JONESVILLE — Block High School head coach Benny Vault Jr. doesn’t exactly have fond memories of South Cameron High School.

The Bears will face South Cameron (2-8, 1-6) in the first round of the LHSAA Class 1A playoffs Friday night, and Vault said he has some unfinished business with the Tarpons, who eliminated the Bears in the 1986 playoffs when Vault was a player at Block.

“It was raining and wet, and they had a big old bad running back named Willie Jackson and a guy lining up against me named Lee Brown,” Vault said. “It was the roughest night of my whole career. They had a really talented team, and they put me out of the playoffs in the second round.”

But Vault said personal revenge takes a backseat to simply getting his Bears (5-5) past the first round of the postseason.

“We have that goal to win a championship, and they’re the first step,” Vault said. “It would add a little something special to beat them because of (the 1986 game). My kids are excited. They run a similar double-wing offense to us, but out of the shotgun. They get after it pretty good.”

Block went undefeated in district play to earn the Bears the No. 11 seed in Class 1A. The Tarpons are the No. 22 seed. The Bears 0-5 record to begin the season seems like the distant past, Vault said, and he also said he wasn’t surprised his team made the postseason.

“You can’t be too surprised with stuff you expect,” Vault said. “I’m just so thrilled about the progress the kids have made. We started out rough, but knowing what was going on, on the inside, we just had to make some adjustments.”

One thing the Bears are working on this week is their passing game, though Vault said he would never throw the ball around too much.

“We’re trying to get comfortable with it, even though I don’t much care for it,” Vault said. “Our goal is to call eight to 10 passes a game. I told one of my coaches that the other day, and he said, ‘Yeah, we’ll see. Are you talking about the whole playoffs?’ I said, ‘No, that’s each game.’”

Controlling the clock and continuing to cut down on turnovers will also be critical to the Bears’ success Friday. And, of course, Vault said his team would stay true to its strength — running the ball.

“We’ve been averaging 350 to 400 yards per game, so we’ll be running,” Vault said.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday in Jonesville.