For the last leg of their journey to the Class 1A championship, the St. Aloysius Flashes are starting with a side trip to Bizarro World.

The Flashes (10-1), winners of 10 straight games and the Region 2-1A championship, open the playoffs at home Friday night against a Coldwater (5-6) team that needed a late-season surge just to get into the playoffs as a No. 4 seed.

It’s the opposite of last season, when it was St. Al that knocked off top-seeded Coffeeville and made a surprising run to the semifinals. The Flashes are hoping the outcome reverses itself as well, and the favorites come out on top this time.

“It’s definitely on our mind that anything can happen in the playoffs. It’s do or die, so you’ve got to approach each game like it’s your last,” said St. Al senior offensive lineman Drake Dorbeck, who verbally committed to Southern Miss last weekend. “We have a lot of confidence, but we have to stay humble and motivated and not get too far ahead of ourselves.”

Entering the playoffs as a No. 1 seed is rare air for St. Al. It’s the first time the program has done it since 1993, a few years before any of its current players were born.

This group of Flashes, though, brings plenty of experience to the table. Three members of the offensive line, as well as quarterback Connor Smith, are three-year starters. A number of other key players are in their second year in the lineup.

In facing a Coldwater team that likes to use a variety of formations and gimmick plays to move the football, the huge number of game reps the Flashes have compiled the past three seasons is invaluable, coach BJ Smithhart said.

“I think our kids are definitely confident, and that comes with experience,” Smithhart said. “There’s not a lot of defenses they haven’t seen. There’s not a lot of offensive formations they haven’t seen, having been starting for three or four years.”

Most importantly, experience has brought wisdom.

Last season, the Flashes won their last three regular-season games to get into the playoffs. They then knocked off Coffeeville 24-21 and Hamilton 13-12 to reach the North State championship game.

This time, it’s Coldwater that enters having won four of five to cap off a wildly uneven season. The Cougars have the unusual distinction of having given up 60 points in a loss and scoring 60 in a win.

“They might be getting better when it matters the most,” Smithhart said.

So, of course, are the Flashes. They’ve scored at least 28 points in every game this season, and 40 or more five times.

Although the closest of their 10 wins has been by 10 points, Smithhart wasn’t worried about his team being soft heading into the playoffs. He pointed to an early loss to Cathedral, as well as competitive games against Pisgah, Ray Brooks and Shaw, as examples of tests the Flashes have passed with flying colors.

“I think we’ve been tested. We had a couple early and a couple in district where you had to bow your neck up a little bit,” Smithhart said. “The toughest tests are ahead, and the kids know it too. It hasn’t been a cake walk. We’ve been hit in the mouth.”