FERRIDAY — Ferriday head coach Chad Harkins said he’s hoping his team is peaking at the right time.

After edging out Peabody High School 37-35 last week, the Trojans (2-3) will travel to Mangham High School Friday for their first district game of the year. Harkins said he believes his team is finally starting to jell.

“I was hoping we could go ahead and start on fire with this new job, but that didn’t happen,” Harkins said.

“I had to adjust and the players had to adjust. It was just new things for everyone, but I think all the new is over now and we’re really starting to believe in each other.”

And Harkins said he always prefers his team fire on all cylinders later in the year than starting off strong and running out of steam.

“We try to get better every week, so hopefully when we get to these key games we can be as good as we can,” he said.

“We took some lumps, but I definitely think we’re getting better every week. I hope we continue getting better so we can make a good showing in district and hopefully a good showing in the playoffs.”

Harkins said Mangham (4-1) would feature a good running game that his defense would have to slow down.

“They’ve been picked to finish second in our district, so it’s going to be a big challenge for us,” Harkins said.

“Their running back, Shaquille Ausberry has some good wheels, and their quarterback (Seth Parker) is a good one that can run. It’s tough to find a back as good as the one we faced last week against Peabody High School (in Jalen Richard), but Ausberry is a good player too.”

Mangham’s defense is nothing to scoff at either, Harkins said.

“They’ve been holding folks down to about 18 points per game, which is the lowest in our district,” Harkins said.

Even though many coaches refer to the district schedule as the “second season” in high school football, Harkins said he’s not telling his players that non-district games aren’t important.

“You definitely want to start out right, but most of the time when you say the non-district games don’t matter, it’s because you haven’t had a good beginning of the year,” Harkins said.

“Every game is important, especially when you’re dealing with the power point system. There’s always emphasis put on district games, but I guess when you’re 5-0 it’s just he middle of the season.”

With that said, Harkins said there’s definitely an opportunity for the Trojans to put all their early-season losses behind them.

“We did start off slow, but if we can pick it up and continue on from Friday, I think we can erase all of that from everyone’s memory,” he said.

Kickoff at Mangham is at 7 p.m. Friday.