The only thing that stands between Pleasant Home and a berth in the Class 1A state playoffs is Geneva County.

Tonight, the Eagles will vie for the No. 4 seed at home against the Bulldogs. Geneva County enters the game tied with Pleasant Home in Class 1A, Region 2 with at 3-3.

Pleasant Home (4-4) is coming off a 47-34 win over J.F. Shields last week — a win that PHS coach Robert Bradford said is “step two” in a three-step process to make the playoffs and have a winning season. “Step one” was a 38-36 win over Georgiana on Oct. 8.

“It’s a big game for the program,” Bradford said about tonight’s contest. “Our goals this years are to have a winning season, and make the playoffs. A win (tonight) would accomplish both of those.”

Bradford said Geneva County likes to run the Notre Dame offense, which is similar to a Wing T formation.

“They’ll line up double tight and move the box left to right and move right at you,” Bradford said. “It’s going to be up to our defensive line to control the line of scrimmage. Our defensive line is normally bigger than other teams we’ve played.

“We need to keep our backs off of their linebackers,” he said.

Ever since this summer, the Eagles have marked key games in their schedule as must wins.

Tonight’s contest is one that Bradford said the team knew would come between them making the playoffs or not.

“We knew that it was more than likely coming down to Geneva County to get in playoffs,” he said. “We lost to Kinston 38-34, and that was kind of a game we had marked down to want to win.”

In addition, Pleasant Home’s game tonight marks the third team in a row the Eagles have played with losing records. Geneva County is 3-5 overall this season.

“They are a lot better than their record indicates,” Bradford said.

Bradford said it has been a good week at practice, and that the players are “responding well” in preparation for the task that is ahead of them.

To get ready for the game tonight, Bradford is asking all of the fans to show up wearing red.

“It’s a home game at Pleasant Home,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to get people to show up and support these boys.

“We’re asking the fans to show up in red for a ‘Red Out,'” he said. “It’s a big deal for the community, and hopefully we’ll get over the hump this year.”

But first, the Eagles have to accomplish step three.