The Keith Bears are no stranger to the postseason, considering Friday night’s game at Linden will be their sixth consecutive playoff appearance.

But, postseason success has eluded the Bears.

In their last five playoff games from 2008-2012, Keith has been outscored 228-76. The Bears only playoff win came in 1995 against Sulligent.

Of course, none of that will matter when Keith takes the field Friday night against No. 8 Linden. Instead, Keith head coach Harry Crum looks at it as another chance to get a big win.

“It would be the greatest win probably in the history of the school so I’ve just been trying to stress that to our kids,” Crum said. “Ultimately we want to go out and get that victory, but we want to go out there and play the best game that we can possibly play and leave it all on the field.”

Crum said that he and his team do at least have playoff experience to fall back on.

“One thing that you realize is that when you get to the playoffs everybody can play,” Crum said. “It doesn’t matter if you are a 1-seed or a 4-seed. If you make it to the playoffs, there is something that got you there.”

The Bears, known for their signature wing-T offense, will be facing a Patriots team that almost mirrors them offensively.

“They play hard and they are quick,” Crum said. “Their offense is kind of like ours. They run wing-T also. We have some familiarity with them but they are intense. They hit it at 100 m.p.h.”

The Patriots went undefeated in Class 1A, Region 1 play, but are coming off a 19-16 loss to Southern Choctaw to end their regular season. Before that, Linden had shutout their previous two region opponents in 52-0 and 56-0 victories.

Crum said he knows the game will be a challenge and he described the Patriots as “physical and quick” when he watches film.

“Hopefully, we have done a decent job trying to get our kids prepared but when you are going against a team like Linden who has a tradition of being in the playoffs — and in a recent year going deep into the playoffs — you know that it is not going to be a cakewalk by any stretch of the imagination,” Crum said.

The Bears coach said in order to win his team will have to limit mistakes and capitalize on the opportunities they are given.

“You’ve got to capitalize every time you have an opportunity for a big play,” Crum said. “You’ve got to capitalize, period. You can’t have turnovers and you have to play solid all night.”

Crum said rather than prepare trick plays, he’d rather see his offense run smoothly.

“There’s an old adage, do a few things and do them well,” Crum said. “We’ve done a few things this year and we haven’t done them especially well or consistently, so if we can just put together an entire game of football playing the way we used to play then maybe we will have an outside shot.”