FERRIDAY &8212; With playoff football here, the Ferriday Trojans (8-1, 3-0 in district play) no longer have any room for error, and that suits head coach James McFarland just fine.

Coming off last week&8217;s closer than expected 21-12 victory over Vidalia, McFarland felt a game like that was perfect for his team heading into the playoffs.

&8220;It was a good game,&8221; McFarland said. &8220;We kind of needed a game like that. None of the games in the playoffs are going to be easy. Nobody&8217;s going to give you anything.

&8220;With the system the last couple of years with the power points, they eliminate a lot of the bad teams right off the bat. Everybody&8217;s kind of on an even playing field.&8221;

In the first round of the LHSAA playoffs, McFarland and the 14th-rated Trojans will take on University Lab (6-4, 3-2 district), who tied for second in their district and are rated 19th in the power points in 2A.

University Lab, located on the campus of LSU in Baton Rouge, comes in with close losses to Dunham and Jackson, La., as well as blowout losses to Southern Lab and Clinton.

They defeated Vidalia 21-8 in the second week of the season at home.

McFarland said University would bring plenty of athletes with them to the Miss-Lou.

&8220;They&8217;ve got some athletes,&8221; he said. &8220;We&8217;re about equal in size, but I think we&8217;ve got a little more speed. They&8217;re a very balanced offensive team. They like to throw the ball and run the ball. They&8217;ve got a good quarterback, and they&8217;ve ran several backs. They all can carry the ball.&8221;

McFarland said he expects them to run straight at the Trojan defense.

&8220;They like to run straight at you,&8221; he said. &8220;We&8217;re going to have to bottle that up well, but we&8217;re also hoping to use our offense like a defense. We want to keep the ball like we have the last two or three weeks. If we can do that, we&8217;ll have a good chance.&8221;

Defensively, University likes to crowd the line of scrimmage, according to McFarland.

&8220;They like to put eight or nine men in the box,&8221; he said. &8220;It looks like they run a 4-4, but they&8217;ll put as many in there as they can.&8221;

With a team crowding the line, the typical response is to throw the ball, and McFarland said he is hoping quarterback Kendrick Harris can rise to that challenge.

&8220;It&8217;s going to depend some on the weather,&8221; he said. &8220;It&8217;s going to depend how (Harris) starts out. If he plays well to start with, we&8217;ll probably throw the ball more than we have the last few weeks. If he doesn&8217;t, we&8217;ll look at some other options.&8221;

Ultimately, McFarland felt the game would come down to turnovers.

&8220;We&8217;ve got to win the turnover battle,&8221; he said. &8220;We&8217;re going to have to control the ball and try to put them in some uncomfortable situations where they have to do some things they don&8217;t really want to do. Ultimately, we just need to win on turnovers. We need to protect the ball, and force a few from them.&8221;

Ferriday will host University Lab at 7 p.m. Friday.