After enduring a setback last week in a 48-31 loss at home to Holmes, the Bears will be aiming to right the ship Thursday on a long road trip to Booneville to face the Northeast Tigers. 

"We have to be sound and clean up some things on special teams," Southwest head coach Cliff Collins said. "We have to eliminate some things on offense and tackle better on defense. Those are key points that we hit on this week that we have to be better at."

Despite it being a lengthy road trip, Collins views it as just another game away from Summit.

"It is a road trip. We are used to this. These guys traveled in high school. This first road game is a business trip," he said. "The good thing about it is that we will be on the bus together. The guys will be in their own zone either listening to their music or sleeping. Just another day, another business trip, another game, another chance to get better."

Even though many kids put forth a good effort to open the regular season, Collins expects more from his team now that they have a game under their belts.

"They were excited," he said. "The biggest difference in football is between Week 1 and Week 2. You get to clean up some things. You get to see how good you are, where you are at and where you stand and the true measurement of your football team."

In order to get back on the winning track, the Bears must tame a Northeast team that is also coming off of a tough loss in Week 1 as they fell to East Central, 23-14. Despite this, Collins knows that his team will face a tough challenge from the Tigers.

"Northeast, they have a good football team up there," he said. "They are going to be coached well. Every football team in this league is going to be coached well. Northeast's football team is a team that has had great programs in the past. They were up and leading in the first half (last week). It is going to be a good ball game."

Even though Thursday's game is the first meeting between Southwest and Northeast since 2019 and the first for Collins as a head coach, it is a team that he is very familiar with dating back to his days as a coach at East Mississippi.

Among the standouts last week for the Bears was quarterback Henry Brewer who passed for 129 yards and one touchdown. On the ground, the combination of Jalen Williams and Chris Hunter each recorded 54 yards rushing with the prior tallying two touchdowns and the latter, one.

Damarrco Blanton picked up where he left off last season before injury hauling in six passes for 87 yards. Standout defensive performances came from Kam Carter who had eight tackles and two interceptions, Jeffery Polk Jr who also had eight tackles and one tackle for loss and Exavier McDowell who recorded five tackles, one sack, two and a half tackles for loss, one pass break up and one fumble forced. All are expected to contribute against the Tigers as well.

Getting a win against the Tigers will be big for the Bears as they try to get the arrow pointing in the right direction again.

"It is the next week and last week is behind us," Collins said. "It is the next week and we want to be 1-0 every week and we have to get this win this week."

The Bears and the Tigers kick off at 6:30 p.m. in Booneville. The game will be broadcast on radio on K106 (105.7 FM) with the Voice of the Bears Benji Embry.

The game will be streamed at: https://nemcctv.com/blackchannel/