NATCHEZ — Well, it wasn’t a fluke, but Trinity Academy’s 42-14 win over Prairie View on Friday is not how coach David King expects his team to play.

The Saints were only up seven points in the third quarter before finally blasting the Spartans, but King does not blame the players.

“My honest opinion is we were just poorly prepared for that ballgame. That is all on my shoulders,” he said. “Honestly, we just had a little bit more skill in the end. Our defense played well throughout the game, but we just had entirely too many miscues. That is all due to the man up top, and that’s me.”

King, who has said multiple times this season that he expects his team to be fully developed by week five or six, said he may have just overwhelmed the young players with too much information.

King plays four seniors regularly, adding four juniors and three sophomores to the usual lineup.

“We may be doing too much offensively for this team to grasp, as young as we are,” he said. “I might have to scale back a little bit. And that’s OK, that’s part of making adjustments.

“That’s what you do when you watch film and see the mistakes you made,” he added. “It may be that I threw to many things out there for them to grasp early on. But the mistakes have got to be cut down.”

King said even some of the juniors did not have much game experience coming into the season.

“But that’s no excuse five weeks into the season,” he said. “Inexperience is an excuse. We were just ill-prepared to do all the stuff they’ve been learning.”

The Saints (6-0) will head to Briarfield Academy in Lake Providence, La., on Friday to take on the Rebels, a team they’ve faced the past two seasons.

Two years ago the teams met in the MPSA A State Championship, where Trinity took a one-point victory.

Last year’s game was a bit more convincing, a 58-7 win for the Saints.

But King insists this game will be tough, especially since Briarfield has a new coach in Ben Durham.

“Their kids are tough and gritty and used to winning,” King said. “And they’re at home, so that’s always a concern. I look for it to be a really good battle. They won’t back down.”

King said he has scaled back the offense to the basic plays and formations the team is used to running.

He said he knows they are capable of grasping more difficult plays but wants to make sure they are not overwhelmed.

“Briarfield is a very good football team, but honestly, we are more concerned with us right now,” he said. “My job is to get this bunch ready to play the game this week, because I didn’t do that last week.”