VIDALIA — After escaping with a 28-20 second-round win at Independence High School on Friday night, the competition will be much tougher for No. 8 seed Vidalia High School this week in the quarterfinals of the LHSAA Class 2A State Playoffs.

The 9-3 Vikings will welcome the 11-1 and No. 1 seed Many High School Tigers to Dee Faircloth Viking Stadium with kickoff set for 7 p.m. Friday.

Many did get a good test from No. 16 seed Rayville High School before taking a 53-32 win last Friday night.

“Ought to be a full house Friday,” Vidalia head coach Dee Faircloth said. Last Saturday afternoon, he said the entire town of Many will be at the game. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen.

The Tigers’ only loss of the season to date came back on Sept. 14, a 20-7 home setback to Class 4A North DeSoto High School. Before last week, they only other time they were really tested was on Sept. 21, a 33-14 win over Class 3A Union Parish High School. They went undefeated in the combined-for-football only Districts 3 and 4.

For Vidalia, senior quarterback Tristan Weatherly cannot afford another two-interception game. He threw that many picks in the second quarter alone, which led to Independence scoring 14 points and a tie ball game at the half.

Even though the District 2-2A runner-up Vikings were penalized just five times for 20 yards, those penalties brought back some big plays.

“We’re going to have to eliminate all the silly mistakes that we made. They’ve got a great team. They’ve got 91 kids on their roster. We can’t make any silly mistakes. They’ll sure take advantage of it,” Faircloth said. “They got to the quarterfinals before losing to the state champions.”

Weatherly bounced back with two touchdown passes in the third quarter, including the game-winning 39-yard strike to Zach Smith that was followed by them connection on a two-point conversion pass with less than a minute remaining in the quarter. Weatherly threw for 238 yards and four TD passes, three of them to Jared Simpson.

The Vikings’ running game provided a spark as both Devin Green and Cam’ron Randall had 100-plus yard performances. Defensively, sophomore defensive end Blake LaPrairie had a huge game with five sacks.

And they’ll need those kinds of performances if they are to have any chance of pulling off an upset of the Tigers.

“It’s going to take one of our best games ever to beat them. They’ve got some good running backs. We can’t drop balls. We can’t throw interceptions. We can’t fumble the ball,” Faircloth said. “Their offensive line, they do a heck of a job. We’ve got our work cut out on offense. They’re going to be blitzing every down. They’re going to bring the house.”

One thing that will not change for the Vikings is their practice schedule — not even with Thursday being the Thanksgiving holiday.

“We practice at 10 a.m. every morning,” Faircloth said.

Faircloth said his team will have to play mistake-free football for the Vikings to defeat the Tigers.

“They can be beat. They have been beaten. We just got to believe that we can do it,” Faircloth said. “Last year, we pulled off the biggest upset in the state when we beat Ferriday. If we beat Many, that would be the second biggest upset in the state. They’re a well-coached ball club.”