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NATCHEZ — Coming off a hard-fought 26-20 come-from-behind win on the road over Hazlehurst High School, the Natchez High School Bulldogs look to build off that momentum when they host the North Pike High School Jaguars this Friday night.

Kickoff between North Pike (1-4, 0-0) and Natchez High (4-2, 0-0) at Tom F. Williams Memorial Stadium is scheduled for 7 p.m. Not only is this the MHSAA Region 3-5A opener for both teams, but it is also the Bulldogs’ homecoming game.

MHSAA Class 5A Natchez High ended a two-game losing streak last Friday night when it rallied from an early 14-0 deficit to the Class 3A Hazlehurst Indians. North Pike extended its losing streak to four in a row after a 20-3 loss at Columbia High School.

Last year when the two teams met at North Pike in Summit, Natchez High led the Jaguars 25-15 at halftime and then held on for a 39-35 victory. The Bulldogs are expected to have two key players in senior quarterback Kaden Walton and senior wide receiver Ken Chatman back after they both missed last week’s game.

Bulldogs head coach Steve Davis said he learned a lot about his team after being down double digits on the road to a good Hazlehurst team.

“I learned we have the potential to come back from double-digit deficits if we stay focused and stick with the game plan that’s in place. We were down some guys. For the other guys to come out after a sluggish first half and play the way they played in the second half is a testament to what we’ve been trying to build since I got here,” Davis said.

One thing that Davis said does need to be worked on in practice this week is the Bulldogs’ inability to finish drives with touchdowns after getting the opposing team’s red zone — something that almost hurt them last week.

“We have to fix it. Finishing drives is kay. They know what to expect. We know they’re going to go after us,” Davis said. “We tend to rush and that gets us out of rhythm. It throws us off or we get stupid penalties.”

Even against a team like North Pike that’s on a four-game losing streak and struggling to score points, Davis knows that the Bulldogs cannot for one second take the Jaguars lightly.

“Looking at the film, I told my coaches they have some pieces. They look like they can be a good football team. For some reason, they haven’t put it all together as of yet,” Davis said. “Things haven’t gelled yet for them. They lost some good players from last year’s team. But for me, they’re a very dangerous team.”

Which makes it all the more important for Natchez High’s players to stay focused on North Pike and not all the distractions that come along with homecoming week.

“I’ve been preaching that since last week. Yesterday (Sunday) during team meetings and film session, during workouts. We have to stay focused. Homecoming is not about us, it’s for us,” Davis said. “We have a task at hand and that’s winning the game Friday night. We have a senior-laden team, so that shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

As for what kind of offense and defense the Jaguars run, Davis said, “Offensively, they’re going to use what I call an 11-personnel with one back and one tight end. From what I see on film, they do a lot of funky stuff on offense. It’s a lot of motion and moving guys around to give them an advantage in the run game.

“Defensively, we’re going to see a 5-1 or a 4-3, cover-2. Their key is to stop you from running the ball. They want to disrupt everything that you do. They are pretty good up front.”

When asked who needs to step up for Natchez High to celebrate homecoming with a win and start Region 3-5A play 1-0, Davis said the defensive line as well as a couple of running backs, even with Walton and Chatman back on the field this Friday night.

“The defensive line. They’re going to have to control them on offense. (Junior) Zachary Shell, (senior) Jakel Irving, (junior) Devin Ford, and (junior) Alonzo McGowan. They’re going to have to ball out,” Davis said. “Offensively, we expect to have Kaden back. We expect to have Ken back. But we still need to run the ball. (Seniors) Carl McDonald and Demarrcus Blanton will have to have productive games for us.”