PINEVILLE, La. — The setting could not have been better for a playoff game. Unfortunately for Porters Chapel Academy, its game on a college field was not at Mississippi College in the MAIS Class A state title game.

It was a state away, at Louisiana College, and it was a first-round playoff game. Host CENLA Christian made sure it was the Eagles’ final game of the 2011 season with an emphatic 53-20 win last Friday. The loss finished PCA’s season at 6-6.

Still, it’s an improvement over the past two seasons. The Eagles finished 5-6 and missed the playoffs in 2010. They made the playoffs in 2009, but finished with just four wins.

In a three-year span, the Eagles have had three different coaches. Current coach Wade Patrick hopes his return will build some much needed continuity as the program moves forward.

“It’s about building a foundation and we just had such a short time to do it because it was a late hire. We were like three months behind,” Patrick said. “You want to build that relationship with the players, at least in the spring, but we didn’t have it.”

Now that he has a regular season under his belt, Patrick knows what the Eagles must do in his first offseason.

“We have to get stronger,” Patrick said. “We lose Talbot Buys and Jacob Smithey from the line. We also lose Sam Staggs, who came back (Friday) for his first game in six weeks. But I feel we’ve got some good young guys back, including Bryce Fleming, who started for us as an eighth-grader.”

The Eagles will also return a two-year starter, sophomore Jonah Masterson, at quarterback. Like his coach, Masterson said the Eagles must get better up front.

“We’re losing some of our line, but the guys who will step in, we need to have a good push from them,” Masterson said. “I feel like we will have some good backs with Peter (Harris) and Justin McDaniel coming back.”

Harris and McDaniel will have to replace the Eagles’ signature player this season, Kawayne Gaston. The Vicksburg High transfer closed his high school career with three straight 100-yard games. That included a 168-yard, three-touchdown performance against CENLA that pushed him to 1,335 yards for the season.

Gaston finished his high school career with 2,624 rushing yards, and surpassed the 1,000-yard mark in each of his last two seasons. Gaston said he hopes to play in college as a running back.

“I feel I’m ready to take the next step,” Gaston said.

Buys, who also played his final game for the Eagles, was glad to finish on a college field — and, like Gaston, hopes to return to one very soon.

“It was a good setting, and hopefully this is not the last time for me on a college field,” Buys said.