NATCHEZ — Friday night is a must win game for the Natchez High Bulldogs as they host the South Jones High Braves on Senior night.

For the Bulldogs to earn the fourth seed in the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A playoffs, Brookhaven High needs to defeat Forest Hill High and the Bulldogs need to defeat the Braves.

In the Region 3-5A standings, Natchez is tied with South Jones at 2-4 against other Region 3 opponents. Meanwhile, Brookhaven is third with a record of 4-2 and Forest Hill is in fourth with a record of 3-3.

Bulldogs Head Coach Roy Rigsby said this situation doesn’t create any pressure for the Bulldogs.

“We have been in the playoffs for the last two weeks, we have to win,” Rigsby said. “That’s something we have been in every game. We try to have a mindset of being a winning program. I don’t see the pressure.”

Eleven seniors out of the 50 Bulldogs on the roster will play in their last regular-season home game.

“It’s going to be my last time to shine on the home field,” said Andrew Brigance, one of the 11 seniors on the Bulldogs’ roster. “I’m going to make it the best game I have ever played.”

During the season, Brigance has 71 total tackles with 46 being solo tackles. He has sacked the opposing quarterback one time. Brigance has played in 14 games over his four-year career with the Bulldogs.

Another senior is James Singleton. This season, Singleton has passed for 820 yards with 44 completed passes. He has thrown seven touchdown passes and ran for six touchdowns.

“Singleton has been one of the dominant players on offense,” Rigsby said.

With only 11 seniors graduating, the 39 other Bulldogs are either freshmen, sophomores or juniors. Rigsby said the 15-17 positions on the team are filled by either freshmen or sophomores.

“We started a large majority of sophomores and freshmen on our team,” Rigsby said. “This is a very young team. They will have a far better record next year than this year, if this team stays together.”

To prepare for the Braves, Singleton has been working on his passes at practices. Singleton said he had thrown a lot of bad passes in the game against Brookhaven.

As a team at practices, Rigsby said the Bulldogs have worked on being more consistent and starting the game off fast.

“Lately, the last couple of games we have started slow and not finished any drives,” Rigsby said. “It has put us in bad situations and we’re trying to be consistent in everything that we do.”

The game starts at 7 p.m. Friday at Tom F. Williams Memorial Stadium at Natchez High.