The Prior Lake football team hopes to end the regular season with four straight wins.

And with that could mean the No. 1 seed in Section 3 in the Class 6A playoffs. The Lakers get Eastview on road Oct. 18 in Metro South District play at 7 p.m.

The Lakers (4-3 overall) go into the game off their best win of the year — 8-0 at No. 9-ranked Lakeville North Oct. 13.

"We know it’s going to be a very physical game and come down to a handful of plays [against Lakeville North]," Lakers coach Matt Gegenheimer said. "We were fortunate to have some big plays and score early, which was huge. The defense came up huge, especially in the end."

The Class 6A brackets for the 31-team playoff comes out Oct. 19. Top-ranked Eden Prairie (7-0) is the only unbeaten team left in Class 6A.

Rosemount (5-2) will also vie with Prior Lake for the No. 1 seed in Section 3, but the Irish's strength of schedule doesn't compare to the Lakers' schedule. Plus, Irish have a loss to a two-win Wayzata team.

However, Rosemount's two losses are by a combined four points, including 20-17 in overtime to No. 5 Edina. Lakeville North (4-3) could make a case for the No. 2 seed over Rosemount since the Panthers have a win over Wayzata.

Other teams in Section 3: Eastview (2-5), Burnsville (2-5), Lakeville South (2-5), Farmington (2-5) and Eagan (1-6). One of those five teams will get a home playoff game in the first round, which starts Oct. 27.

"We feel we have played better and better each week," Gegenheimer said. "We had some ups and downs early on and now feel like we are getting in a better rhythm. We feel like we can play our best football going into playoffs and that’s when it matters the most."

In the win over Lakeville North, the game's only touchdown was aided by some trickery. Facing a 4th-and-12 in the second quarter on their own 48-yard line, the Lakers pulled out the fake punt.

Senior Blake Ochsendorf connected with senior Tanner Wermerskirchen on a crossing route down the Panthers' 18-yard line. That set up a 2-yard touchdown run from junior Spencer Shaver.

The Lakers went for two and senior Preston Jelen converted on a sweep.

That was all the points the Lakers would need as the their defense was pretty much dominant from start to finish. The Lakers bent a little a few times, but stopped the Panthers three times near or inside the red zone, twice in the fourth quarter.

Junior Noah Benson picked off a pass on 3rd-and-9 with just over eight minutes to play on the Lakers' 21-yard line to halt one drive after the Panthers blocked a punt, setting up inside Laker territory.

Lakeville North got the ball back one last time at its own 2-yard line with 5:20 left to play. The Panthers marched down the field and faced 4th-and-2 at the Lakers' 17-yard line with just over a minute to play.

But Prior Lake came up with the stop as junior Michael Herbst made the initial hit on the fourth-down run, stopping the Panthers a yard short of the first down.

In the first quarter, Shaver had a sack on 3rd-and-14 that knocked the Panthers out of field-goal position. The Panthers tried a 40-yard anyway, but the kick was a few yards short.

Shaver led the Lakers on the ground with 13 carries for 53 yards. Jelen had 48 yards on 10 carries, while senior Jordan Johnson rushed 10 times for 37 yards. Wermerskirchen had three catches for 47 yards.

Benson led the defense with 13 tackles, while seniors Zachary Wick and Jordan Olson each had nine, while senior Derek Kay had eight and sophomore Dylan Bair had seven.