The Opp Bobcats must seal a victory over Pike County to become a contender for the No. 1 spot in the region, head coach Jack Whigham said Wednesday.

A win for Opp would put the Bobcats, Pike County and Abbeville in a three-way tie.

“They’re going to be at home, and of course they’re leading our region at 3-0, and if we can win the game, then we’ll be leading the region,” he said. “We’d be tied for the region considering if Abbeville wins. It’s an important game for us.”

Currently, the Bobcats are sitting at 2-3 overall, and 2-1 in Class 3A, Region 2, and Pike County is 4-1 overall. The last time Opp played Pike County, the Bulldogs won 38-6 in 1993.

Whigham said Pike County has a stellar quarterback in Jerelle Bailey and wide receivers Stephan Foster and Kendrick Jackson.

In addition, the Bulldogs have running back Raheem Pearison.

Two keys Whigham said his team must do this week involve “moving the ball” down the field.

“We’ve got to be able to move the ball, and we’ve got to be able to block them some,” he said. “So, every week your offensive line is important, and obviously with us being able to run the football — since we are predominently a running team — it’s going to be very important,” he said.

In addition, play action passing is also important, Whigham said.

On the defensive side of the ball for Pike County, Whigham said he is mostly concerned with linemen Deion Nickson and Bishop Caple.

“They can cause us some trouble,” he said. “They play a 4-3 defense, and they have really quick people. We think we have a good offensive game plan, and we think we have a good defensive game plan. It’s just going to be up to our kids to get over the loss last week and while that was a big rivalry game, it didn’t affect our region any at all.”

In order to go where he would like his team to go, Whigham said there still needs to be some “consistency” on both sides of the ball.

“We’re winning a week, and then we’re losing a week, winning a week, losing a week,” Whigham said. “We’ve got to put some consistency together if we’re going to get to where we want to go.”

Kickoff in Brundidge is at 7 p.m.