West Limestone’s football program has a chance to make some history on Friday night, but in order to do that, they must win a tough game.

A win over Central-Florence on Friday will clinch a playoff spot for the Wildcats for the third consecutive season, something the program has never done before. In fact, West Limestone only has seven total playoff appearances, with five coming in the last 10 years.

“The kids are very excited,” West Limestone coach Jordan Cantrell said. “We’ve laid it out to them what’s on the line for this game, and that’s the playoffs. We can make history here at West Limestone.”

But it won’t be easy for the Wildcats, who will face a tough Central team that is also fighting for its playoff life. With a loss, Central would be eliminated from playoff contention, while West would have another chance next week against Deshler to fight its way into the postseason.

Central has made the playoffs seven out of the last eight years, and Cantrell knows their team will be clawing to make it eight out of nine.

“Central has had a very good team for the last eight years now,” Cantrell said. “They are a hard-nosed football team. Their coaches expect a lot out of them and the players respond.”

In addition to being a physical team, Cantrell said Central has several good offensive skill players who could hurt West.

“They’ve got three ball carriers who can go the distance,” he said. “They’ve got a power runner, a finesse runner and a monster runner. They really give you a lot to prepare for. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

West Limestone (3-4, 2-2 Class 4A, Region 8) and Central (4-4, 2-3) have had similar seasons, both defeating and losing to the same teams. Both teams were beaten handily by region leader Rogers (West lost 44-7, while Central lost 42-21) and played region second-place team Wilson close (West lost 15-11, while Central lost 14-7). Both have wins over back markers Danville and Priceville.

However, Central lost three consecutive games before a 35-6 win over Danville last week while West has won two in a row, with the loss to Wilson three games ago coming when the Warriors scored a touchdown in the final minute.

Cantrell said he has seen improved play from his team since the blowout loss to Rogers and is especially pleased with younger players stepping up in place of more experienced players who have gone down to injury.

“This has been a really fun year for us,” Cantrell said. “We’ve got kids who want to work and want to please us and learn. We’ve had some new players really step up to the plate who hadn’t played a varsity game before that have come in and scored touchdowns and made big stops on defense. No matter the injuries or hardships we’ve run into, we’re really proud of our group and we’re excited about taking this group to compete against Central.”

Friday’s game will be Senior Night at West Limestone, and Cantrell said he hopes the home crowd will help pull his team through to a historic victory.

“This is Senior Night, and I’m sure it will be an emotional night for some,” he said. “It’s great to be in front of a home crowd. Playing at any Lauderdale County team, like Central, is a very hard environment to play in. Hopefully it will be an advantage for us to host this game.”