BRIDGE CITY — There may be four more Friday nights on the schedule but teams are jockeying for playoff positioning in what looks to be a tight District 10-4A Division I and that will definitely be the case this Friday when the Bridge City Cardinals (4-2, 1-1) welcome in the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Battlin’ Bears (3-4, 2-1) for Homecoming.

The Cardinals, who have already doubled their win total of a year ago, are coming off a tough 48-47 road loss up in Jasper in a game in which they controlled the action most of the way before a pair of late turnovers in the fourth quarter helped the Bulldogs sneak away with the win.

Meanwhile, the Bears are coming in with plenty of attitude after scoring 111 points in a two-game winning streak in wins over Splendora (56-7) and Cleveland (55-6).

Both Orange County squads feature powerful running attacks.

The Cardinals piled up over 550 yards in the tough loss to Jasper while the Bulldogs had 585 yards.

Tailback Cayce Draper continues to pile up massive yardage for the Cardinals. Draper slipped his way through the Jasper defense for 190 yards and a pair of scores as he continues the quest for a 1,000-yard campaign. He is definitely getting closer with close to 800 yards with four regular season games left.

Standout linebacker Derrick Dearing continues to prove his worth on both sides of the ball. Dearing showed his rushing prowess against the Bulldogs last week as he bruised his way to 174 yards and three touchdowns.

The Cardinals can definitely keep opposing defenses honest with the play of quarterback Camden Dubois, who can use his legs and arm to his advantage.

The Bears have certainly found their “groove” with their rushing arsenal as the players have picked the schemes up well the last several weeks.

In their two-game winning streak, the Bears have totaled 1,054 total yards, 1,023 of it via the ground game.

Fullback J’Lon Douglas had 164 yards and three TDs on 15 carries against Cleveland and has 733 yards for the season. Tailback Sam King darted for 159 yards on just nine totes last week against the Indians and a TD and has cut loose for 568 yards for the year. Fellow tailback Chris Winters had 93 yards on nine carries and scored two TDs last week and now has 528 yards for the campaign.

The Bear defense was steady in the last two wins, allowing just 250 yards a game.

LC-M handed Bridge City a 34-7 loss at Battlin’ Bear Stadium last season.

The Bears had 451 yards of total offense as running back Robert Green had 173 yards on 24 carries and quarterback Jake Sonnier passed for 165 yards.

Dearing, installed at quarterback after the Cardinals were going through some injuries, rushed for 113 yards and passed for 94 more.

The Cardinals will hit the road next week next week by visiting Huffman while the Bears welcome in Jasper.