Cobras face must-win

With the Iowa High School Athletic Association's new playoff format for football, only district champions are guaranteed a playoff spot. The postseason is then filled with the highest teams in the Ratings Percentage Index, which takes a team's opponents' records and the opponents opponents' records into account.

Sigourney-Keota RPI is at 19 in the RPI with only 16 teams making the playoffs. A victory today at ninth-ranked Mediapolis is vital and then some other teams would have to drop in the RPI.

'We have nothing to lose Friday night and everything to gain,” Sigourney-Keota coach Jared Jensen said. 'We have been in this situation before. We have to fight for what we want and even with our loss to Wapello, we feel if we get a win that we still have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs.”

That is a common feeling in the last week of the regular season.

'We need to win this game to have a shot at the playoffs,” Mediapolis coach Brian Borrison said. 'In essence, this is a playoff game for us.”

The Bulldogs (7-1 overall, 3-1 district) are at 12 in the RPI.

Wilton (7-1, 4-0) has clinched the title in Class 1A District 5 with a 20-3 win over Mediapolis and a 35-0 win over SK (5-3, 2-2).

'We feel like we have a good idea of what (the Cobras) like to do, but it is still difficult to replicate and prepare when you have not seen it in person for a while,” Borrison said. 'They obviously want to run the ball. They use deception to get numbers advantages. We need to make sure that we get lined up correctly, do our assignments, and most importantly, fly to the ball and be physical.”

SK runs the traditional single-wing spinner-back offense.

'We have added some other formation groups that still base around the single wing,” Jensen said.

'We know they are a quality football team that has shown their dominance throughout the season,” Borrison said. 'They love to spread the ball around and give you a lot to prepare for. They run some spin series and power series single wing a little different than we do along with a lot of spread offense. It will be a great experience seeing traditional single wing against a newer age single spread wing.”

Mediapolis is a spread-pistol offense and lines up in a 3-5-3 defense.

'We would like to create penetration on defense,” Borrison said. 'They are going to make some plays, it is necessary for us to respond well to adversity.”

On defense, the Cobras run a 4-2-5.

'Mepo has a ton of size across the line with speed behind them,” Jensen said. 'The challenge will be to play physical enough to combat their size and try to match their speed with speed in our defensive back seven.”

Both teams' strength is in the ground game. SK's JD Stout is second in the district with 1,035 yards rushing on 152 carries (6.8 yards per carry) with 18 touchdowns. Mepo's Zach Osborne is third with 884 yards on 113 attempts for a 7.8 per carry average.

The Bulldogs have outscored their opponents 301-115. The Cobras have a 234-176 advantage.

'To say they have a weakness might be a stretch,” Jensen said. 'They play extremely well on offense, defense and special teams. Every aspect of their special teams is solid as well. They have a good kicker and punter along with great return guys. They can pin you deep and have the ability to give themselves a short field on every special teams' possession.”

The team that can control their tempo with its offense and put together drives that acquire points and burn clock will most likely win.

'Keeping their offense off the field is going to be a huge positive for us as long as we can get points out of each possession,” Jensen said. 'We have to find a way to get stops when they do have the ball. We have to start out strong defensively and not get behind and have to play catch up.”

'I think we are in a good spot mentally and are excited to play a big game at the end of the season,” Borrison said. 'We need to play hard and play smart.”