LITTLE CYPRESS — Both Little Cypress-Mauriceville and Lumberton will be involved in playoff action next week but the Battlin’ Bears and Raiders will both look to finish out the District 11-4A Division I season strong when they battle at Battlin’ Bear Stadium Friday night.

The Bears (3-6, 2-2) are coming off a tough road loss at the hands of Huffman (4-5, 2-2) 26-12 last week as those two teams are currently tied for third-place. Meanwhile, the Raiders (5-4, 3-1), currently in second-place, rallied late last week but still fell short at home to 11-4A top-seed Splendora (8-1, 4-0).

The Bears can wind up anywhere between the second seed or fourth seed. If they defeat the Raiders and Huffman falls to winless Livingston (0-9, 0-4) the Bears would get the No. 2 seed. If LC-M falls to the Raiders, they will be the No. 4 seed.

LC-M got behind early 26-6 at Huffman last week and could not quite recover.

The Bears received another solid effort from senior quarterback Adam Pope, who passed for 123 yards on 12-of-24 passing while he also rushed for 104 yards and a score on 15 carries.

Bear receivers James Williams and Brendon Pollock combined for eight catches for 108 yards against the Falcons. Pope also looks to Darien Williams and Seth Carpenter in the passing game while Kristian Ickes and Landon Bearden tote the leather out of the backfield.

The Bears will look to shore things up on defense after allowing Huffman 452 total yards last week, 256 of it via the air.

The Raiders will look to get their Multiple Wing running attack going against the Bears. Lumberton lost the services of senior quarterback Jace Bridges earlier this season to a knee injury but sophomore quarterback Drake Boykin has filled in admirably. Lumberton also gets some hard-nosed running from backs Ty Cruse, Reagan Koch and Mason Williams.

After blanking Bridge City 34-0 a couple weeks back the Raiders dug themselves a 20-6 hole at home before rallying strong against Splendora but still fell just short.