The Opp Bobcats (5-3, 5-1 in Class 4A, Region 2) and the Montgomery Catholic Knights (5-3, 4-2) will face off tonight for hosting rights in the first round of the state playoffs.

Head coach Jack Whigham said a team win is important to set the tone for the rest of the regular season.

“It’s real important,” Whigham said. “It gives us a chance to play a home playoff game in the first round instead of having to travel to play a No. 3 seed as opposed to playing a No. 2 seed. Anytime you play the playoffs at home you have an advantage to where you don’t have to drive three hours on a bus somewhere.

“It’s extremely important that we win,” he said. “Coming off of the loss last week and then getting ready to play Andalusia. We need to redeem from the loss last week and then we need to have some confidence going into the Andalusia game.”

Whigham added that he thinks Andalusia will regard their last game as a playoff game.

On Montgomery Catholic, Whigham said the team likes to run the ball in their offensive scheme.

“They run the Wing-T on offense and they run a 40 defense,” he said. “They have some big linemen and they do a good job running their Wing-T. The quarterback is a good player for them. He does a good job running and throwing. They’re going to control the ball and we’re going to have to do a really good job of tackling. Our defense is going to have to do a good job of reading their keys to slow them down enough.”

So far this season, the Bobcats’ defense has only allowed 26.13 points per game and on offense, they have scored 26.63 points per game.

With it being homecoming this week for Opp, Whigham said he would rather the team not have to deal with the added distractions.

“It’s been tough on keeping the kids focused on a lot of things,” Whigham said. “If we were not to play this important of a game, I’d rather it not be the homecoming game. It is important to try and win them all, especially your homecoming game.

“The seniors especially are going to remember this game for a long time and so maybe it’ll give it a little more importance for them,” he said.

Kickoff in Opp is at 7 p.m.