One week after picking up an important region victory over St. John Paul II, the Ardmore Tigers will try to start a winning streak in a non-region contest.

High school teams have played region games for the past three weeks, but this week is a non-region week for the AHSAA, with teams seeing how they stack up against teams from other regions.

Ardmore (2-2) will be hosting Randolph (3-2), which competes in Class 4A, Region 7. Ardmore coach Andrew Smith said his team will spend much of the week focusing on themselves.

“It was big to get that first region win last Friday, and this week we’re focusing a lot on ourselves and fixing some things on our side,” Smith said. “We’re learning more about ourselves.”

While Smith said his team wants to win every game, only region games count toward the playoffs so teams can try out some different things for non-region games that might help them once region play resumes next week.

“We want to win, and even though it’s a non-region game, that’s the ultimate goal,” Smith said. “But, we also want to work on some things that can help us in the second half of the season as we go in the back half of region play.”

There are two main skills Ardmore will be working on this week as they prepare for a non-region contest.

“We’ve got to tackle better and we’ve got to be able to run the ball better,” Smith said. “It’s hard to get behind the sticks when we can’t run the ball like we need to.”

Randolph comes into the game with a 3-2 overall record and 2-1 record in Class 4A, Region 7. The Raiders’ defense has carried them so far this season, as they have allowed 14 points or fewer in three of their five games, including a 14-7 win over Westminster Christian and a 17-14 win over Madison County.

Smith said the Tigers work on better tackling will be tested Friday, as Randolph has three running backs who can carry the load, including Troy University commitment Levon Fletcher, who rushed for 1,066 yards and seven touchdowns last season.

“They have three who can run it pretty well,” he said. “They want to get the ball to them as much as possible. We’ve got to do a good job of stopping them.”

Ardmore had a big game from quarterback Noah Barnett against St. John Paul II. Barnett completed 11-of-16 passes for 217 yards while rushing for 73 yards and a touchdown. Smith said Barnett continues to improve as quarterback, but he wants to see the running game help him out some.

“Noah has played well so far,” Smith said. “He’s still got to fix a few things, but he keeps getting better. But, we’ve got to run the ball better in order to get that balance we want.”

Smith said playing a non-region game in the middle of the season is good because it can allow the team to see something they can use in region games later in the year.

“I think it’s good to see maybe some different things, but also for the team to have some things similar to what we’ve seen,” Smith said. “You never know what’s going to happen down the road, so it’s good to prepare for as much as possible.”