meadville — The Franklin County High School football team is looking to play the role of road warrior to start its 2011 season.

The Bulldogs are sitting at 2-0 with road victories over North Pike and Loyd Star, and they will travel to Tylertown Friday to play their third consecutive road contest.

“(Winning road games) is just a matter of getting the kids focused to play week-in and week-out,” Franklin County coach Rickey O’Quinn said. “We have to execute the same way whether we’re home or away.”

O’Quinn said his defense has led the way in his team’s two victories to start this season.

“I’m pleased with the way we are playing defensively,” he said. “I’m pleased with the way guys are flying around the ball. The kids are playing hard, and collectively we are playing great team defense. It’s not odd to see eight or nine kids around the ball on a tackle.”

O’Quinn said his team has also been effective running the ball offensively, and they will need to continue that this week.

“I’m very pleased with the way we run the ball, especially on first and second down,” he said. “I definitely think (this week) we have to move the football (offensively), and not have our defense on the field all night. We have to move it, and move it early.”

Franklin County lost by a point to Tylertown last season, and O’Quinn said it was a matter of his team not putting a full game together.

“We have to play four quarters (this year),” he said. “We played two quarters against them last year, and they are a very relentless team. You can’t just flip a switch and turn it on, you have to play from the opening kickoff.”

O’Quinn said Tylertown (2-0) is a very good running team, but he will not focus as much on what Tylertown does well this week in practice, but more on what his team needs to improve.

“We work on doing what we do, and doing it better,” he said. “We look at our film and on, and if we can’t improve on what we’re doing wrong there’s nothing you can do to game plan.”

One thing the Bulldogs will focus on this week is special teams, primarily kickoff coverage, O’Quinn said.

“(Kickoff coverage) has been lacking a lot in our first two ball games,” he said. “It puts our defense in bad situations that they have been able to get out of, but (opposing teams) are advancing to midfield on almost every kickoff.”

O’Quinn said a win this week would be huge for his team.

“Getting off to a good start is always good, especially playing a tough schedule that we play,” he said. “If we are going into the division (games) with a good record it keeps the team morale up and keeps them focused and motivated.”

Franklin County’s tough early schedule will provide them plenty of chances to improve before they start division play, O’Quinn said.

“We try to get the kids battle tested,” he said.

Franklin County will follow this week’s game with three consecutive home games, and O’Quinn said it would be nice to bring a perfect record back home with the Bulldogs.

“It would definitely be a great win for the team, especially coming home when we have three games in a row and starting off 3-0 and playing two quality 4A teams,” he said.

Franklin County and Tylertown will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. Friday.