FERRIDAY — In addition to being in the same parish, the Vidalia and Ferriday football teams have something else in common: They’re both looking for their first win.

Both the Vikings and the Trojans are 0-2 on the season, and tonight’s matchup at Ferriday will mean much more than bragging rights for whichever team wins.

Ferriday head coach Chad Harkins said he’s expecting a good, physical matchup against the Vikings, and looks for the Vidalia players to bring their A game.

“It’s definitely a big rivalry, with us being in the same parish, so we look for them to come out and play hard,” Harkins said.

“They’ll give us their best game of the year so far.”

Vidalia coach Gary Parnham Jr. said the Trojans’ slow start to the season is not fooling him.

“They’re loaded with talent, and they have some fast, physical players. They played some quality opponents in Natchez High and Block, so we know they’re good,” Parnham said.

And if his team has any chance of keeping up, the offensive line will have to improve drastically, Parnham said.

“If they put out and fire off the football, they can play with anyone. It’s a matter of if they do it. When they don’t come off the football, it’s not going to be pretty,” Parnham said.

Despite dominating the Vikings in the Vidalia jamboree, Harkins said his players wouldn’t get too comfortable because of what happened last time.

“We did a good job not keeping them comfortable because we just lost two games, so whatever comfortable (stuff) we had going on is gone because of two losses,” Harkins said.

“This is a must-win game for us.”

Parnham said there’s no advantage in having already seen Ferriday in a jamboree game.

“It’s just a half of football. They’re probably going to show us a few different things, and the only thing that helps us is with knowing their personnel and how physical they are,” Parnham said.

“You don’t show a lot in jamboree games. You stay kind of vanilla.”

After the loss to Block last Friday, Harkins challenged his players to play more physical, and he said his players have responded to that challenge.

“I think we did a better job with that this week in practice. We’ve gone against each other, and now we’re ready to play someone else,” Harkins said.

As for the Vikings, matching the expected physical play of the Trojans will be the difference between a win and a loss, Parnham said.

“If we don’t match that, they’ll run us off the field,” he said.

Kickoff at Ferriday is set for 7 tonight.