Forget the regular season. The second season is all that matters now.

The Ironton Fighting Tigers 6-4 regular season may have been disappointing to the fans, but the players are anxious to move forward when the postseason playoffs kickoff at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

“The new season starts (today),” Ironton head coach Merril Triplett said. “The defense is improving every week. We’re getting better.”

Ironton (6-4) will travel to a familiar playoff opponent when the Fighting Tigers meet the Westfall Mustangs (10-0).

Ironton has played Westfall in each of the past two seasons. The Fighting Tigers routed the Mustangs 40-21 at home in the opening round two years ago. Last season, Ironton’s defense shut down Westfall’s passing game 21-7 in the second round of the playoffs at Jackson.

This marks Ironton’s first time on the road to open the playoffs since 1999 when they advanced to the state championship.

“We played a tough schedule. Playing good teams like this can only help us get ready for Westfall,” senior defensive back and quarterback Chad Miller said.

Ironton is coming off a tough 7-0 loss to Logan which qualified in the Division I playoffs. Senior linebacker Andy Colegrove said the loss was disappointing, but won’t effect the Fighting Tigers.

“We really stepped up on defense. We made a few position changes and we’ll take what we learned from (the Logan) game and take it into the playoffs,” Colegrove said.