It's a matter of trust.

The Bruin football team has battled through 13 weeks, winning the Great Basin Conference championship and the right to host playoff contests through the semifinals. With the Great 8 portion of the playoffs out of the way, the Bruins face Nampa tonight at Bruin Stadium in the Class 4A quarterfinals. The Twin Falls program is once again forging a path through the playoffs, but none of the players and most of the coaches haven't ventured this deep together.

"None of them out there have been in the 10th week," said head coach Allyn Reynolds. "What we're asking them to do is trust us. Trust in what we're trying to do. Trust what we've been doing."

For some perspective, Reynolds asked two of his freshmen-team coaches to speak with the varsity squad following Wednesday practice: Mike Smith and Martin de La Presa, members of the 2004 Class 5A state championship team. As the sun set on that Wednesday session, Smith and de la Presa weighed in on their message to the players as they continued to scrimmage on the practice field just south of Bruin Stadium.

"At this point of the year, you can talk about talent and hustle all you want," Smith said. "We wouldn't be here if we didn't have that, so that's not the direction I'm going. To me, it's two things: trust and accountability."

The Bruins have tempered those concepts into their team makeup, and the results are seen in the program's best season in five years. Senior defensive lineman Zack Van Loo said trust starts with the coaching staff and continues through the senior class, down through the underclassmen. Josh Settlemoir, a junior running back, added that the mentality has led to solid team chemistry.

"We have to be a team," he said. "It's what it takes Friday night."

It'll also take the Bruins' best outing against the Bulldogs since 2004, when the Bruins won 28-7. In the last four contests, Nampa has come out on top three times, including a 28-14 victory earlier this year.

The Bulldogs (6-3) are similar to the Bruins (5-4) on defense, as both run a three-man front the majority of the time. The difference will come when Nampa has the ball. Although they've shown to favor the spread early in the season, Reynolds said that they're moving closer to a power-I offense.

"They ran a little bit of that against us in the first game," Reynolds said. "They have shown that when they're in the lead, they'll jump into that and play ball control. It's kind of like that philosophy back in the '70s with Oklahoma and Nebraska when they went with the wishbone."

Running back Mahonri Bostrom is the bulk of the Bulldog offense and has rushed for nearly 1,800 yards, according to the Idaho Press-Tribune, more than the total of all Twin Falls ball carriers.

"I remember last time that they put up quite a bit of rushing yards," Settlemoir said. "We'll prepare for that."

The Bruins, conversely, are heavy on passing. T.J. Ellis is throwing for 214 yards per game and has spread the ball around. Six players - Jon Pulsifer, Ricky Akridge, Brady McNew, Jared Jordan, Brennon Lancaster and Josh Settlemoir - have accumulated more than 100 yards on receptions, and five have at least two touchdown receptions. On the ground, Akridge, Jayson Welker and Brett Hardman have each gained more than 200 yards, and Hardman has carried for seven touchdowns.

"Some backs are solid and consistent and steady, they're going to get you that three or four or five yards, but they're not going to shift gears and score," Reynolds said. "This kid can do that."

The Bruins' play in the trenches has grown stronger through increased communication, according to Reynolds, and will be a deciding factor tonight.

The third part of the equation, special teams, is where tonight's game could be won or lost. In the Week 1 game against Nampa, Twin Falls allowed the Bulldogs to return a kickoff for a touchdown. Two weeks ago against Minico, a missed PAT kick allowed the Spartans to spoil the Bruins' potential for an undefeated conference schedule. The players on the return team, coverage team and kicker Dustin Hegstrom, who nailed a 40-yard field goal against Burley last week, will have to be at their best.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. If the Bruins are victorious, they will host the winner of Blackfoot-Bishop Kelly next Friday at Bruin Stadium in the semifinal round.

Bradley Guire may be reached at bguire@magicvalley.com or 208-735-3229.