Porters Chapel’s season boils down to two huge District 4-A games. The first is Friday at Heidelberg Academy.

A win would largely put the Eagles (3-4, 2-1 District 4-A) into the Class A playoffs. The best they can hope for is second place in District 4-A since they lost to first-place Newton Academy (4-3, 3-0). Newton plays Ben’s Ford in its season finale, but even if PCA wins out in district play, Newton would own a point-differential advantage barring a rout by Ben’s Ford.

“You want to host a playoff game. It’s fun making it, but the real fun is playing at home,” PCA coach Wade Patrick said. “It’s a big game, because it’s going to go a long way toward determining how the seeds fall. Right now, we’re in good shape. We’re right in the mix of it, but we need to win here to nail it down.”

But that’s putting the cart ahead of the horse. The Heidelberg squad that started this season 0-6 and 0-2 in the district is gone, replaced by a squad featuring six new transfers from Heidelberg High.

“They’re night and day what they were at the beginning of the year,” Patrick said. “They’ll spread the field with an empty set, go five wide or they can go to a (wish)bone look out of the shotgun and run some play action off that. They’re trying to get those guys in space so they can make plays.”

Speaking of plays in space, the Eagles must shore up a secondary that gave up three pass plays of 20 or more yards in a 36-12 loss to Sylva-Bay last week. Two of those went for touchdowns.

On the injury front, it’s a mixed bag. Running back Peter Harris, who carried only seven times against Sylva-Bay after sustaining an injury on an uncalled horse-collar tackle, is back at full strength and will play.

Harris has 943 yards and 12 touchdowns from scrimmage this season, as well as kick return touchdowns in each of the last two games.

“He’s such a leader for us and the boys feel more confident when he’s out on the field,” Patrick said. “That’s a big help for everybody.”

Junior quarterback Jonah Masterson’s status is up in the air as he recovers from a knee injury. Patrick doesn’t want to rush his triggerman’s return until he’s back at full strength.

“I’m not going to risk him, hurting him even more,” Patrick said. “It’s not worth it. If he’s ready to go, we’ll see. If he gets cleared, we’ll look at the situation and see if it’s worth using him. I want him to be 100 percent. Not 90. Not even 95. I want him 100 percent when we bring him back.”