I had a football coach tell me once that, “it’s always great when you can learn something about your team and still win.”

Cleveland learned how to deal with adversity in a heart-stopping win over Clayton to wrap up the regular season, and the Rams parlayed that lesson into a 57-13 thumping of Gray’s Creek in the first round of the playoffs.

Next up on the syllabus for Scott Riley’s club is a home date with Leesville Road this week. Curtis Media (102.3 FM) will have the call, and the Massey Ratings have the Rams (11-0) as a solid 15.5-point favorite.

Meanwhile, the Pride (9-2) enter this one on the back of a 27-0 shutout of Richmond County in round one. The only blemishes on their slate are a double-overtime loss to Wake Forest and a 10-point defeat at Cardinal Gibbons. The words “Raleigh tested” come to mind.

Still, Leesville Road has struggled in those losses to contain mobile quarterbacks (Kavon Simmons) and passing offenses (Gibbons) and Cleveland brings both to bear with Jackson Byrd.

The junior quarterback has thrown for 2,783 yards and 28 scores while completing 70.7 percent of his passes. And while he hasn’t run as often as he did last season, he’s still effective (297 yards and 7 TD on 6.2 yards per carry).

Six players have caught at least 14 passes and four have at least 200 yards rushing, so there’s plenty of weaponry on hand as well.

The defense gets overlooked as a result of the last two paragraphs, but it’s a unit that has posted four shutouts and is allowing only 10 points per game.

It’s hard to look past the Rams in this one, but this is not the time of year to take anything for granted.