JONESVILLE — Just because Block has a pretty safe bet of getting into the LHSAA 1A playoffs doesn’t mean the Bears are taking their final game of the season lightly.

Block takes on 2A District 3 Lakeview on Thursday in Campti, La., and coach Benny Vault knows that while a loss would not harm the Bears, a win to an upper-class team could certainly help.

“We need to win because we’re trying to get a seed in the top 10,” he said. “If we got in at No. 9 or 10, I like that spot. We get two points for playing up, and 1 point for the win, and the team above us has a tough game this week.”

That is just one of Vault’s several goals this week. He also wants his players to understand that an opposing team’s record and common opponents mean nothing on game day.

Vault said he also wants to get out of the game with as few bumps and bruises as possible, especially after the multiple injuries sustained Oct. 30 against St. Mary.

“We had a couple sprained ankles because we played on turf,” Vault said. “A.J. Calhoun, Albert Stevenson — our starting tight end and our starting nose guard — and Trey Vault were injured. One guy had a broken thumb.”

The Bears will also use this as sort of a “practice” game to prepare for playoffs, since the Gators are in a higher class.

“I’m trying to make sure we get out all our kinks,” Vault said. “It’s a tune up, but it’s going to have to be in the first half. If we stay injury-free in the first half and we’re in control of the game, I’m going to pull the starters out. We want to keep them fresh.”

This will be Block’s second-straight Thursday game, something that doesn’t hurt the Bears but still isn’t a favorite for Vault.

They played St. Mary in Natchitoches this past Thursday, and both games were scheduled early before Vault took over as coach.

“I probably won’t do it again, with the kids having to come to school the next day,” he said. “It kind of throws my timing off as far as getting everything planned out, but as far as the kids go it doesn’t really affect them. Usually in our Monday practice we don’t do much of anything, so we just move Monday’s practice up to Sunday.”

The schedule did give the Bears an extra day to nurse their wounds in preparation for Lakeview.

Vault said his team has not done anything special to get ready for the final game of the regular season.

“They run a double wing, the same offense I run,” he said. “My defense practices against that ever day, so that’s nothing different for us. We have more speed than they do. We just can’t make many mistakes, and we have to be able to execute.”