YANKTON – Aberdeen Central admittedly has its work cut out for it.

The Golden Eagles are back in the Class 11AA football playoffs for the fourth straight season and the task ahead of them is the top-seeded Yankton Bucks.

“They’re a top seed for a reason,” said Central coach Justin Briese. “They’ve won plenty of games this year. They’ve got good team speed and a lot of good athletes. … All the things that successful teams have.”

Yankton has leveraged that athleticism and speed into a 7-2 record and a high-powered offense that averaged better than 40 points per game and closer to 50 points per win. Its lone two losses were to Watertown (the 2-seed in 11AA) and Harrisburg (the 3-seed in 11AAA).

Furthermore, the Bucks are coming off a playoff run in 2023 that reached the state title game before Yankton fell to 3-peat champion Pierre.

All that, however, is in the past and has little bearing on tonigh’s match-up between the Bucks and eighth-seeded Aberdeen Central.

“I think it comes down to which team makes fewer mistakes,” Briese said. “The team that makes fewer mistakes is going to come out on top. Doesn’t matter if it’s offense, defense, special teams, teams that make mistakes generally don’t do well.”

Central has had its share of both sides of that equation, starting off the season at 0-3 before reeling off three straight victories. The Golden Eagles then lost three straight to end the year at 3-6.

“That’s been our Achilles heel,” Briese said, “just having consistency at that higher level and staying focused. Not having those mental mistakes, whether it’s bad snaps, off sides, false starts.”

The brightest spot for the Golden Eagles has been play of the defense, an effort led by the likes of Felipe Gonzalez and Jack Bertsch on the line, and Evan Sichmiller in coverage, among others.

“I think our defense has been playing well all year,” Briese said. “It didn’t matter if they tried to run the ball or throw the ball, we’ve found ways to get stops. That’s going to be a big part of it.”

Central and Yankton’s paths did not overlap much throughout the year, even on film, meaning Briese and his staff have spent plenty of time diving deep into game tapes to get a feel for tonight’s clash.

Mostly, however, the Golden Eagles will be focused on handling their own business.

And they’ll have plenty of guys in the know of what that business is.

“We’ve had plenty of opportunities this year of next man up,” Briese said. “Whether it’s during games or post game finding out that somebody is going to be out, and then giving our backups plenty of reps throughout the week. We’ve had plenty of that. It really is next man up. Go do the same job as the guy ahead of you.”

Kickoff at Crane-Youngworth Field is set for 7 p.m. in Yankton.