There will be no parade or queen crowned on Friday night Brundidge, but it will be sort of a homecoming for the Pike County Bulldogs.

Friday’s game versus Abbeville is the first home game for the Bulldogs of 2012. Pike opened the season with three straight road games including a win at Goshen and losses at Barbour County and Dale County.

The return to the confines of Bulldog Stadium is a welcome to the entire Pike team.

“We are happy to get the road trip behind us,” said head coach Fred Holland. “We will be at home at lot over the next few weeks, and need to get some wins in front of the home crowd.”

Abbeville will make the trip up Alabama State Route 10 looking for win number two of the season. The Yellow Jackets dropped a season opening game to Eufaula and lost last week to Daleville 27-20. Sandwiched in between those two losses is a wild 44-42 win over Geneva.

The game is a key area matchup for both teams. A win for Pike County will get them back in the playoff hunt, while a victory for Abbeville will give them a leg up in the playoff push.

“We stressed to the kids how important the region wins are early,” said Holland. “We don’t want to be scraping for wins late in the season. We need to get them early and often.”

Pike leads the all-time series 27-17-1, and has lost to the Yellow Jackets just three times since 1986.

Abbeville finished 8-3 the past two seasons, but were eliminated from the playoff in the first round both times. Head coach Alphus Shipman is in his sixth season at the helm of the Yellow Jackets and has led the team to the postseason three times.

The game is set for a 7 p.m. kickoff in Brundidge.