NATCHEZ — Wingfield might be winless on the season, and the Falcons might have been outscored 141-0 in their last three games, but don’t expect Natchez High to overlook them Friday night.

“No way,” Natchez coach Lance Reed said. “We have no room to look past anyone.”

As tempting as it might be, the Bulldogs can’t afford to look past the 0-9 Falcons, because their playoff hopes depend on winning Friday’s game.

Natchez (5-3, 3-2 Region 3-5A) will clinch their first playoff spot since 1997 with a victory over Wingfield (0-9, 0-5).

Even with a loss, Natchez can still make the playoffs if Brandon loses to Oak Grove and Jim Hill loses to Meridian, but Reed wants his team to take care of business themselves.

“We don’t want to back into the playoffs,” Reed said. “We want to go in with a win.”

If Natchez needed any extra motivation to beat Wingfield, all they need to do is look at the previous two seasons.

Two years ago, a 14-13 loss to Wingfield eliminated the Bulldogs from playoff contention and the same thing happened last year, when the Falcons came to Natchez and left with a 41-34 victory.

Those two losses left a bitter taste in Reed’s mouth, and he wants to make sure that scenario doesn’t play out for a third consecutive year.

“We have something in store for them,” Reed said. “We owe them for the past two seasons.”

Should Natchez win Friday night, it would be their fourth consecutive region victory after starting the region portion of their schedule off with losses to Meridian and Oak Grove — two of the top five ranked teams in the state.

“In hindsight, starting with Meridian and Oak Grove really helped make us better in the long run,” Reed said. “You’re competing against two of the best teams in Mississippi. It really helped us improve as a team.”

Another thing it did was teach the Bulldogs to deal with pressure.

Any one loss in their next four region games would knock Natchez out of playoff contention. But the Bulldogs came back and, so far, have cleared every hurdle in their march to the postseason.

“Every game the past four weeks has been important for us,” Reed said. “If pressure was the case, it’s been on the past few weeks and we’ve responded well.”