WOODVILLE — La’Darian Peterson may not be the most recognizable name on Wilkinson County High School’s roster, but opposing teams are no doubt paying attention to him now.

While Natchez High School keyed in on standouts Wildcat athletes Devin Voorhies and Allenzae Staggers during their game at Wilkinson County last Friday, Peterson stepped up in a big way for the Wildcats. He ran for 162 yards and a touchdown in Wilkinson County’s 34-32 win against NHS.

Wildcats head coach Kenneth Brown said while Peterson may not be as well-known as Voorhies and Staggers, it was no surprise to him that Peterson had a big game when the other two were kept in check.

“It’s not like we didn’t know about him, it was just a matter of getting him the opportunity to hand him the ball some,” Brown said. “He showed us in our jamboree game that he was capable of breaking long runs.

“He had a good night (against the Bulldogs). We weren’t caught totally off guard. It’s a plus to have that other factor on offense.”

Peterson and the rest of the Wildcats will now turn their attention to Louisville High School, where Wilkinson County will play Friday night.

“They’re very big and very athletic,” Brown said. “Their offensive line is pretty big. Their quarterback is going to throw, and they have good, tall receivers. They like to line it up in the spread for the most part and throw it. They’ll run if they have to, but they’re going to throw it most of the time.”

The keys to the game for Wilkinson County will be limiting turnovers and hopefully not punting much, Brown said.

“They’ll come after it — they blocked several punts against the team they played the other night that put them in good field position,” Brown said.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday.

Franklin County High School

MEADVILLE — Franklin County was on the wrong side of a 41-13 loss to Class 5A Brookhaven High School Friday night, and head coach Chris Calcote said Brookhaven was simply a better team.

“I thought we played hard for the first half, then some way through the mid-third quarter we didn’t have that intensity,” Calcote said.

“We have to play hard every time the ball’s snapped, but overall I was pleased. We didn’t want to get beat, but we cleared up a lot of problems we had the week before against Lawrence County (in the jamboree). We weren’t quite good enough to beat Brookhaven, but we made improvements.”

One of those improvements was cutting down on penalties, Calcote said.

“We only had four penalties, and one of those was where we lined up offsides,” he said.

The Bulldogs will hit the road this week to face North Pike High School in Summit, and Calcote said the Class 4A the Jaguars should be much-improved from last season, when Franklin County beat them 40-0.

“They’re a lot better offensively than last year,” Calcote said. “They throw the ball well and put 35 points on the board last week. They have a big offensive tackle (Ethan Frith) committed to Florida State, and they have a lot of confidence on that side of the ball.”

Calcote said his team would have to continue eliminating mistakes and be able to control the ball on offense.

“Our main thing is keeping the ball and not giving them a short field or cheap touchdown,” Calcote said. “Our punting game was not consistent last week — there were too many short fields.”

Kickoff is at 7 Friday night.