Weeks 4 and 5 of the high school football season hardly seem like the time for a team to be fighting for its playoff life, but the MAIS’ District 4-A is hardly an ordinary league.

With three teams in the district — and thus only two league games apiece for each — Porters Chapel, Trinity and Wilkinson Christian will have just a handful of opportunities to control their own fate for the playoffs.

For PCA, they come this week and next.

The Eagles host Trinity on Friday in the first of back-to-back district games. A win in either will secure a playoff berth, and winning both would guarantee them the district championship and a home playoff game no matter what happens the rest of the way.

PCA could lose both and still get into the postseason as a wild card. Sixteen of 21 teams in Class A will make the playoffs. Coach Wayne Lynch, however, would rather his team seize this opportunity and not leave anything to chance.

“We know these two are the most important games of the season. We win both and we’re district champs and host the first round. That’s what we want,” Lynch said. “I don’t want to leave it up to scores and who played who. We want to secure those spots for ourselves.”

PCA (1-2) enters this crucial stretch having lost two in a row and with a number of question marks in key areas. It’s allowed six special teams touchdowns in its first three games, including three in a 40-0 loss to Newton Academy last week.

In addition to the touchdowns, several other long returns have given opponents a short field and led to scores. Senior linebacker Logan Pickering said that has made the team look worse than it’s played.

“I don’t think the scores show the potential that this team has. I think we’re a lot better than what we’ve played,” Pickering said. “We just always have a big mistake, or we get tired and do something stupid that leads to a big play. Once we push past it, we’ll be fine.”

Lynch said part of the struggles on special teams came from playing backups in order to give his starters a brief rest. More starters will play this week, he said, which should help in a lot of other areas.

“It’ll change everything,” Lynch said. “Against Hartfield (a 33-19 loss) we gave up two touchdowns on special teams. Last week, the same thing. The score was 40, and 21 was from special teams and special teams set up another score. Fixing special teams is going to be a big part of this week’s preparation.”

Trinity has won three in a row against PCA — by a combined score of 120-7 — but is not the same team that went undefeated en route to the 2013 Class A championship.

The Saints only have 19 players on the varsity roster, including 11 sophomores and one freshman, and gave up 113 points while losing their first two games. They did bounce back to beat Class AA Central Private 20-7 last week.

Lynch said Trinity’s lack of depth makes this a more even matchup than in past years, and felt PCA had a solid chance to spring the upset.

“Trinity is very similar to us. They have 17 or 18 like we do. On film they seem comparable,” Lynch said.

On the radio

Friday, 7 p.m., 104.5 FM

Trinity at Porters Chapel