McKenzie School head coach Miles Brown couldn’t find a lot of positives following last week’s 48-13 loss to Geneva County High School.

“We didn’t do a whole lot right,” he said. “We just have to get better.”

That’s one reason why the Tigers’ head coach is looking forward to a showdown with Class 2A Cottonwood High School.

“They have a real good team,” Brown said. “They have good skill players and some good lineman. They do a lot of good things on both sides of the ball. It’s definitely going to be a big challenge for us.”

It’s a challenge that Brown said McKenzie needs heading into the second half of its schedule.

“Playing a team like Cottonwood should make us better,” he said. “We’ve got a tough task ahead of us in the second half of the season, and we need a game like this to help us get better. We’ve got to learn to tackle and block. We didn’t do that against Geneva County. Those two things are what make good football teams, and we’ll have to do those things to have a chance to beat Cottonwood.”

McKenzie (2-2) and Cottonwood (1-3) will face off at 7 p.m. Friday in Cottonwood.