The playoffs might be just a pipe dream at this point for East Limestone, but the Indians have another goal they want to accomplish. Finish the season with a non-losing record.

After struggling through a five-game losing streak, East defeated Ardmore last Friday 35-7 to improve its record to 2-5 overall and 1-4 in Class 5A, Region 8 play. A win in its final three games will see them finish with a 5-5 record.

“We just want to try to finish out with four wins in a row and finish the year 5-5,” East Limestone coach Jeff Pugh said. “That’s a goal that our players are trying to do for our seniors. We need to win out to end up with a season that’s at least satisfactory. We’ve let some games slip away, but we need to finish strong this year.”

The next step to finishing the season with a four-game winning streak is a road game against region foe Brewer Friday night.

The Patriots (3-4, 2-3 region) won their first two games of the year but have struggled recently. They have lost four of their last five games, with the only victory being a 24-17 win over Ardmore. They were defeated 37-7 by Guntersville last week.

“They are a lot like us,” Pugh said of Brewer. They run a similar scheme and play a lot of kids both ways, on offense and defense. A lot of them are on special teams, too. If you get key injuries to key people, it really hurts you. They’ve had their share of season-ending injuries to guys who are impact players. It has really hurt them a lot.”

But despite Brewer’s injury problems, Pugh said they will be a tough team. Last year’s game against Brewer was a very physical game that the Indians won 25-15. Pugh expects another battle this time.

“Coach (Geoff) Walters is a very good coach and has Brewer always ready to play,” Pugh said. “It’s not for sure that we’re going to go there and get a win. We’re going to have to play very well if we want to start a winning streak.”

Pugh said one thing that should help East Limestone in its final three games is the emergence of some younger players, which prevents other players from having to play both ways.

“We have started to play some of the younger kids, and that’s kept some of our guys on defense from getting tired,” Pugh said. “Us being able to keep guys fresh helps us be able to move the ball and score some points, and at the same time not let (the other team) get in the end zone with big plays. That’s one thing that has been killing us all year.”

East Limestone had been fading in the second half of games this season, but they turned that around last week by outscoring Ardmore 21-7 in the second half.

“Giving up points in the third quarter and not scoring points has just killed us this season,” Pugh said. “I don’t think we had scored but 15 points in the third quarter before last week. I think last week that was the difference.”

Pugh hopes being able to rest some key players will help against Brewer, which also plays a lot of players both ways due to injuries.

“Our younger players have had more practices against our varsity guys now, and they have gotten more accustomed to what we do on the varsity level,” Pugh said. “We are getting them used to the speed of the game, and we’ve got a couple of kids who have done that. Since that happened, that gives us a chance to rest some of our guys playing both ways. We’re playing teams that don’t play anybody both ways, and that makes a big difference.”