JONESVILLE — Donaldsonville High School is a mouthful to say, and they look to be a handful for Block High School to deal with.

When the Tigers and Bears face off Friday night in Jonesville, about the only thing that will be missing are lions. Bears head coach Benny Vault Jr. said Donaldsonville will look to be pass-heavy, while Block will try to keep the ball on the ground.

“I think they have the No. 5 quarterback in the state, and they have a couple of good receivers,” Vault said.

“They throw the ball all over the field. They’ll be throwing it, and we’ll be running it.”

The main objective of the Bears’ defense will be finding a way to affect the Tigers’ quarterback and not allow him to be comfortable in the pocket.

“Basically, we’ll try to switch coverages and give them different looks,” Vault said. “We’ll try to apply pressure up the middle or on the outside and keep him off rhythm.

“We don’t want to let him get into a comfort zone and have time to throw. If we can (put pressure on him), I feel confident in our pass defense.”

But the best defense for the Bears might be a good offense that stays on the field for long periods of time.

“When you’re playing against the bigger schools, with the offensive power they have, keeping them off the field is a big part of the game plan,” Vault said.

“Part of our defense is to keep the offense on the field and keep the ball out of their hands. If we can hold onto the football and not make those silly mistakes we’ve made in the past, we should fare well.”

Kickoff at Block as at 7 Friday night.

Vidalia High School

VIDALIA — There isn’t anything that the Vidalia High School football team doesn’t need to work on, according to head coach Gary Parnham Jr.

“We’re working on everything,” Parnham said.

After an 0-3 start to the season, Parnham said his team is going to have to grow up quickly if the Vikings plan to be competitive from here on out.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who are playing their first year of football,” Parnham said. “That’s not to make excuses, but people need to realize it’s a slow, steady process. It’s not something that’s going to be done overnight.”

With such a young team, Parnham said the basic fundamentals of the game are the most important things he and his coaches need to stress at this time.

“We’re going to work on the basics of football, (like) blocking and tackling,” Parnham said. “They’re getting better, but they have a long way to go. They were about as green as that grass to start off.”

Parnham also said this year’s schedule has done the Vikings no favors as they gear up for Baker, which is also looking to win its first game.

“We’ve played against decent competition,” Parnham said. “Bolton may have been 0-3 before last week’s game (against us), but they’ve played some pretty good teams.

“Baker is the same way. They’re 0-4, but they lost to teams like Wilkinson County, which beat Ferriday last week, so you can’t look at the records. They’ve played tough competition so far.”

The Vikings will be expecting Baker to showcase a Wing-T offense when Vidalia travels to Baker Friday, and Parnham said this season’s Baker team reminds him a lot of his own.

“They have some pretty good backs that run hard, and they’re a lot like we are, in that they have a lot of young, inexperienced players,” Parnham said.

“They look very similar to us in a lot of ways, except their overall size is probably bigger. We can’t let their backs get out in the open, or they’ll run all day (on us).”

Kickoff at Baker is at 7 p.m. Friday.