WOODVILLE — A bye week was supposed to be the perfect time for Wilkinson County High School to fine-tune some things, but Tropical Storm Isaac had other plans.

Power outages and having players living in rural areas made it tough for the Wildcats to host practice last week, head coach Kenneth Brown said. Wilkinson County only got one practice in Aug. 27, and Brown said conditioning has suffered as a result.

“We ended up having the whole week off, which concerns me,” Brown said. “When you have a whole week off, you lose a lot of your conditioning, and kids will come back and not be in the best of shape.”

Now, the Wildcats (2-0) turn their attention to South Pike High School from Magnolia, which they will host at 7:30 tonight.

Brown said South Pike runs a variation of the spread offense, and they try to run the ball more than they pass. Since many high school teams are using the spread to some degree, Brown said their familiarity in defending it could be an advantage.

“Hopefully you can get a break here and there and have a few better athletes at certain positions,” Brown said.

Jefferson County

Thanks to Isaac, Jefferson County High School was also only able to practice Aug. 27 before its game Saturday against Port Gibson High School.

Despite a 28-12 loss, the Tigers (1-2) almost mounted a comeback, and head coach James Herrington said he was pleased with his team in that regard.

“Even though we only practiced one day that week, we seemed to be getting stronger late in the fourth quarter,” Herrington said.

Now the Tigers are back to their normal practice routine and ready to travel to East Marion High School in Columbia.

“The will definitely be very big up front on both sides of the ball,” Herrington said. “They have some 300-pound linemen mixed in with 270- to 280-pound linemen sprinkled in.”

Herrington also said East Marion is well-coached, and they have quite a few athletes.

“We expect it to be really close,” Herrington said. “With a few plays here and there, we could easily be 3-0. We just have to play for four quarters and protect the football.”

Kickoff at East Marion is at 7:30 p.m.