After defeating two ranked teams in a row, the Blue Jays are in the driver’s seat for the District 4-1A title.
But St. Edmund head coach Andy Hargoder said his team still can’t let down against Grand Lake (1-5, 0-4) as the Blue Jays (6-1, 4-0) celebrate homecoming at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
“We have reminded them of the reason behind homecoming,” the coach said.
“It is for those coming back to visit – their main focus should be winning the football game.”
Grand Lake had its first game against Vinton cancelled because of Hurricane Harvey and then earned a 13-12 win over Gueydan to open the season.
The Trojans have lost five straight games including a 0-3 start in district.
Grand Lake has kept their games close, but the Trojans haven’t been able to close out their contests.
After the Gueydan win, Grand Lake has fallen to Highland Baptist (40-35), Elton (44-35), Oberlin (18-13), Merryville (22-14) and Hamilton Christian (28-14).
“I know we scored 34 points but we won the game on defense,” Hargroder said. “We stopped them three times inside the 10-yard line.”
Hargroder said he is pleased with the progress his team has made in building a winning mentality.
“I think we showed it last week,” he said. “We get the ball first and they stop us.
“We go for the fake punt and we score, but then they ran the kickoff back and then get the ball when they kicked off to us.
“Our guys could have panicked right then but our defense came in and stopped them.”
Brad Miller led the Blue Jay offense with 230 yards on 15 carries, including two touchdowns.
“We need to go back to the fundamentals,” the coach said. “We need to block and tackle and not get too much ahead of ourselves.”
In other district games this week, Basile (4-3, 3-1) entertains Oberlin (5-2, 3-1); Elton (4-2, 2-2) visits South Cameron (0-6, 0-4) and Merryville (3-4, 2-2) entertains Hamilton Christian (2-4, 2-2).