Ferriday — The Trojans of Ferriday High School are still “chopping at the tree” as head coach Cleothis Cummings said.

With a 2-6 record, Cummings said they still have a chance to make the playoffs, and their last two games of the season could be a tremendous confidence booster before playoff time.

This week’s practice has been about still focusing on their goal of a deep playoff run despite their recent troubles.

“We have to continue to chop at the tree,” he said. “That’s the little saying we’ve been going by. Right now, they’re sill chopping. We can still make the playoffs, but we definitely want to get these two wins.”

The Trojans were short handed in last week’s game against Winnfield High School, and Cummings said he feels confident that they’ll be a better match up against Jonesboro High School.

“We lost about six players, but we expect to get them back this week,” he said. “(Jonesboro) is a talented team, but I think we do have a lot of personnel changes that will put us in a good position to be successful.”

Cummings said their biggest opponent would be their focus when they hit the field Friday, but their upbeat tempo in practice lately has shown positivity.

“We’re going to have to be more mentally prepared than anything,” Cumming said. “The kids have been operating like they’re supposed to in practice, and (Monday) was a good sign that they still believe. We’re just going to continue to build off of that now that we’re all on the same page.”

There were a lot of positives in the Winnfield game, Cumming said, and that in itself proved to be an improvement for the Trojans in week 10.

“Last week they still came out and played hard with some players injured,” he said. “Having those extra guys probably would’ve made a difference in the game

Ferriday heads to Jonesboro at 7 p.m. Friday.