Brad Butler knows the Heritage Academy football team has left itself very little room for error.

Last week, Butler didn’t want to call his team’s matchup against Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA, Division II, District I rival Lee Academy a must win, but he knew a victory would make things easier for the Patriots.

Unfortunately, a 29-14 loss in Clarksdale in the District 1 opener has put Heritage Academy (2-3) in a position where it will need as many wins as possible if it wants to finish as one of the top two teams in its four-team district.

Heritage Academy will face perhaps its biggest challenge on the road to that goal at 7 tonight when it plays host to Jackson Academy on Homecoming at C.L. Mitchell Field.

Jackson Academy (5-0) is the No. 1 team in The Clarion-Ledger’s and The Associated Press’ state rankings.

But Butler feels his team can play with anybody in the state as long as it takes care of the football, which it failed to do last week.

“We have to take care of the football to give ourselves a chance,” Butler said. “We have to win the turnover battle. We haven’t done that the past two weeks, and it has not been real kind to us. That is the main thing.”

Heritage Academy still has district games remaining against Magnolia Heights and Washington. But a loss to Madison-Ridgeland Academy in the fourth week of the season has left the Patriots with little wiggle room if they lose any more games.

Butler feels the Patriots have the confidence to play with the state’s top team. He feels being at home in front of what is expected to be a capacity crowd should help ease the anxiety. He believes his players might have been a little uptight last week and might have been thinking about not making mistakes, which caused they to do just that.

“We just have to execute,” Butler said. “These guys have been playing football for a long time. They just have to play.”

Butler said a key tonight will be to control the tempo with an offense he hopes will be able to mix the run and pass with quarterback/running back Brandon Bell and quarterback/wide receiver Cade Lott. He feels a come-from-behind victory against Lamar in the season opener and an overtime victory against Caledonia has provided ample evidence that that Patriots can be successful if they do what they’re capable of doing.

“We can’t make stupid mistakes and we have to play good defense,” Butler said. “I feel we are prepared and that we know our assignments. We just have to make some plays.

“It is a big challenge. They don’t have a weak spot on their team. They’re solid offensively, defensively, and on special teams. They will dress out 75 players, but we can’t worry about what they’re doing. We just have to execute and not put ourselves in bad situations.”

Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.