The Wilkinson County Christian Academy Rams begin defense of their MAIS Class A-AA state championship Friday when they play host to the Glenbrook School Apaches in a first-round contest.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Glenbrook School (5-5) comes into the game as the No. 15 seed while WCCA (8-1) enters the playoffs as the No. 2 seed.

The Rams held on for a wild, hard-fought 52-49 win at Trinity Episcopal last Friday night in which Steven Franks and Caleb Poole each had three touchdown runs and Braden Passinger had a touchdown run. That win gave them the District 5-AA championship.

Glenbrook, which finished second in District 6-AA behind No. 3 seed Prairie View Academy, is coming off a 25-14 win over Christian Home Educators Fellowship.

WCCA coach Christopher McGraw said he expects Glenbrook to utilize its rushing attack from a variety of spread formations.

“They’re sound at what they do, and they do what they do to the best of their ability,” McGraw said. “If we look past them, we’ll be in for a dogfight for sure.”

McGraw said his defense needs to do a better job of stopping the passing game than it did last week against Trinity. In that game, Saints quarterback Kevontaye Caston threw three touchdown passes.

“We had the mental breakdowns that we haven’t had in two years. Don’t get me wrong, Trinity’s a good ball club. If we don’t have the mental breakdowns, we’ll be fine,” he said.

McGraw said he has watched five different Glenbrook game films to see what kind of defense the Apaches run, and they haven’t shown any tendencies.

“They run a defense to adapt to what you do on offense,” he said.

McGraw said the key for his team is to run the ball well like it has during the regular season.

“If we stay focused, we’ll be fine. There’s not a bad team left. We have to be able to come out and play. We have to play our best game every night,” he said.