After three straight, heartbreaking, fourth-quarter losses in high school football, White Hall will look to bounce back in its final regular-season road game.
The Bulldogs head north to face Vilonia at 7 p.m. Friday.
White Hall (3-4, 2-3 in 5A-Central) lost 20-14 at home last week to Pine Bluff and desperately needs a win to hang on to any playoff hopes. Head coach Jason Mitchell said he hopes his players have learned from these past three games.
"I hope they learned they can't take anybody for granted," Mitchell said. "I hope they learned that bonehead mistakes and personal fouls and not being prepared to play a game, it always seems to bite you in the butt. Hopefully this week, we can put it all together, eliminate those mistakes, get ready to play and hopefully get back on a win streak here."
Vilonia (1-6, 1-4) is coming off its first win of the season, a 49-12 victory at Watson Chapel.
White Hall has gone through a gauntlet of the 5A-Central Conference's best teams the past few weeks. The Bulldogs led in all three games on this losing streak, including in the fourth quarter in two of them, but ultimately fell short.
Mitchell said even in defeat, his team continues to fight to the end each week.
"We are a good football team, but we could be a lot better than we have been playing," Mitchell said. "Maybe we could have won a couple of those games, or get a break here or there, maybe we would have pulled one of them out."
Mitchell said the Bulldogs made some adjustments this week to the offensive line to try to help improve White Hall's rushing attack, led by senior Jayden Smith.
Although the Bulldogs are on the road, Vilonia may present White Hall a chance to get back on track.
The Eagles had their way last week but have struggled otherwise. They have been held to 7 points or fewer three times and have only held two opponents to fewer than 35 points. Vilonia was a playoff team last year but lost an all-state quarterback and two all-state receivers to graduation.
Mitchell said the Eagles still pose a threat despite their struggles.
"They're still a hard-nosed football team," Mitchell said. "They're still well-coached. They do what they do. They throw the ball around. We're going to expect that, and hopefully our secondary can continue to improve. I've thought they've gotten better every week so far. We're going to need a big game from them."
The Bulldogs enter this game tied with Maumelle for fifth in the conference. There is still a shot at making the state playoffs, but White Hall will likely need to win every remaining game.
After this game, the Bulldogs are at home the final two weeks of the regular season against Robinson and Watson Chapel. It is the opposite for Vilonia. This will be the Eagles' home finale before finishing the season with road games at Maumelle and Mills University Studies.