NATCHEZ — The No. 1 team in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class A has not reached its goal yet.

Trinity Episcopal Day School (8-0, 4-0) head coach Josh Loy said his team is where he wants it to be at this point, but they have their eyes set on decorating the school gymnasium with a state title banner this year.

The Saints are preparing for their final game of the regular season against Tallulah Academy, and Loy said a win at Tallulah would make them district champions for the first time since 2010.

“We’ve accomplished what we needed to in the first part of the season,” Loy said. “It’s a long race, and we’re toward the last leg of it.

“We wanted to hang a banner in the gym, so we set out to win district and be a No. 1 seed in the playoffs.”

Though Loy said he doesn’t want to look past Tallulah, a win against the Trojans will set the groundwork for their playoff path.

“We’ll hopefully have home field advantage throughout the playoffs,” he said.

Loy said despite Tallulah being 1-7, they are facing a team that will feature several seniors playing their last game, and that will make them a tough opponent.

“They’re probably not going to the playoffs, so it’ll be their seniors fighting for their last four quarters,” Loy said. “We expect them to play hard because those seniors on that team will not just walk in and let us run away with it.”

But Trinity is also loaded with seniors, and Loy said he has been able to count on them all season and will be looking for them to lead the way Friday night.

“We’ve got a senior-laden team, so we knew we were going to count heavily on them,” he said. “They answered the bell and took on the challenge.”

The Saints’ defensive, Loy said, has made significant improvements since the beginning of the season. They’ve had four shutouts this year, and with Loy being a former defensive coordinator, he said he is pleased with the strides the defense has made and the impact it’s had in each game.

“We feed off of them,” Loy said. “They get turnovers, they get three-and-outs and they give our offense a lot more opportunities. And when the playmakers we have on offense, the more opportunities we have, the more explosive we can be.”

Trinity will play for the district title in Tallulah at 7 p.m. Friday.