ferriday — A new season awaits the Ferriday High School football team Friday, and head coach Cleothis Cummings said his players are ready for a new beginning.

The Trojans struggled to a 1-4 record through the first five games of the season, but all of those were games outside of LHSAA District 2-2A.

Friday’s road contest at Jonesboro-Hodge will give the Trojans a chance to start their district slate 1-0, and Cummings said the players understand the opportunity they have to improve.

“The first part of our schedule was pretty competitive,” Cummings said. “We played against some quality teams, and we took our lumps. Hopefully the kids will be pretty focused now that it’s a new season. They understand what’s going on and believe we can be district champs.”

To start district play off right, the Trojans will have to control the athletes that Jonesboro-Hodge will put on the field Friday, Cummings said.

“They are a spread team with real good athletes,” he said. “They have (college) caliber athletes, and we have to stop what they do well.”

Cummings said Jonesboro-Hodge will blitz the Trojans’ offense heavily, and the offensive line will have to step up and play well Friday.

“Everybody needs to step up in all phases of the game,” he said. “We just have to make sure everybody is doing their job on special teams, offense and defense.”

Cummings said he hopes the Ferriday offense — which is averaging 6.5 points a game in its four losses — can show some improvement as well.

“It would be good to get the offense clicking to help the defense out,” he said. “The defense has been doing a real good job.”

Cummings said that if the Trojans cut out mental mistakes and believe they can come out and win games, they will be able to compete for the district title.

“We know we are capable of winning games,” he said. “Winning and opening up district 1-0 is a great incentive for the players.”

Ferriday will travel to face Jonesboro-Hodge (1-5) at 7 p.m. Friday.

Block versus Bossier

JONESVILLE — The Block High School football team will complete its run through LHSAA Class 3A Friday when it faces Bossier High School.

The Bears — members of LHSAA Class 1A — will face their fifth 3A opponent of the season when they host Bossier High School.

“It helps us with power points,” Block head coach Benny Vault Jr. said. “One thing is the last two weeks, we have played down to the last buzzer, and that has taught our kids how to play and compete in games that go down to the wire.”

Vault said Bossier is an athletic team that features a more physical offense than the Bears have played in the past couple of weeks.

“They are a more run-oriented team as opposed to our past two (opponents),” he said. “This team packs it in and runs it. We have to play solid defense to be able to stop their running attack up the middle.”

Vault said the Bears would need to continue to improve on the offensive line if they hope to improve to 5-1 on the season.

A win Friday would be big for the Bears confidence heading into LHSAA District 4-1A play Oct. 12, Vault said.

“Last year we were 2-4 on this swing, and this year to be running at 5-1 would be great,” he said. “That would give us a lot of momentum.”

Block will host Bossier at 7 p.m. Friday.