VIDALIA — Hosting Jena High School for homecoming will be a “giant” task for the Vidalia Vikings.

Jena enters the matchup undefeated at 5-0, fresh off a 21-0 shutout of Winnfield and Vidalia head coach Jeff Hancock said the Giants have the pieces to have a special season.

“They are good,” Hancock said. “They are a pretty senior heavy team and this is the year they have been working towards.”

Hancock said all-around, Jena is one of the most sound teams he has seen.

“They have a defensive end that is good, and should be getting recruited, and then offensively they are good with what they do,” Hancock said. “They don’t do a ton of different things. They are just going to line up and run what they run.”

But the Vikings aren’t going to let Jena just roll through and spoil homecoming.

Despite taking a 70-20 thumping last week against Avoyelles, Hancock said his team has had a quick turnaround.

“These kids are resilient,” he said. “A lot of times more resilient than people of my age. We’ve had a good week of practice and we had the best practice (Wednesday) in quite some time. Our big thing is to teach the kids, football is like life, bad things happen, and how you respond has a direct effect on the future. We don’t have time to dwell and mope. Jena is showing up here Friday ready or not.”

Hancock also said another challenge his team will have to tackle is homecoming, one of the most hectic times of the year.

“I’m still figuring out how high school homecoming stuff works and never really realized what a distraction it could be,” Hancock said. “We are going to do like we did last year. With a half day on Friday, we are going to go to Cathedral and do a walk-through over there to get away from all the craziness and stuff, and then come back for our usual pregame routine and business.”

Although Hancock usually isn’t one to read too much into wins, he said he realizes a win this week could have a big impact on the season.

“We would be 2-1 in the district and there would be only one undefeated team in Marksville,” Hancock said. “A win this week means we are still in the thick of things for district.”

Vidalia and Jena are slated for a 7 p.m. kickoff.