Fayette — Wilkinson County will look to avoid a winless season while Jefferson County hopes to celebrate homecoming with a win and a berth in the Class 3A South State playoffs when the Tigers host the Wildcats in a Region 7-3A matchup on Friday.

Jefferson County coach James Herrington expects his players to be focused on the game and not the distractions that homecoming brings — especially with the No. 4 seed in Region 7-3A and a playoff spot on the line for the Tigers.

“It’s been quite a week already. We’re just trying to keep our routine as normal as we can,” Herrington said. “Taking care of the football, not penalizing ourselves and definitely tackling well.”

Jefferson County is 4-5 overall and 2-3 in region play after a 36-28 come-from-behind win on the road against North Pike.

And even though Wilkinson County goes into the game at 0-8 overall and 0-5 in region play, the Tigers cannot take the rival Wildcats lightly.

“I know if we’d be in their shoes, we’d come out swinging, too,” Herrington said. “They’ve got quite a bit to play for as well. They have an opportunity to end their losing streak and knock us out of the playoffs. I know they would like for their only win to be at our homecoming.”

If Jefferson County wins, the Tigers are in the playoffs. If they lose and South Pike defeats North Pike (also 2-3 in region play), the Tigers are still in. However, if Jefferson County loses and North Pike defeats South Pike on Friday, then the Jaguars are in with a 3-3 record in Region 7-3A.

“They run the I (formation) and the split-veer. We saw some of the old Wilkinson County wing that they used to run,” Herrington said. “If we can tackle well and limit our penalties, that will put us in a good position to win.”

Both teams were plagued by penalties in their games last week.

In the win over North Pike, the Tigers were penalized 19 times for 140 yards. The Wildcats had 175 penalty yards to just 49 yards of total offense in a 36-14 loss at Franklin County.

“We had more penalty flags than we had all year against Franklin County. That’s why we couldn’t get anything going,” Wilkinson County coach Elbert Lyles said. “Every time we tried to get something going, we had some kind of penalty against us.”

Lyles also knows about the implications of this game, and said his team needs to cut down on turnovers if it wants to pull off the upset and perhaps keep Jefferson County out of the playoffs.

“This is also a big morale booster for us going into ’09. We don’t plan on going up there just to show up,” Lyles said.

As for Wilkinson County’s game plan, “Control Jefferson County’s passing game. They’re a wide-open offense. They run the spread. And try to contain the quarterback, which is one of the most athletic ones we’ve seen,” Lyles said.

But that may be easier said than done.

Jefferson County senior quarterback Jeffery Collins ran for 61 yards and a touchdown and threw for 169 yards and three second-half touchdowns against North Pike.

“I expect us to run the ball better this week. That was one of those nights where we could get nothing going,” Herrington said. “Hopefully, this week will be different.”

The Wildcats’ offense — for a change — won’t have to face one of the best defenses in Class 3A like they have against the likes of South Pike, Tylertown and Franklin County.

Devin Fosselman threw a 25-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to keep the Wildcats from being shut out by the Bulldogs last week.

“Wilkinson County is a huge football team, big and strong,” Herrington said. “(Brandon Harton) is the speediest of their backs. We’re going to have to keep him contained.”

Lyles is still unsure who will take snaps for Wilkinson County on Friday and said the decision will be made today or Wednesday.

He added that the Wildcats will try to use a ball-control offense to keep the Tigers’ offense off the field as much as possible.

“Our whole offense is going to have to step up if we’re going to have some success,” Lyles said.