West Lauderdale quarterback Turbo McKee attempts a pass against the Trojans.

Cole Freeman hasn’t forgotten how last season ended for himself and the rest of the West Lauderdale High School football team.

After winning nine of their first 10 games last season, the Knights suffered a 10-7 loss to Northeast Lauderdale High School before getting eliminated a week later by Moss Point in the first round of the MHSAA Class 4A playoffs.

“I remember it was one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had,” recalled Freeman, who plays center for West Lauderdale. “I loved the seniors last year — my brother (receiver Jeremy Freeman) was one of them, and just having to let them go so early wasn’t a good feeling.”

So far, the Knights seem to have corrected course. After beating Northeast Lauderdale 34-20 last week to cap off an 11-0 regular-season finish, the Knights will now turn their attention to North Pike High School, which they host Friday in the Class 4A postseason opener. The bitterness of being put out so early last year has been a driving force for the Knights this week in practice.

“It’s always on my mind,” Freeman said. “I don’t want to repeat last year. We had a good season, we just lost it in the first round. This year, we want to get past the first round and maybe go onto the state championship.”

Senior running back Keshun Grace said the memories of last year haven’t only fueled the West Lauderdale players this week, they’ve been fueling the team throughout the season.

“We’ve been here before, so it kind of feels the same, but we have to finish that unfinished business we had last year,” Grace said. “I think we’re going to have to work a little harder and practice a little harder, like we have this week.”

At the same time, Grace said he doesn’t feel like he and his teammates are spending too much time dwelling on last year.

“We try not to think about it too much, but like I said, we still have unfinished business,” Grace said. “We’ve been striving toward that throughout the season. So far, we’ve been doing great, we just have to keep it going.”

Head coach Stan McCain said Thursday he’s happy his team is finally in the playoffs, especially since his players have spent all season looking forward to getting farther into the postseason than last fall.

“It feels good,” McCain said. “We finished on a high note. This is the time of the year you really play all of your games for. If you want to compete for a championship, you’ve got to get through the regular season. We’re pretty fair health-wise, so we feel like if we play like we’ve been playing, we’ll be able to go as far as we can.”

After going through the regular season without losing a game, McCain said he hopes his players realize that it’s not about what they did in the regular season, but what they do starting Friday.

“It’s not on my mind or the coaches’ minds, I’ll tell you that,” McCain said of being undefeated. “We’ll find out (Friday) night if it’s on their minds. Really, we’ve been pushing the fact that we’re 0-0 right now. It’s a new season, so everyone is even.”

Grace said he and his teammates aren’t focusing on the undefeated regular-season record either.

“We’re kind of past it,” Grace said. “We’re trying to move forward and take it one game at a time, one week at a time and one day at a time, so it’s not really on our mind that much.”

West Lauderdale enters Friday’s game against North Pike as a No. 1 seed, facing an opponent that finished 5-6 in the regular season, 2-3 in Region 6-4A.

“They’re very athletic, and they have some good size at some spots,” McCain said. “They’re a young team; I don’t think they have a lot of seniors playing, but they have some experience, and they’ve been here before.”

While West Lauderdale can be considered the favorite entering Friday’s game, Freeman said he and his teammates can’t get caught up in that.

“We always have to take our opponent as if they’re a No. 1 seed,” Freeman said. “You can’t take anyone lightly, especially in 4A.”

Kickoff will be at 7 p.m. Friday at West Lauderdale.