NATCHEZ — The Natchez High School football team showed its offensive potential in its 33-6 win over Ferriday High School Saturday night.

This week the Bulldogs and head coach Lance Reed hope the team can continue to improve in preparation for their first MHSAA-6A game of the season Friday.

“Scoring 33 points is always good, and we’d definitely like to keep building on that,” Reed said. “We definitely want to keep creating opportunities for guys to make plays.”

Reed said he made sure that his team knows it faces a new challenge this week when it travels to play Warren Central High School.

“We always want them to have awareness of stepping into 6A competition,” Reed said. “We always have something to prove getting into that arena, and we want everyone to recognize we are a formidable opponent and represent our school as a 6A quality team.”

Reed said Warren Central provides a challenge for the Bulldogs’ defense.

“They are a well-balanced team,” he said. “They run the ball, and that’s really a mainstay, but they are capable of passing. They are really scrappy on defense, and they’ve already played some very close games.”

Friday will also mark the first time Natchez will leave the Miss-Lou to play a game. The Bulldogs have hosted Wilkinson County and Ferriday, and traveled to face Jefferson County.

“It’s our first opportunity to go off on the road and get in that routine,” Reed said.

Reed said his team would have to be focused to come home from Vicksburg with a win Friday night.

“We definitely have to reduce our penalties,” he said. “We have to play physical, solid football and focus on tackling and blocking. If we are doing the things necessary to be a physical team, then we will be successful.”

Natchez will face Warren Central at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Franklin County at Clarksdale

MEADVILLE — The Franklin County High School football team stepped up in classification last week when it fell to Tylertown (MHSAA-4A) 47-7.

This week the Bulldogs will go out of MHSAA-3A again to face Clarksdale High School (5A).

Franklin County head coach Rickey O’Quinn said the big loss to Tylertown was tough, but his players are working hard to move past that loss.

“We are trying to stay positive,” he said. “We know we have to try to take it one game at a time, and if we do that, it means that game is behind us.”

Despite moving on from the loss, O’Quinn said he hopes his team will take some things away from how they lost last week.

“We have to focus on the things we did to put ourselves in that situation,” he said. “We have to focus on getting better at those things and eliminating those things.”

The Bulldogs struggled at the start of the Tylertown game last week, and O’Quinn said the team has come out stronger this week, but if it doesn’t they have to show more fight in playing from behind.

“We had a bad start to that game, and it kind of snowballed after that,” he said. “We fell down 21-7 and thought it was over. I didn’t think we fought to try to get back into the game.”

Franklin County will hit the road for the first time this season after beginning the year with three home games. O’Quinn said playing on the road is something the team is preparing for this week.

“We have a tough opponent, and we have to rise to the challenge,” he said. “We have to drive four-and-a-half hours to play a 5A team.”

O’Quinn said the Bulldogs have to improve their discipline. He said the team has committed 32 penalties in the last two games.

“That’s uncharacteristic and not the way we want to play.”

Franklin County and Clarksdale will kick off at 7:30 p.m. Friday.