By Devin Smith

There are few better ways to begin a long stretch of regional competition than by running the first of those teams out of the stadium.

Pike County did that in emphatic fashion last Friday when Barbour County came to town, sending the Jaguars home to lick their wounds after a 54-0 loss.

This week head coach Fred Holland and his Dogs will hit the road for the first time in nearly a month to take on the Wicksburg Panthers.

“It’s always a challenge to go into someone’s place and play,” Holland said. “We’ve had three weeks of that earlier in the season and we realize that it will be tough to play down there, so we just have to prepare mentally and physically for it.”

The majority of Pike County’s games this season have been on the road, including their only losses of the year against Charles Henderson and the Dale County Warriors.

Wicksburg has already managed to eclipse their win total from a year ago of 1-9 while playing in Class 2A, and are averaging 27.7 points a game in the move up to Class 3A.

The Panthers have had their share of issues this season and are coming off an embarrassing defensive performance against the Dale County; however there is still plenty for Pike County to worry about on Friday.

“They do a lot on special teams and they use a lot of different offensive sets,” Holland said. “They do a bunch of things in the wing-T which means that their kids are very smart, and they play good, sound defense.”

While new wrinkles have to be added to the game plan each week depending on the opponent, the Bulldogs spend equal time focusing on themselves, which could be a key to future success over the remainder of the season.

“Now that we’re playing region games it’s only going to get tougher as you go,” Holland said.

“We have a lot of things to work on as far as personnel, sometimes we make changes. On offense we’re trying to get better, and defensively we’re working on trying to prevent people from scoring. There is always a lot to work on; it’s a challenge each week.”

Kickoff is 7 p.m. at Wicksburg.