Pike County is riding high coming off its first region win of the year over Abbeville 28-0, but coach Fred Holland says his Bulldogs still have a lot of work to do if they want to beat Luverne this Friday.

“We’re steadily improving, but we still aren’t where we need to be,” Holland said. “Last week, we eliminated turnovers. Our kicking game was better.”

The Bulldogs found success last week on the ground against the Yellow Jackets, and Holland stressed that the team would look to keep pounding the ball on offense.

“We’re going to continue running the ball,” Holland said. “We might try to mix up some passing in there too.”

The Pike County defense also found its rhythm last week against Abbeville. After giving up 56 points to Dale County the week before, the Bulldog defense stiffened and shut out an Abbeville offense that came into the match up averaging 30 points a game in region play.

The Bulldog defense has the tall order of slowing down the Luverne Tiger offense this week.

On the season, Luverne has scored at least 32 points in every game.

“Luverne is real good at throwing the ball,” Holland said. “They throw these quick passes and get their playmakers one-on-one in space.”

Pike County will try to key in on Tiger quarterback senior Kenterius Womack. So far teams have been unsuccessful in slowing Womack down, but the Pike County defense has experience in defending a dual-threat quarterback. The defense goes up against sophomore Jerrell Lawson every day in practice.

Junior outside linebacker TJ Thompkins believes that the Bulldogs have not reached their full potential yet.

“We can beat everyone we’ve played this season,” Thompkins said. “We had leads at halftime of every game.”

Thompkins also says that the win against Abbeville taught the team a valuable lesson.

“In the Abbeville game, we learned how to finish,” Thompkins said. “We went into halftime knowing we had a job to do. We came out in that second half and got the job done.”

Luverne is a match up that has traditionally bothered the Bulldogs. In 21 meetings, Pike County has only beaten the Tigers four times.

However, Pike County was able to pull out a 21-7 victory over Luverne last year in Brundidge.

The Bulldogs travel to Luverne in a non-region game this Friday. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.