After three straight losses, including a heartbreaking loss for homecoming, senior receiver Steven Prudhomme provided a blunt assessment of what the football team needs to do.

“Win.”

The team (1-4 overall, 0-2 in district) plays Forney (3-2, 1-1) tonight at 7 p.m. on the road.

Forney beat Royse City (2-3, 0-2) by the score of 12-10 in their most recent game. The Jackrabbit offense totaled 374 yards, and running back Jaylon Hutchings rushed 21 times for 160 yards. Quarterback Devon Rideaux completed 7 of 15 passes along with a touchdown. The Forney defense also forced 4 turnovers.

“As far as defense goes we are just looking to go out there and do our thing,” senior defensive lineman Beau Hancock said. “We’re going to go out and play physical and hit them every play until the whistle blows.”

After the loss against West Mesquite in what the Dallas News called the craziest comeback of the year, the Leopards had a bye week. In the homecoming game, sophomore quarterback Carson Collins completed 27 of 56 passes for 351 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. Senior receiver Anthony Vogel caught eight passes for 116 yards and one touchdown as well.

“Of course right after the game everyone in the locker room is pretty down,” Hancock said. “But as the past two weeks have gone by we’ve used it as motivation heading into the last half of the season.”

Going into tonight’s game, Prudhomme is thankful for the bye week and how the team has benefitted from it, citing execution and focus to be keys for bouncing back from the outcomes of the last few games.

“We got to practice more on the fundamentals and get back to the basics,” Prudhomme said. “The season as a whole has been exciting, yet a challenge with new players and new coaches, so [the bye week] was welcome.”

Adversity has been a theme for the season, but Hancock said the team has been getting closer, and that the thought is still to accomplish the goals they set as a team.

“I would say the team is definitely much closer,” Hancock said. “After the past few games we are really trying to come together more and accomplish the goals we all set for ourselves back in August.”