RESERVE — It’s the first week of high school football playoffs and No. 1 seed Riverside Academy Rebels (8-1) will play a home game Friday against the No. 16 seeded Northlake Christian Wolverines (7-3).

Riverside head football coach Bill Stubbs said his team wouldn’t be doing anything differently to prepare for playoff games.

“You do things all year long to get where you are,” Stubbs said. “When you come this far, you don’t change things.”

The Rebels had a near-perfect season, losing only their first game by one point.

Stubbs said his team hasn’t played the Wolverines before, but the coaching staff is knowledgeable about how the team plays.

“We watch a lot of film,” Stubbs said. “We secure film throughout the course of the year and we swap film with our opponents. We are about as familiar as we can get with (Northlake Christian).

“We started working on Saturday to put together all of the information that we need to get a good understanding of who they are and what they do. We are at the point now where we install a game plan.”

The Rebels advanced to the semi-final round in last year’s playoffs. Stubbs said the team doesn’t need to do anything extra this year.

“Preparation wise, we have a system,” Stubbs said. “The system pretty much stays the same. We’ll maybe have a few tweaks here and there, but not really anything extra.

“We think we have a pretty good system. We’ve got some outstanding coaches. We put the game in their hands and let them go to town with it.”

Stubbs said he trusts his coaches to have the players prepared for every game.

“I feel very, very confident in our football staff to have our kids ready from mental to physical positions to play and play well,” Stubbs explained. “During the playoffs, each week you’re not guaranteed anything. You get one game. Every time we line up to play, we line up to play to win.”

Stubbs said being ranked first doesn’t hold a lot of significance for the coaches.

“From a player’s perspective, who doesn’t like being ranked No. 1,” Stubbs said. “I think it is very, very good in their eyes. When you line up to play football, that ranking really doesn’t mean a whole lot.

“There are certainly some positives to being ranked No 1. In the brackets you draw the last seed, but that really doesn’t do anything for us.”

Stubbs said the record of the team the Rebels will be playing isn’t important.

“We’ve learned a couple of really good lessons along the way,” Stubbs said. “One of those lessons is you don’t take anyone for granted, especially in the playoffs. I’ve seen some squirrelly things over my years coaching football, some really strange things.

“You’ve got to be prepared and you’ve got to play each game like a championship game.”

St. Charles Catholic

LAPLACE — The St. Charles Catholic Comets (8-2) will host their first playoff game Friday against the Opelousas Catholic Vikings (7-3).

SCC head football coach Frank Monica said this game won’t be an easy one.

“They are a very good football team,” Monica said. “They have only lost to very, very good opponents. We do know that they play a good schedule.

“They are very physical and very, very well coached. They look a lot like we do in terms of personnel. The biggest thing is they don’t make many mistakes.”

Monica said the Vikings do most things well during the games.

“It’ll be a tough competition,” Monica said. “We have to out-play them. There are no weaknesses on their team from special teams to defense and offense. They do everything quite well.”

Monica said in order to be successful, the Comets will have to play to their strengths and not make mistakes.

“The most important thing is we have to stay away from the turnover and long-yard situations,” Monica said. “You don’t want to be in a long-yard situation with their defense. The Vikings defense is pretty solid. They don’t give up any big plays. It is important that we move the chains and take what they give us and try not to be greedy with the offense. On defense, we have to try to stop their quarterback (David Labbe.) He’s the guy who carries the ball 70 percent to 80 percent of the time. He’s also a linebacker.”

Monica said he would be using two quarterbacks, Patrick Ratliff and Lloyd Nash.

“Patrick is back and feeling better, so he will be our starter,” Monica said. “We will go from there.”

West St. John

EDGARD — The West St. John Rams (3-7) will be traveling to Ferriday Friday to take on the Ferriday High School Trojans (5-5) for their first week of playoffs.

West St. John head football coach Brandon Walters said the Trojans will be tough competition because their players are huge.

“Ferriday is pretty massive,” Walters said. “They are a very good, big team. They like to spread the ball out and they throw the ball a lot. They have a wide receiver (J’shon Foster) who is a 6’5” kid. They have a tight end (Samuel Johnson) who is also pretty tall (6’1”) and they like to give him the ball.”

Walters said the key to being successful this week is to be quick.

“We have to play fast and we have to play physical,” Walters said. “If we do those two things, we can change the narrative of the game and win.”

The Rams will have a three-hour road trip to get to Ferriday, but Walters said it is just another day at the office.

“Fortunately, our kids have been doing this for the past couple of years,” Walters explained. “They know what to expect this time of year and they know sometimes you have to go on the road to be successful. The travel won’t be that big of a deal. The guys know this is a business trip, and we are getting them prepared for it.”

By Courtney Griggs