WOODVILLE — After last week’s 43-6 loss to South Pike, Wilkinson County football coach Kenneth Brown said its time for the Wildcats to simplify their preparation for this week’s game.

“We’re basically going back to the basic things that we seem to be having trouble with, like line blocking technique and execution, and backs running in the right holes and knowing when to cut,” Brown said. “We’re trying to teach some things.”

This week the Wildcats will play host to Baker High School from Baker, La., and Brown said he expects his players to display more toughness this week.

“The guys have to be mentally tough as well as physically tough and we’ve been lacking that on both ends,” he said.

Brown said preparing for Baker’s offensive scheme will be similar to last week, because Baker and South Pike run similar offenses.

“They run basically the same offense as South Pike, but basically they use a single wing instead of a double wing,” he said. “With the Single-Wing we pretty much have a better feel where things are going with them.”

Wilkinson County needs a win to get to 2-2 on the season, and Brown said Friday’s game is huge for his team.

“It will be very important,” he said. “It will even up our season for one, and it’s always good for the school and the community if you can come out with a win. It also lifts up the morale of the team. We need a win and need one bad right now.”

Friday’s game will be the Wildcats’ fourth of five non-district games to start the season, and Brown said these games are very important to prepare them for 3A Region 7 play.

“It’s going to prepare us pretty good,” he said. “We played some pretty good teams.”

Wilkinson County and Baker will kick off at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Franklin County

MEADVILLE — The Franklin County football team led Clarksdale 20-14 heading into the fourth quarter last week, but the Bulldogs allowed two touchdowns in the final quarter to fall 28-20.

“We just didn’t finish the game,” head coach Rickey O’Quinn said. “We led the whole game up until the fourth quarter, and they had two big plays that changed the momentum of the game.”

O’Quinn said those big plays came in the passing game, and he has worked with his secondary this week on correcting those issues.

“This week in practice we’ve focused in on our coverage guys getting better,” he said.

The Bulldogs (2-2) play host to Amite County this week, as they look to get back over .500.

“(Friday) is going to be big,” O’Quinn said. “We don’t want to lose three in a row. We started the season off with two wins and then had two losses. It’s been up and down, and we want to try to stay up.”

O’Quinn said offensively his team has focused on having success early in each series when they have the ball.

“Mainly we’re putting emphasis on winning first and second down on offense, and putting ourselves in better third down situations,” he said. “It’s easier to call plays when you get four or five yards on first down, and with two downs to get four yards makes it easy.”

O’Quinn said he knows Amite County will be a tough opponent this week, and his team will have to focus on execution.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Jefferson County

FAYETTE — After a 35-6 loss to East Marion last Friday, Jefferson County is now 1-3 to start the season.

“We just tell them to keep fighting,” Tigers head coach James Herrington said.

“Football is just like life: Every week is not going to be your week. In life, you’ll have rough spans. But you don’t give up on life, and it’s the same in football. You can’t give up on the game.”

Herrington also pointed out that the teams Jefferson County has lost to — Natchez High, Port Gibson and East Marion — are all very good teams.

“We’ve played some very formidable opponents,” Herrington said. “The four teams we’ve played have, I think, a combined record of 22-1. The only loss is the one Trinity (Episcopal) had against us (to open the season).”

The schedule gets no easier for Jefferson County this week, as the Tigers will travel to South Delta.

“They’re 4-0, and they seem to be a pretty physical team,” Herrington said. “They’re run-heavy, and they haven’t allowed many points.”

Kickoff at South Delta is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday.