Gosnell head coach Gary Moody expects a playoff-type atmosphere Thursday night, when his Pirates travel to fellow 3-4A second place Valley View.
The winner will be the conference runner up and host a first-round playoff game, while the loser takes the third seed and hits the road for their playoff opener.
"I know that our players are going to be up for the game," Moody said. "They really want to finish strong. We got our fifth victory last week, and this is almost like a playoff game for us. The winner gets the two seed and gets to play at home so we should have a playoff game-type atmosphere."
Highland is the only conference team to beat Gosnell (5-4, 5-1) and Valley View (6-3, 5-1).
Moody said his club has a big task ahead, but the Pirates are excited to be in this position.
"It's a really big game for us," Moody said. "Valley View has got a really fine team. They're very explosive on offense. They're putting up a lot of points every week and they can do a lot of different things. They base everything out of their spread attack. They can run it; they can throw it. They throw a lot of screens. Their quarterback is a dangerous player because he can do both things well. He runs the ball well and I think he threw four or five touchdowns last week in their game. They just do a great job offensively and then they've been playing very well defensively as well."
The Pirate coach said his defense will have to play well and be able to get off the field.
"We're going to have to do a great job defensively," Moody said. "We don't want it to turn into a game where we've got to match them score for score. We're going to have to get some stops defensively. We're going to have to do a good job defending the spread offense and that's something we haven't done a great job of this year. We've played really well defensively the last two weeks.
"We've tackled better, we've done a good job in carrying out our assignments and we're going to have to continue that. It's just a different offense than what we've seen the last couple of weeks."
Gosnell is coming off back-to-back wins over Pocahontas and Westside, both run-oriented teams.
The Pirates beat the two playoff bound teams by a combined 81-26.
However, the Blazers, averaging 42.3 points per game in league play, have shown they can run or throw the ball effectively, according to Moody.
He said Valley View most closely resembles Highland, which scored 58 on Gosnell.
"Our kids, I think their confidence has grown a lot in the last couple of weeks," Moody said. "They are really looking forward to the game and they know what's at stake. The winner gets to play at home in the playoffs in the first round."
The Pirate defense is expected to be without defensive end Javion Lee, who missed last week's game with a leg injury.
Tyberius Reel, who recovered a fumble last week, will take his place again.
Moody said a key will be getting pressure on the quarterback and the secondary's coverage of the receivers and recognizing screens.
He said along with the defense needing to get stops, the offense must work hard to move the ball, put points on the board and avoid turnovers.
"We feel like for two weeks in a row we've continued to improve," Moody said.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Thursday.
mbrasfield@blythevillecourier.com