For 24 teams in the Alabama Independent School Association, the second football season begins Friday night. Each team has a road to the state championship.

For the Fort Dale Eagles, that road begins in Elmore at Edgewood Academy.

The Wildcats won the right to be No. 2 by defeating Pike Liberal Arts last Friday.

As a result, Pike will spend the first game of the playoffs on the road against Morgan Academy.

"We were playing for No. 2 everything went well," said Bobby Carr, coach of the Edgewood Wildcats.

"We jumped up 21-0 had a few turnovers and let them get back in it. I've got to give credit to them for not quitting. We had four turnovers. We can't turn the ball over like that if we are going to have any success in the playoffs."

While the Wildcats are trying to figure out how to slow down the Eagle rushing attack, Fort Dale defensive Coordinator Jimmy Gardner is engineering a defense that can stop Phillip Moore and Josh Cain.

"Edgewood has got a real good team," said James Sampley, coach of the Eagles. "They spread out all over the place and throw it really well. That enables them to run the ball really well, which a lot of teams don't give them credit for."

Moore and Cain are fixtures in the Wildcat backfield.

Moore, the quarterback has thrown for nearly 2300 yards and 26 touchdowns while Cain has broken the 1000 yard rushing mark, highlighted by a 259 yard, three touchdown performance Friday night against the Pike Lib Patriots.

Edgewood has Fort Dale ties. Steven Sorrell is designing the defense for the Wildcats Friday night. So far, opponents haven't been able to figure it out.

"They are playing a really good brand of defense with everyone up close no one deeper than four yards off the line of scrimmage," said Sampley. "For us to beat them, we've got to possess and keep it away from them and try to make sure they don't have the ball very much."

Edgewood isn't going to be the only team that enters the contest with a feature back. Fort Dale's running game garnered nearly 364 yards of rushing Friday night against Mobile Christian.

Earlier in the season against Monroe Academy, the Eagles grounded out nearly 460 yards rushing.

Kickoff for Friday's game against Edgewood is set for 7:30 p.m.