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The Pike County Bulldogs (3-4, 3-2) are still looking to clinch a playoff spot as they hit the road for the first of two straight Class 4A, Region 2 games to end the 2024 regular season. This week they battle the Dale County Warriors (6-2, 4-1).

Pike County is coming off a frustrating 24-0 loss to Straughn in a region game last week.

“We played well for a half but in the second half we just gave up too many big plays to be able to offset our mistakes,” PCHS Coach Mark Hurt said. “I don’t feel like Straughn was 24 points better than us. Our Achilles heel right now is making mistakes in crucial moments of a game. We’re still working on those things but they were able to hit us with some big plays close to the end of the game. I feel like they maybe understood the significance of the game a little more than we did.”

Officially, no one in the region has secured a playoff spot yet with Opp, Dale County and Straughn all sitting at 4-1 in the region. Meanwhile, Pike County and Ashford are sitting at 3-2 and New Brockton is 2-3 in the region. Daleville and Geneva, both 0-5 in the region, are the only schools mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. Pike County travels to Dale County and New Brockton in the final two games of the season.

“We have to look at every week like the playoffs,” Hurt said. “I looked at last week like that. You have to go on the road and win. I think everyone we play gives us their best game, even teams that maybe didn’t look so good against other teams will come in and play their best games against us. We have to be prepared for that.”

Dale County is on a 5-game winning streak, having beat Straughn, New Brockton, Ariton, Opp and Daleville in each of the last five games. They also have a win over G.W. Long, while Class 5A Headland and Ashford handed the Warriors their only defeats this season.

“They have pretty good size and they also have a receiver that’s about 6-foot-6-inches and is pretty good, he plays both ways,” Hurt said of Dale County. “We definitely have to pay attention to him and can’t let him make big plays on us. You can tell they’ve been improving each and every week and they’re confident in what they’re doing. It’s going to be another dog fight.”

That 6-foot-6-inch receiver that Hurt alluded to is Junior Smith, who has turned 29 catches this season into a staggering 628 yards and eight touchdowns. Smith is averaging 21.7 yards per catch.

Hurt is emphasizing limiting mistakes against Dale County.

“I just want to be able to play full four quarters, play a full game,” he said. “We need to limit our mistakes. We’re still making those mistakes late in the games in our reads and those types of little things. I thought we played a good defensive game (against Straughn) but four or five plays can make the difference. We have to limit those big plays.”

Pike County holds a 22-16-2 all-time record against Dale County but the two sides have not met since 2015. The last meeting was a 59-0 Pike County win in 2015.

Pike County plays Dale County in Midland City on Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. at Warrior Stadium.