So far this season, when the Villa Rica High School football team has been in a position to win, that's exactly what it's done. Mike Falleur sees this Friday's 7:30 p.m. game at New Manchester as another one of those opportunities.

The second-year VR coach knows his team has run into a pair of top-10 powerhouses over the last four weeks, but when it has been up against a team it matches up well against, Villa Rica has won. The Wildcats (3-4, 3-4 Region 5-AAAAA) are coming off a 38-7 loss against No. 7 Allatoona last week, but can't dwell on it heading into this week's matchup.

"I'm sure they're a little down just like the coaches are. We played a very good football team on Friday. Right before half it was 10-7 and we were right in the ball game and then we made some mistakes and let it get away from us. What we've tried to tell them this week is to get ready for New Manchester, get a win and even this thing up to 4-4, hopefully," Falleur said.

The first year of a full varsity schedule for the Jaguars (2-6, 2-6) started off well enough with a pair of wins before six straight losses. Falleur sees that as just how their schedule fell running into a lot of good teams all in a row. But there are definitely similarities between the two teams.

"They're like us in a lot of ways. They're playing a lot of young kids, have played some good football teams. They're learning and they're playing hard every week and they're in ball games very similar to us where they make a mistake or two, and against those good teams it gets away from them. We've got to go and it's going to take one of our best efforts to have a chance to win," Falleur said.

Over the last five weeks, the Wildcats have gone 3-2, with the two losses coming against the seventh and third-ranked teams in Class AAAAA. The three wins have come against teams the second-year coach believes his VR squad matches up well against.

That will be the case again this Friday, and again the Wildcats must take advantage.

"You need to take advantage of those games, because there's not a bunch of those when you're young and inexperienced that you feel that way about. If you get one you think that way about, you have to take advantage of it and play to the best of your ability. We've done that against the teams we feel like we match up against," Falleur said.