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CLOVIS — Welcome home, state playoff football.

After a three-year wait, postseason action is finally returning to Leon Williams Stadium as Clovis hosts defending 6A champion La Cueva on Friday, marking the Wildcats’ first state tournament home game since 2016.

And the second-seeded Wildcats (7-3) couldn’t be more thrilled about beginning their state tournament quest at home, while also playing any game there for the first time since Oct. 11.

“It’s going to be huge, especially because we’ve been undefeated at home all year,” Clovis junior running back Jeston Webskowski said after Monday morning’s film and weight-lifting session at Clovis High School. “I know it’s going to be a really good environment.”

“I think it’s really cool having a home game,” Wildcats junior receiver Jaden Phillips said after Monday morning’s session. “I’ve never been in a state playoff game at home, I’ve never been to one here or seen one here, so I’m really excited. ... It’s going to be wild, it’s going to be packed. Everyone will be cheering. We’ll be flying around, having a good time, hopefully giving the fans something to cheer about.”

Cal Fullerton has been involved in prior Clovis home playoff games as a young spectator, a player, and as one of Eric Roanhaus’ assistants. But Friday will be Fullerton’s first as the Wildcats’ head coach.

“Just thinking back about it, I remember being a kid when my dad and Coach Roanhaus and those guys were coaching,” Fullerton said Monday morning. “Just the atmosphere in playoff games at Leon Williams, there’s really nothing like it. So it’s an exciting time for me and my family and obviously our players.”

When Clovis’ program last tasted home playoff football three years ago, it turned out to be a 31-28 victory over Eldorado in the 6A tournament’s opening round. This year’s Wildcats are hoping for a similarly good start in Friday’s 7 p.m. matchup against seventh-seeded La Cueva (8-3), and just might get it if past is prologue. And if preparation time pays off.

Clovis had a bye week before its Nov. 1 regular-season finale at La Cueva, then beat the Bears 35-30 that night to win the District 2/5-6A championship. The Wildcats then had another bye week thanks to their No. 2 state-tournament seed, while La Cueva was beating 10th-seeded Eldorado 41-27 in 6A’s first round.

So Clovis’ routine has been, week off, play La Cueva, week off, play La Cueva.

“We’ve been practicing against their schemes for a month,” Phillips said, “so we’re pretty well-prepared. It’s just a matter of execution.”

“We’ve spent a lot of time on them,” Webskowski said, “so we know them pretty good and we feel pretty confident.”

Because of the familiarity aspect Phillips and Webskowski noted, some might see playing the same team in two successive games as a good thing. Others, though, might point to the often-repeated line about how hard it is to beat the same team twice in the same season, let alone two games in a row.

Fullerton sees more of the latter.

“Oh, definitely tougher,” he said. “It’s hard enough to beat ’em once.”

Clovis did have to rally in the final two minutes to edge La Cueva in the Nov. 1 matchup. That after the Wildcats had squandered a 15-0 first-half lead and a chance to tack on another score before halftime.

Which gives Clovis something obvious to correct for this Friday’s rematch.

“We cost ourselves a few times with some penalties,” Fullerton said. “We got down to the six-yard line once on fourth-and-one, and got illegal motion called on ourselves and had to back up five and try to kick a field goal — and missed it. We had a chance to go up three possessions right there, and it kind of turned around the momentum in the game. They went down and scored twice right away and tied it up before half. So little things like that, dumb penalties on fourth down, dumb penalties period, and then making sure we don’t have any turnovers again. We win the turnover battle and the field position battle, we’ll be in it in the fourth quarter. And that’s all you could ask at this time of year.”

“There are a couple of changes,” Webskowski said, “just to better ourselves in a couple places that we messed up in the previous week.”

It helps that to work on those tweaks Clovis just had its second bye in the past three weekends.

“It was good,” Fullerton said of the Wildcats’ most recent time off. “Real similar to what we did the week before we played them for the district championship. A lot of film study on Eldorado and those (La Cueva) guys. We didn’t know who would win; we figured La Cueva would. ... If it would’ve been Eldorado, we played them two weeks before La Cueva. It was the last two teams we had played, so it’s hard to forget about those two teams when you’ve just gotten done playing them. We were preparing for both of them a little bit, and now all of our focus is on La Cueva, so we feel good about it.

“We’re just going to have to perform,” Fullerton added, “hope our kids don’t forget how tough of a football game it was (the last time against La Cueva). They are the defending state champions and there are a lot of winners in that locker room and on that coaching staff. So we’re going to have our work cut out for us. They’re going to be hungry. They want the rematch. They’re going to come down expecting to win at Leon Williams.”

Clovis will do whatever possible to prevent that. And if the Wildcats are successful, they will again be home the following Friday for a semifinal against either third-seeded Cleveland or sixth-seeded Centennial.

The state championship game is scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend.

It’s one challenging step at a time for Clovis, but Friday could be the start of a state-title run. The Wildcats think they’re capable of powering through to a championship.

“I definitely do,” Webskowski said. “I think that we’ve got enough dudes and enough heart and especially the work ethic to go all the way.”

“Most definitely,” Phillips said. “We have a lot of talent, everyone’s bought in, everyone wants to see everyone else do better. And we’ve all got each other’s backs.”

“It’s been amazing to see these guys come together in the locker room,” Fullerton said. “You talk and talk about culture, this and that, how your culture needs to be good. And when your kids believe it, they buy into it. There’s really not a better feeling. These guys know how to practice hard. The guys that don’t get to play a whole lot, they do their work during the week and they’re appreciated as much as everybody that is playing. So it takes a whole village to win a football game. You’ve got to get a lot of people with the same mindset doing the same thing and believing in what you’re doing. And I think our kids have done that.”