it 94 yards for a touchdown to put Franklin County up 7-6 at halftime.

He then recorded all three Bulldog touchdowns in the second half, including a 26-yard run a 27-yard pass to Jarvis King and a 30-yard run 20 seconds later.

“He just played like he does every week,” Hammond said. “It’s the same job he does for us every week.”

Not much has been heard from Collins in the past two weeks because he was absent for personal reasons last Friday.

The Friday before, South Pike’s defense focused solely on Collins, making the quarterback virtually ineffective.

“Amite County did a good job of taking the other players away from us so in the second half we were opened up to use him. We went in really not wanting to use him very much so our playoff opponent wouldn’t see him. But Amite Count y did enough to where we wound up having to go to him.”

Still, Southeast Lauderdale, Franklin County’s first-round opponent in the 3A South State Playoffs, would have known about Collins anyway.

What they may not have been able to do is stop him. That is still to be determined.

“We’ve got other players too,” Hammond said. “That’s the thing about football. You work as hard as you can to take one thing away, but you have to give up something else. These kids rally around whoever’s having the good game.”

Hammond’s plan was to watch film on Southeast Lauderdale with the team Sunday afternoon.

From what he knew about the team from talking to other 3A Region 5 coaches, the Tigers are athletic, well coached and well disciplined.

“If you start watching film on Saturday you lose any chance to sleep one night a weekend without worrying,” Hammond said. “We’ll have to show up and play well because they’ve guaranteed themselves a spot in the playoffs a few weeks ago. They’re only one or two points away from being second in that district.”

Jefferson County secured its second straight trip to the 3A South State postseason with a win against 0-8 Wilkinson County on Friday.

The score was tied at 6 in the first quarter but the Tigers eventually pulled away for the win. They will travel to Region 5-leading Newton County for their first-round game.

Vidalia kept its playoff hopes alive with a big win over District 3-3A foe Avoyelles. The Vikings are 2-2 now in district and host Bolton in their last regular season game Friday.

Block’s 1A playoff berth is still safe, as the Bears won Thursday against St. Mary.

They play their final game of the season this Thursday at Lakeview in Campti, La.

The Cathedral Green Wave, whose postseason chances were crushed long ago, play their final game Friday at West Lincoln.