FERRIDAY — After dropping a heartbreaking 16-12 decision to district foe Tallulah last Friday, the Huntington Hounds must regroup this week as non-district opponent Riverdale comes a calling.

Huntington coach Chad Harkins said he hopes his team can regroup after losing such an important district game last week.

“You always worry about (a letdown) and this is no different,” Harkins said. “We’re definitely worried about having the district game loss and not being ready to play this week. But maybe they’ll be alright.”

Huntington had several chances to win last week, but made too many mistakes, including a clipping penalty that wiped out a long touchdown which would have given the Hounds an 18-16 lead midway through the fourth quarter.

Harkins said the team has spent much of the week working on correcting those mistakes.

“We’re working on fundamental stuff,” Harkins said. “Trying to cut back on the mental mistakes we’ve made and come together as a team more.”

Riverdale comes into the game with a high-powered offense, one that put up 74 points in a game against Union Christian Academy earlier this season.

“They are a wide-open offense and like to throw the ball 30 times per game,” Harkins said of the Rebels. “We’re going to definitely have to put pressure on their quarterback, and make him hurry his throws. That’s going to be our challenge this week. Try to keep pressure on the quarterback and maintain coverage in the secondary.”

And passing the ball also needs to be a big part of Huntington’s offense, Harkins said.

“We just didn’t throw the ball very well last week like we did the first couple of weeks,” Harkins said. “We’ve got to do a better job with that if we’re going to run it. Our linemen aren’t huge, so if we’re going to run, we’ve got to be able to pass it a little bit. We can’t just line up and run the old stuff like we’re used to, three yards and a cloud of dust.”

While this game is a non-district contest, Harkins said it is still important for Huntington to come out of it with a win, even if it’s just to help heal the wound from last Friday’s loss.

“It would be nice to come back and win, and get that bad taste out of our mouths,” Harkins said. “But we’ve got a lot of work to do if we’re going to do that.”