For two months, Porters Chapel Academy perfected the art of falling upward.

The Eagles piled up loss after loss — seven in all — and seemed to be written off as a playoff contender after each one. The other teams in the MAIS Class A ranks kept losing, too, however, and so now the Eagles find themselves in a most unexpected place.

The playoffs.

PCA’s reward for being among the best of the worst was the No. 14 seed in the 16-team Class A bracket, and a date Friday night with No. 3 seed Newton Academy (7-3).

“Each week, it seemed like it lingered on. Then we played last week and we were in,” PCA coach Wayne Lynch said. “We had a tough season. We’re going to go down fighting. That’s what we’re preaching, is that relentless fire. As long as we’re playing as hard as we can, that’s what we want to leave on the field.”

PCA (2-7) has encountered Newton before, and the results weren’t pretty. The Generals scored three special teams touchdowns and hammered the Eagles 40-0 on Sept. 5.

It was the second of those seven consecutive losses for PCA, and one of its worst of the season. The bright side, Lynch said, is that he felt a lot of the Eagles’ wounds were self-inflicted. Correcting their mistakes might give them a fighting chance in the rematch.

“We understand we weren’t playing well, and weren’t playing well on special teams. You take those (return touchdowns) off the board and it’s 14-0,” Lynch said.

The Eagles also have a little bit of confidence this time, coming off a 44-0 victory over Park Place in the regular-season finale.

PCA’s three-man running back committee of Logan Pickering, Taylor Rushing and Hunter Lyons combined for 291 yards and four touchdowns in the win.

None of PCA’s backs has emerged as the dominant one this season, but as a whole they’ve been pretty effective. The trio has 1,064 yards and eight touchdowns. Pickering leads the team with 475 yards and five TDs.

Lynch said all three will have to be sharp for the Eagles to have a chance Friday.

“We know (Newton’s) big and physical. We’re going to try to play big on big,” Lynch said. “We’ve got three strong running backs. We’re going to allow two of them to block for the third and see if we can get some first downs.”

They’ll also have to score touchdowns, which is something they didn’t do in the first meeting — or in a lot of recent meetings — with the Generals.

Newton has won its last five games against PCA since 2010. It’s outscored the Eagles 98-18 the last three times they’ve played each other.

Given that, Lynch wasn’t oblivious to the challenge facing his squad. He’s just hoping to see it compete.

“I think everybody has a chip on their shoulder for the last time we played them,” Lynch said. “No matter what happens, I think we’re going to play as hard as we can. That’s all you can ask of them.”

On the radio

Friday, 7 p.m., 104.5 FM

Porters Chapel at Newton Academy