NATCHEZ — Adams County Christian and Wilkinson County Christian won’t be facing each other in the regular season.

Instead, the two schools decided to face off in 7-on-7 matchups Friday evening at ACCS’ Bobby Marks Stadium.

The matchups are one of two 7-on-7s scheduled between the two schools, and ACCS will travel to WCCA for the next one. Rebels assistant coach Rick Fife said it was nice to be able to get some work in against a team from a surrounding county.

“It’s really good to be bringing them in, especially this year with us not having them on our schedule,” Fife said. “With them not being so far away, they can come to us and work, and we can go to them and work.”

Rams head coach Ray McDaniel, who takes over for Billy Caston after Caston left WCCA at the end of last season, said ACCS is one of several local schools he’s competing in 7-on-7s against this summer.

“We’ll also be playing Cathedral and Silliman,” McDaniel said. “It’s our first time to do one of these in three years.”

And McDaniel said the 7-on-7 matchups are something he’s trying to use to jumpstart the season.

“For us, this mostly helps our defensive backs,” McDaniel said. “It helps us with coverages, techniques, drops and footwork — things like that.

“We’re not really a spread team, we’re mostly a running team, but this also helps us work on our passing game.”

Fife said the 7-on-7s are a good way for the Rebel players to get work done on both sides of the ball as well.

“It allows us to run numerous people in and out, especially with us being a younger team,” Fife said.

“It’s getting us different looks and allows us to stop them and teach them on the fly. It gives us something to break down with them.”

Fife said the Rebels usually do approximately six to eight 7-on-7 matchups each summer, and he said the players respond well to them.

“I think they like it,” Fife said. “They have the opportunity to get playing time, and they get to go up against someone other than themselves. It gets them out of the daily routine that can get monotonous at times.”