The Pike Liberal Arts Patriots, 2-1, are looking for their second district win as they head to Morgan Academy this Friday night.

Head football coach Gene Allen said the Patriots have been focused this week on correcting mistakes from last week’s 28-0 loss to Monroe Academy.

“We’ve just been trying to learn from the loss last week and correct our mistakes,” Allen said

Allen said the Patriots had not protected the ball well last week, so his team focused on that during practice this week.

“We didn’t protect the ball the other night,” Allen said. “We had a lot of turn overs and fumbles, so we’ve been working on ball security at practice. We didn’t have a good time picking up some stunts last week. We had some missed tackles, and they ran by us last week, so we worked on communicating better on the line. We’ve just got to get a little more physical. We’re not going quite as hard as we have been.”

With this the Patriots going into their fourth game of season, Allen said he was proud of the change he has seen in his team, but hoped they were still able to grow.

“I think we’ve gotten a lot better,” Allen said. “We’ve still got a long way to go. We’ve still got a few things we’ve got to get better at. We’ve just got to keep getting better.”

The Patriots played Morgan Academy during their first game last season, so Allen is confident that his team will be stronger facing the district rival in the fourth game of the season.

“It’s a big district game for us,” Allen said. “I know Morgan (0-2) is looking for their first district win, and we’re looking for our second. I think we’ll work a little bit better this year. We’re at a little better standpoint than we were last year. We’ve just got to get a little more confident.”

Kick off is 7 p.m. at Senator Field.