San Marcos — The San Marcos Academy Bears reached the playoffs in dramatic fashion with a dominating third quarter performance versus Austin Hyde Park 25-14 in their season finale, but now must hit the road to Houston to take on the Lutheran North Lions.

The Lions are the No. 2 seed from TAPPS Division II District 4 and sport a 9-1 record and are 4-0 at home this year.

The Lions have put up 353 points and allowed only 140 with a tough defensive front. The Bears counter with 303 offensive points and are allowing 197 defensively but the Bears are 2-3 on the road this season.

Lutheran has the numbers and more size on the offensive line and boasts an explosive passing and rushing game.

SMA will have to bring its “A” game to compete in the first round of the playoffs.

It will be the Bears’ first appearance in the Division IV level of the playoffs in school history — the team made the playoffs two years ago but as a Division III competitor.

The Lions are led by Kevin Hatrick at quarterback and closed out their season with a 35-21 win over their rival Lutheran South Pioneers.

Justin Lee, Marquis Fruge and Bralen Chinn pace the Lions’ offense. Also, B.J. Williams rushed for 115 yards and 2 touchdowns versus Fort Bend Baptist earlier in the year. Lutheran is coached by Erik DeHaven, who is also the athetic director for the school.

The Bears will counter with the running game led by Anthony Richardson (964 yards); Richardson has surpassed over 1,000 all-purpose yards and should pass 1,000 yards rushing in the playoffs for the season. Mark Hamm eclipsed the 500 yard rushing mark last week for his senior season.

SMA continues to use all three quarterbacks with Richardson passing for 459 yards, while sophomore Aubrey Oswalt and Collin Cook combine for 153 yards. The ability to pass the ball more effectively over the last quarter of the season has opened up the run much more for SMA.

Defensively, the Bears are led by Cameron Whitehead with 96 tackles on the season. Yaz Gaylor is behind with 87 and Hamm with 86 for the team. Sacks are led by Michael Young with 12 and Cody Watson with eight for the regular season.

“I think everyone at SMA is very proud of the performance of last week,” SMA head coach Brian Gaylor said. “It was our first win over Hyde Park since 1997. But even more important was our last touchdown with just 0.9 seconds remaining. The score moved us from the fourth seed to the third seed. With that being said we still play a very talented Lutheran North team.

“They have one of the most talented secondaries I have seen in awhile. They limited Houston Second Baptist's Conner Wood (UT signee) to 166 yards. They have a very talented backfield that has a lot of speed. We will be heavy underdogs again this week, but you never know when you will catch lightning in a bottle.”

Fans who want to follow the Bears can go to smbasports.com and twitter.com/smbasports for live updates from the Bayou City starting at 7 p.m. Friday night.