NATCHEZ — Many people might have been surprised at the closeness of the game between MHSAA Class 6A participant Natchez and LHSAA Class 2A school Ferriday.

But Natchez coach Lance Reed wasn’t one of those people who was taken aback at the final score of 12-6.

“I wasn’t surprised because we knew Ferriday has a very talented team,” Reed said. “We expected it to be a tough game.”

Reed said while he was happy to get the win, he was disappointed in the team’s execution in some facets of the game, especially in the red zone.

“We were in the red zone (inside Ferriday’s 20-yard line) a couple of times and didn’t get any points,” Reed said. “We have to improve our red zone offense.”

Another thing Reed wants to improve as the Bulldogs get into the meat of their schedule is their special teams.

Natchez failed to convert both of its extra points in its win over Ferriday, and is just 5-for-17 on extra point attempts this season.

“Our kicking game has got to step it up,” Reed said. “We’ve been working on it ever since we’ve started (practice). It seems to improve in practice, but it hasn’t shown up in the game. Hopefully the improvement we see in practice will show up Friday night.”

While Reed was happy to escape with a win over Ferriday, Trojans coach Freddie Harrison was also happy with the way his team competed for four quarters with the much larger school.

“(The loss) wasn’t for a lack of effort,” Harrison said. “The guys played their hearts out. My hat is off to them.”

The only thing Harrison would have liked to seen improvement on is his team’s conditioning.

“We got worn down in the second half,” Harrison said. “We need to be better conditioned next week.”

Harrison said he does expect playing Natchez close to have a positive effect on the rest of the season.

“Playing a team like that right out of the gate lets you know what you have to do to be successful,” Harrison said. “You get battle tested your first time out. These guys understand you have to play four quarters to be successful, not just two or three. I told them that if you play hard for four quarters, you shouldn’t be disappointed in whatever happens.”

Another coach that is pleased after Friday’s game is Franklin County coach Trent Hammond.

Hammond’s Bulldogs got their first win of the season with a 35-14 victory over McComb.

The win broke a two-game losing streak to open the season.

“You always want to get a win,” Hammond said. “1-2 is a whole lot better than 0-3.”

Hammond said the team had a great week of practice and transferred it over to the game.

“The guys played extremely hard and executed better on offense and defense,” Hammond said. “We ran the offense like it was supposed to be run. They had a great week of practice and took it into the game.”

Public school league games this week are Ferriday at Block, Vidalia at Ouachita Christian, Warren Central at Natchez High, Crystal Springs at Jefferson County, Cathedral at Enterprise, South Pike at Franklin County and Prentiss at Wilkinson County.