photo by Ben Hillyer

Block’s Paul Ramirez is brought down by Vidalia’s Joe Williams during the Bears 35-0 win over the Vikings Sept. 4. Vidalia will host Ferriday at 7 tonight.

Vidalia, Ferriday gear up for big match-up

Michael Kerekes

Published Friday, September 18, 2009

Vidalia — Ferriday High School got a big win last Friday against Block High School in its second game of the season.

The Trojans (1-1) defeated Block 20-6 last Friday to snag their first win.

Ferriday head coach Freddie Harrison said his team’s ability to make plays was the difference, but he’s not going to hang his hat on one game.

“A win is a win no matter who you play,” Harrison said. “Long story, it just came down to making plays (against Block). We made more plays than they did.”

The Trojans’ attention will now turn to a struggling Vidalia High School team, as the two are set to square off at 7 p.m. today at Vidalia’s Dee Faircloth Vikings Stadium.

Harrison said the seriousness of the rivalry between Ferriday and Vidalia means he won’t have to hound his players into focusing this week in practice.

“(The rivalry’s) like Ohio State and Michigan,” Harrison said. “You can throw the records out the window. We don’t have to motivate the kids this week in practice. You can’t ask for a bigger rivalry.”

One focal point in Ferriday’s practices this week will be finishing drives, Harrison said.

“Out of 12 trips to the red zone, we’ve only scored four times,” Harrison said. “That’s 33 percent, and it’s not good enough.

“We’re mainly working on the mental aspect of finishing. I think we lose a little focus when we get down to the red zone. We have to make sure the kids understand you have to finish, whether its blocks, plays or drives.”

Despite an 0-2 start for Vidalia, Harrison knows the Vikings are not a team to be taken lightly.

“I’d expect nothing less than for them to come out and play for four quarters,” Harrison said. “Coach (Dee) Faircloth will always have a rabbit to pull out of his hat and will have his kids ready to play.”

In this case, however, the rabbit out of the hat might simply be the ability to coach the game.

Faircloth is questionable tonight after battling an illness the entire week.

Vidalia assistant coach Gary Parnham Jr. said the coaching staff would all have to step up in the event that Faircloth won’t be able to coach the game.

“Come Monday morning, you find out he’s missing Monday and Tuesday, and it gets you concerned,” Parnham said.

“On Wednesday, you find out he may miss Friday, and that puts you in a little bit of a bind. The coaches are well trained, however. We’ve all either played for or coached with (Faircloth) for a long time.”

Parnham said the biggest key to Friday’s game will be his players’ ability to unite, something the Vidalia staff has been concerned about for weeks.

“This is a hard team to read,” Parnham said. “They have the talent, but we don’t know if they’ve come together as a unit. Until they do, things will keep staying the way they are.”

As for Ferriday, Parnham said his team has a big challenge ahead of them tonight.

“They’re a tough team,” Parnham said. “They have plenty of team speed and will try to knock us out of the ball game quickly. They were right there against Natchez, and dominated a very good Block team.”