SENECA — It’s hard to say that the Seneca High School football team is hitting its stride as it heads into the playoffs to take on J.L. Mann Academy on Friday night, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to put a finger on its current pulse either.

Last week, the Bobcats earned a tough 14-6 victory over West-Oak despite accumulating only 101 yards of total offense. Seneca did not complete a pass and turned the ball over four times in that game.

However, Seneca (3-7) did earn the victory and a third-place finish in Western 3A. And that win, coupled with a game in which the Bobcats played very competitively with Belton-Honea Path before losing 24-7 the week before, doesn’t mean the team is heading in on a low note either.

“I think the last few weeks, in some ways, we’ve gotten a little bit better,” Seneca head coach Ron Duncan said last Wednesday, prior to the game against West-Oak. “We’ve kind of been up and down. I think in some ways our best effort offensively was this last Friday night (against B-HP). You just want to keep building on it and improving.”

And after starting the season 0-5, any movement in a positive direction would have meant the team was improving, and now the Bobcats have moved in that positive direction, racking up three wins in their final five games.

“You want to go into the playoffs on a high note,” Duncan said last Wednesday. “Certainly it would be big going in.”

With that mission accomplished, the focus has turned to J.L. Mann and how big the game truly is for Seneca’s program.

It would be hard not to have some sense of confidence after the Bobcats easily handled the Patriots in a preseason scrimmage earlier this year. There is, however, last year’s postseason to consider.

Seneca suffered a 56-16 loss in the first round of those playoffs to Greer. Because of that, the emphasis being put on Friday’s contest is even more heightened.

“It’s big, it’s really big,” Duncan said after last Friday’s victory, prior to knowing his opponent for the playoff game. “I know we’re going to play a really good team. I know Greenville and J.L. Mann are playing really good football so whoever we get is going to be big.”

The Bobcats are hoping that the one thing that isn’t going to be big when Friday night ends is the score on J.L. Mann’s side of the scoreboard. The Patriots have scored 60 or more points three times this year, while Seneca has allowed fewer than 10 points on three occasions.

With Duncan praising his defense as “unbelievable” a week ago, there is hope in Bobcat country for the season to continue on.

While that is certainly a possibility, anything short of another marquee performance on the defensive side of the ball will most likely send the Bobcats home to hibernate for the winter.