Through four weeks of the 2015 season, the Porters Chapel Eagles have been beaten up and blown out on a regular basis.

They’re still standing, though, ready for more and to finally hit back.

The Eagles head to Natchez on Friday night to take on Trinity Episcopal in the District 5-A opener for both teams. It’s a chance for a fresh start with a clear path to the postseason, and to put a difficult opening month squarely behind them.

“That’s what it’s all about, is district play,” PCA coach Wayne Lynch said. “We play the other games to get prepared for the district games. We win the district games and everybody’s happy.”

PCA has a 1-3 record entering Friday’s game that’s the product of both an inexperienced roster and having to play out of its classification on a weekly basis. The Class AA Eagles have yet to face another Class AA team on the field. Its one game against a Class AA opponent resulted in a forfeit when Riverdale didn’t have enough healthy players to compete.

PCA has been outscored 113-0 in the first half of its three actual games.

Despite the bad start, however, the mood has remained upbeat. They know the game against Trinity is the start of a new season in more ways than one. PCA’s last six games are all against Class AA teams.

“I wish we would’ve played Double-A teams earlier, but at the same time I’m glad we did play teams that were so good because now, in our minds, we’ve played against them and we’re going to see what somebody can do that’s our own size,” junior quarterback Garrett Hutchins said. “We’ve learned a lot as a team. It’s not just me. We’ve learned what to expect from people that are good. We play a team that’s so good, we learn where our mistakes are and what we need to fix for teams that are our same skill.”

Trinity is the same classification as PCA, and has the same record at 1-3, but has fared better against the bigger teams than the Eagles have. Like PCA, Trinity has played four Class AAA or AAAA opponents. It lost two competitive games to Silliman and Copiah Academy, then came out on the losing end of a 62-61 shootout against Class AAA power Riverfield last week.

“They’re good,” Lynch said. “They’re a high-paced, throw-it-around offense.”

Lynch said the Eagles will counter with a run-first strategy designed to keep Trinity’s offense off the field, as well as a physical approach on defense. Jamming receivers at the line and disrupting routes will be key.

“I think they’re not that physical. They play with speed. We want to use that to our advantage and get them off their game,” Lynch said. “We’ve played physical. We’ve put hats on people and gotten them down. We just have to sustain that for four quarters. If we’re willing to hit them and be as physical as we can, we can win.”

That goes for the rest of the season as well. PCA made the playoffs in 2014 with a 2-8 record, thanks in large part to the quirky MAIS power points formula that rewards playing bigger opponents.

The Eagles are 13th in the Class AA power point rankings — the six district champions and 10 wild cards make up the 16-team bracket — and have all three district games remaining. A bit of success in the second half of the season could net them another trip to the postseason.

“At this point I haven’t seen a big separation in our district. I think everybody is kind of the same. We’ve all played some bigger schools and haven’t had a lot of success,” Lynch said.