Highland playoff is rematch with Durant

The difficult part has been achieved, now comes the easy part.

Well, maybe easy is not the right word.

Highland qualified for the Iowa High School Athletic Association playoffs with a 7-2 record and will play at Class A District 6 champion Durant (7-2) Friday at 7 p.m.

'It's all downhill from here,” Highland's co-head coach Joe Donovan said. 'The hard part is getting into the playoffs. The pressure is off.”

The winner plays the winner of Hudson (9-0) and Lynville-Sully (7-2), a team Highland defeated in Riverside earlier this season. The teams are reseeded before the semifinals.

The Huskies are playing with house money, having already lost to Durant at the Huskies' Homecoming, 14-0, Oct. 5.

'Sometimes when you lose a game from the coach's standpoint, you want to play them again,” Donovan said. 'You know what you did wrong and, ideally, you know how to fix it. That's the confidence I have in this team, in these kids. What I worry about is getting the kids prepared to do the right things better than we did the last time. Then let the chips fall where they fall.”

There are two ways to look at the rematch. The teams have already played once, so why should the state pit them against each other again, but having already played, they know what they need to do to make the outcome different.

'I don't worry about things I don't have a say in,” Donovan said. 'I worry about getting better and how to attack them and be better than we were the last time we played.”

The Oct. 5 game was played 'in a monsoon,” Highland co-head coach Scott Morel said. 'Durant has big, good lineman with a good wide receiver and a solid quarterback. I hope we can be a little quicker on a solid field.”

Durant's quarterback is Bryce LaFrentz and he was first in the district in with 1,586 passing yards on 92 of 169 attempts.

Highland quarterback Trey Lasek was first in the district in total offense with 1,055 yards rushing on 141 carries and 904 yards passing on 50 of 99 passing.

Durant's Mason Compton leads Class A in receiving touchdowns with 12, yards with 961, and is second in receptions with 46.

Highland's Cory Stewart and Mason McFarland are fourth and fifth in the district respectively in receiving yards.

The IAHSAA tries to pair teams up that are not from the same district when determining playoffs, but it also takes into account geography and how far teams have to travel.

'It is what it is,” Morel said. 'It is a five seed versus a 12 seed, so it is just the way that it happened.”

There were 10 district champions in Class A and Highland was one of two wild cards from District 6 to qualify.

Having played such a strong schedule should prepare the Huskies for the road to the Dome.

'Now we just have to concentrate on getting better and I think we have done that the last two weeks of the season,” Donovan said. 'We had some blocking struggles in weeks five and six and seven, but weeks eight and nine I think we really corrected that.”

Durant has a 311-pound lineman, a 265-pounder, a 270-pounder, a 310-pounder and two more listed at 305.

'Execution will be important and understanding we can't run over 300-pound guys,” Donovan said. 'How we attack Durant strategy-wise will be about using our talents and our athletes' best abilities.”