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VIDALIA, La. — One week after being demolished by Jena High School, the Vidalia High School Vikings will look to get back in the win column when they play host to the Markville High School Tigers Friday night in an LHSAA District 2-3A game.

Kickoff between the Marksville Tigers (4-3, 1-0) and the Vidalia Vikings (2-5, 0-1) at Dee Faircloth Viking Stadium in slated for 7 p.m. and it is also Vidalia’s homecoming game. Marksville won at Caldwell Parish High School 34-26 last Friday night while Vidalia lost at home to Jena 60-0.

This will be the first meeting between the Tigers and the Vikings since the last time Vidalia was in Class 3A — Oct. 21, 2016, a 26-6 Marksville win at home over Vidalia when the two teams were in District 3-3A.

As for how practice is going so far this week, Vidalia head coach Josh West said, “Practice has been pretty good. We’re working on containing their quarterback. He uses his legs well. Tackling as well. Tackling in open space. Offensively, pass protection. We need to run the ball Friday.”

The good news is that Vidalia is pretty healthy and may, or may, not be without just one player come game time Friday night.

“He might be able to play. (Sophomore running back/wide receiver/defensive back) Donald Franklin. He had a shoulder injury, but nothing major,” West said.

When asked what concerns him the most about Marksville on each side of the ball, West said, “On offense, they’re versatile with their looks. I’m concerned about their quarterback. He can throw the ball, but he likes to use his legs. They have a nice running back in No. 4 (senior Kyreon Prier). And No. 1 (senior Elidrick Murray), he’s a jack-of-all-trades. He plays a lot of positions. They try to get him the ball in a number of ways. He’s a special player.

“Defensively, they use the same players. They run to the ball collectively as a defense. They’re not huge up front, but they try to cut the offensive linemen. We have to be ready for that. The second level, they run to the football. The back end, they’re pretty solid. We’ve got to force them to tackle in space. Try to get to the outside to establish the run game. Try to use our size to our advantage.”

As for what kind of offense and defense the Tigers will use, West said, “They’re a spread team. They’ll spread you out. They might go empty. They might go with a hammer back. Defensively, they run a 4-front, sometimes a 5-front with a cover-3. They’ll send some pressure. We have to be prepared for all of those. They’ll run a man defense as well. They have confidence in their secondary.”

West said that junior quarterback Elmari ‘Juice’ Lewis will need to bounce back and have a better game against Jena and that junior wide receiver/running back/defensive back Michael Randall Jr. will need to have a big game offensively. So will freshman offensive lineman Jared Wooten.

“He’s one of our young linemen. He needs to play better at offensive tackle,” West said about Wooten.

West added that the Vikings’ defense will need to tackle better and run to the football. He added, “Not get down on ourselves when adversity hits. We need to stay strong.”

West said he is not at all concerned about the distractions that go with homecoming week, which is just the opposite of how most other coaches in area feel about that.

“The kids have been at practice. We’ve had good numbers at practice. The kids are having fun. I don’t really call it a distraction. I feel like it can motivate the players. We’re going to participate in the parade on Friday and then we’ll be back in plenty of time to get ready for the game,” West said.