Vidalia — So far the 2011 Vidalia football season has consisted of long stretches of inconsistency sprinkled with glimmers of promise, and last week’s 43-7 loss to Ferriday was no different.

The Vikings took the ball 51 yards on 13 plays in their opening drive against Ferriday to take a 7-0 lead but were unable to sustain that success offensively, and the defense was unable to slow the Ferriday offense.

“Inexperience causes us to falter a lot,” head coach Gary Parnham said. “Last week on the first drive we were doing everything right. Then on defense we had three opportunities to stop them on third down, and we didn’t make the play. It’s been little things like that.”

Parnham said the little things are the focus of this week’s preparation for Bolton High School.

“We basically have to get better at doing what we can do,” he said. “We are a young team, and we will stick to the basics and try to learn to play football.”

Parnham said Bolton is a team that likes to throw the football, and that will be a new test for his defense that has faced running teams in the first three weeks.

“They are mainly a spread team, and they are going to throw,” he said. “We have to challenge our defensive backs this week.”

Parnham said Bolton is also impressive physically.

“Bolton is big as a house,” he said. “They are huge.”

Vidalia will also hit the road for the first time this week after playing three home games to start the season, and Parnham said getting away from home could be a benefit.

“At times it could be a good thing to get off and get on the road,” he said.

Parnham said the key to his team having success Friday will hinge on his defense’s ability to stop the pass.

“We have to get pressure on the quarterback and make him make bad throws,” he said. “The defensive backs have to carry out their assignments as far as covering the wide receivers and sticking on them, so the defensive line and linebackers can get pressure.”

Parnham said a win this week would be huge for his team, especially with District 3A-3 games starting Oct. 7.

“Any win would be big for us right now,” he said. “We need to get it together before we start district for sure. Getting a couple of wins and going into district on a high note would be great.”

Vidalia (0-3) and Bolton (0-3) will kickoff at 7 p.m. Friday in Alexandria, La.

Block at Rayville

The turnover bug bit Block High School football team’s offense bad two weeks ago in its 22-16 loss to Ferriday. The Bears turned the ball over nine times in the loss.

But Block recovered last week to beat Jena 21-6 and only turned the ball over once. Head coach Benny Vault Jr. said keeping the giveaways down will continue to be important for Block this week when the travel to play Rayville.

“The keys to the game are always holding on to the ball and not turning it over, and getting our offense together to play ball control to keep it out of their hands.”

Vault said Rayville uses a spread offense, and Hornets’ quarterback Deleyoung Miller is a weapon.

“Looking at film, they are big, and they are fast,” Vault said. “They have a lot of talent. We have to focus on (Miller). He looks like he runs about a 4.4/40, and he likes to run, but he can throw that thing about 60 yards. We will have to contain the quarterback and work on pass coverage.”

Vault said Rayville runs a similar offense as Ferriday, but they Hornets are bigger than the Trojans.

Vault said Friday’s game against Rayville, a 3A team, will be another difficult, non-district game for the Bears.

“I put the pre-district schedule together to be competitive and also (gain) power points in Louisiana. We want to play up and play big and earn power points, so it works out if you can win and stay healthy.”

Vault said winning games against higher-level opponents will help build the Block program.

“My big thing here at Block is I want to establish us as a top football program in central Louisiana,” he said. “If we can beat a couple of these big schools we can get our kids the recognition they need and get the program recognition. It’s a big step in helping get the program where it needs to be.”

Block (2-1) and Rayville (1-2) will kick off at 7 p.m. Friday in Rayville, La.