MERIDIAN —     A streak will end Friday night at Tiger Stadium.

    When county rivals Southeast Lauderdale and West Lauderdale meet Friday, one school or the other will put an end to a losing skid. One week after the Tigers ended a 10-game losing streak to Northeast Lauderdale with a 33-14 win, they look to put an end to a 12- game drought against the Knights. West, meanwhile, is just looking for a win following an 0-3 start.

    “Our goal right now is just to get win No. 1,” West coach Glen Sanders said. “That’s all we’ve talked about is let’s just get that first win and see where it goes from there. We really haven’t discussed the streak or anything else, we’re just playing it one game at a time. We’re 0-3 and we just need something good to happen.

    “If we get the win and carry on the streak, that’s great. But right now our main concern is just getting a win.”

    That 0-3 start, though, hasn’t fooled Southeast coach Boo Smith.

    While the Knights have struggled to find their footing offensively, scoring just 13 points in three games, Smith said that has more to do with West’s first three opponents than anything else. The Knights managed 105 yards in the opener against West, turned it over five times in Week 2 against Neshoba Central and then were limited to 72 yards at Gulfport last week.

    “Their 0-3 is just as good as our 2-1 just because of the opponents they’re playing,” he added. “Meridian is No. 2 in the state overall, Gulfport is No. 9 overall and they’re both 6A schools. And Neshoba is nothing to sneeze at, either.

    “Their 0-3 has come against top-notch opponents and as soon as they play folks in their district, they’ll be tough again.”

    Those two wins for Southeast, though, are a sign of a turnaround for the Tigers. After a convincing win against Scott Central in the season opener, Southeast’s first opening win in a decade, the Tigers got the bragging rights win against the Trojans last week. With those skids over, Smith is hopeful the Tigers can add one toss one more slump aside.

    “We’ve got that rival thing again, supposedly,” Smith said. “We’re facing the same odds this week, actually worse odds. Streak No. 2, you can call this.

    “We haven’t won the first game of the season in a decade. We haven’t beaten Northeast Lauderdale in a decade. Now, we’re going for the trifecta.”

    To get there, though, Southeast will first have to clear a hurdle they haven’t faced yet this season in West’s power-rushing attack. During the Tigers’ first three games, they have faced predominantly spread attacks. After stepping up to those challenges, Smith is optimistic that defensive coordinator Charles Black’s unit can rise to the occasion again.

    “For once, we’re going to get a lot of double wing and running it right down our throat,” he said, adding that Jagradi Webster led the Tigers last week with three interceptions, all coming in the fourth quarter and 15 tackles. “Whether we can handle that remains to be seen, but we’ve delivered every game this year and, hopefully, we can deliver one more time.”

    Said Sanders: “We’re going to have to execute offensively, primarily get something going.  We’ve been fairly anemic offensively the past couple of games so we have to get something going.”

    On the other hand, Sanders is well aware of the challenges the Knights’ defense is facing in Southeast’s spread. With quarterback Shelby Moseley at the helms and numerous weapons – Ladarious Clark, Demarcus Pringle, Desmond Johnson, Lakelvin Newell and Nathan Freeze – at his disposal, the Tigers are athletic and dangerous, offensively. Smith also said Darryl Jones’ offensive line have proved critical to the Tigers’ success.

    “They have some pretty good athletes, especially on the offensive side,” Sanders said. “They’ve got some weapons, and have been playing really well.

    “We’re going to have to corral some players. No. 1, you’ve got the quarterback who does a really good job of running that offense for them. Then you have to know where (Clark) is at, he’s a talent there in the backfied. And then they have Freeze on the outside, who can step back and just lob it up.

    “You’ve got to be mindful of everything, mindful of them spreading you and running the ball and mindful of them throwing it.”

    The Tigers will need that big-play offense and stingy defense to help snap the 12-game streak against West, which has won the past three meetings by a combined score of 113-7. The Knights had won four of the previous six meetings by two scores or less.

    The key in those games, Sanders said, was a depth advantage. However, that is a bonus this year’s younger Knights don’t have. That could prove costly.

    “One of the main things, in the past we were able to two-platoon and hardly have anyone that played both ways,” he added. “This year that’s not the case. We’ve got a lot of players playing on both sides of the ball so that advantage is gone. Over the years, we’ve had a lot of games that were close at halftime and we were able to wear them down and win in the second half.”

    Still, he is sure Southeast remembers those defeats. And those memories should be a driving force for the Tigers.

    “They’re fired up and they’re ready to make it a sweep in the county, as far as the county schools are concerned,” Sanders said. “There’s no doubt in my mind or my guys’ minds that they’re going to come out fired up and ready to play, so we just have to respond and do likewise.”

    Added Smith: “I think person for person, we match up with them better than we have in a long, long time. So our chances of winning are better than they’ve been in 12-13 years and, hopefully, we’ll take advantage of that.”