ATHENS — It was hard enough beating the defending national champion Navarro Bulldogs once. Now the Trinity Valley Community College Cardinals have to do it again to keep their season alive.

Last week’s 55-51 shootout win over Navarro gave the Cardinals (8-1) plenty of reasons to believe they can beat the Bulldogs (7-2) again. But to get that done and advance to the Southwest Junior College Football Conference championship game (to face Saturday’s Blinn-Tyler winner), some things are probably going to have to happen.

1. Put Adrian Nelson in the pressure cooker

Nelson, the Navarro quarterback, was not sacked once last week and rarely had to make hurried throws. The result? He was 29 of 44 for a staggering 543 yards and six touchdowns.

That can’t happen again.

But bringing more defensive pressure is a slippery slope for the Cardinals. Send too many linebackers or even corners on a blitz, and that puts more pressure on the secondary and creates more room for Navarro’s receivers to make catches.

Speaking of that ...

2. Can anybody cover Navarro receiver Marquez Clark? 

Covering Clark isn’t a Trinity Valley problem — it’s a problem the entire conference has had for nine games.

Clark is hands down one of the top receivers — if not the best — to play in this conference. He’s already set the Navarro school record for receptions in a season, and last week, he made his 65th catch to set the SWJCFC mark that had stood for 11 years.

Against the Cardinals, he caught nine passes for 179 yards and three touchdowns. He finished with 384 all-purpose yards. Somehow, somebody’s got to slow him down.

3. Be better defensively on third and fourth down

The Bulldogs were pretty good on third down and perfect on fourth down last week. The Cardinals have to find a way to get them off the field sooner.

Navarro was 8 of 15 on third down, gaining 155 yards and scoring a touchdown. On fourth down, the Bulldogs were 3 of 3 for 49 yards with a touchdown and a field goal.

4. Win the turnover battle and limit penalties once again

TVCC was excellent in this category last week, and it needs a repeat performance.

The Cardinals were penalized only two times for 10 yards, and neither played a role in the outcome. On the other hand, Navarro was penalized 11 times for 86 yards — and several of those flags ended up costing the Bulldogs. Twice Navarro had TVCC in third-and-long situations, only to jump offside and turn them into third-and-shorts that were converted for first downs. The Cardinals scored touchdowns to cap both those drives.

The Cardinals won the turnover battle, by the way, 3 to 4. And one of those TVCC turnovers came on a Hail Mary interception at the end of the first half.

5. Believe

The Navarro curse, at least in its most recent incarnation, is broken. Last week’s win took care of that.

Prior to last week, TVCC hadn’t beaten Navarro since 2006. And even now, Navarro comes into this game with a 51-35-2 edge in head-to-head meetings with Trinity Valley/Henderson County Junior College.

Go ask TVCC head coach Brad Smiley what all that history means. He’ll be glad to tell you — absolutely nothing.

What matters is the here and now, and the Cardinals have to ride the wave of winning last week.

After all, it was a pretty fun ride.

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Saturday’s game at Bruce Field begins at 3 p.m. The game will be broadcast on KYYK radio (98.3), and the Review will post updates to its Facebook and Twitter sites throughout the game.