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FRANKLIN - It was no fluke in 2008, when the Cougars of Tri-County Regional High School won the Mayflower League's Small School Division football championship, beat Pope John High in the Final Four of the MIAA Division 4-A playoffs and marched into Gillette Stadium for the Super Bowl.

With a revamped cast of Cougars in the skill positions, with some semi-experienced reserves finally getting some playing time at the varsity level and with a handful of incumbent starters back, Tri-County has done what few up on the hill in Franklin thought could be done.

But, the Cougars did!

"We felt that we could be a competitive football team, that we could show everybody that it wasn't just a one-year thing," said Tri-County High coach Dan MacLean, the architect of putting Cougar football on the map.

And so right down the street, at Franklin High's Pisini Field Tuesday night at 5:15, the Cougars are back at it - in the MIAA Division 4 Final Four, meeting Brighton in a semifinal round playoff game. The Cougars have won three of their last four games, have notched six shutout victories and taken home eight victories overall.

Brighton, meanwhile, has lost two of its last three games (being outscored 55-8 in those two games), that's after starting the season by winning just two of its first six games, allowing 145 points.

The Boston City League's South Division champions gained the other Division 4-A semifinal round berth by virtue of a 3-1 league record, that only taken when they beat Dorchester 38-12.

"I saw them in person against (Jeremiah) Burke, we've seen them on film and they beat O'Bryant, which I though was a very good team," said MacLean, wary that the Brighton record is not indicative of the talent in uniform.

"They're a big, physical football team," added MacLean. "We have to be ready for them because

they like to pound the ball.

"But, if we come out and take care of what we have to do on our side, I think that we'll be all right."

That is, the Cougars have to maintain possession of the ball, have to generate some drives into Brighton territory and hopefully, take the lead.

Another important factor will be playing in Franklin, the Cougars playing on a familiar field, five minutes from campus. "We're expecting a lot of people, there's a lot of excitement," said MacLean. "This is a big deal for us."

Brighton has some speed, some quickness, but it's not blinding. And Brighton prefers to run with the ball, not throw it. "They're fast and they do have some athletes," said MacLean, Brighton running both a wing-T and spread offense. "They'll throw it a little, but not too much. They'd rather come right at you."

But Brighton can't if they don't have the ball and if they have 70 yards or so to travel. To that end, the Cougar defense must meet the challenge. After all Tri-County has pairs of shutout wins over Nantucket and Holbrook-Avon, while also blanking Southeastern and Old Colony.

In fact, after the Cougars dropped a 12-8 decision at Blue Hills, they haven't allowed a point over the last eight quarters. "The key is being physical and tough and finishing," said MacLean of the Tri-County defense, most often a 4-4 scheme, but with some three-man rotations.

"Holding our opponents deep, not giving them a short field to work with has been a big key for us," he continued. The Cougar linebackers - Matt Mogan, Steve Morganti, Tyler Coffman , Randy Hardy and John St. Don - have more than met the challenge. "Having six shutouts is impressive," added MacLean. "Especially this year. What's helped too is that we're scoring 28, 30 points a game, that's big for us because last year we were squeaking out 16-14 wins.

Moreover, the Cougars didn't have a quarterback and we're really breaking in two new key components to the offense, Steve Robinson and Hardy. Hardy was to be a running back, but now he's a prime-time running quarterback and Robinson also takes a lot of snaps and can throw the ball.

"We knew that we had a strong line, but Randy we weren't sure of (at running back) and we were not sure about our quarterback," said MacLean.

"Beating Holbrook and Old Colony like we did in the last two games, where we played well for four quarters was very important for us, to carry that over into this game," said MacLean. "We have to execute, because at this stage records don't mean anything."