Top-Ranked Scotties Poised For Playoff Run

The Tri-Valley Dawgs are in the driver’s seat in Division 3, Region 9, having snatched up the top seed thanks to a perfect regular season. There’s no question this team has its sights set on a deep run in the state tournament, and that run begins at home against New Philadelphia tonight

The Quakers reached up and nabbed the 8th and final playoff spot last Friday despite getting blown out by Dover at home. Like the Dawgs a season ago, New Philly is young, scrappy and hungry to surprise the rest of the region at Jack Anderson Stadium.

"I think more than last year, they play like a team with a chip on their shoulder, and I think they’ll come down here and play like they’ve got nothing to lose because they’re so young," said Tri-Valley head coach Justin Buttermore. "I think we better be ready for a big-time game."

The Scotties have been waiting for that big-time game all season, yet all 10 opponenets have failed to give them one. But in the playoffs, the Dawgs know they’ll face their fair share of adversity.

"Once you get into the playoffs–we learned last year– you have to play full games," said quarterback Brock Fargus, who is unaccustomed to doing so this season. "With Athens, we went to overtime and we just didn’t finish and they did. Last year (against) Licking Valley, we don’t finish… Finishing is a very important part of our game and we’ve been working on that all year."

Speaking of Athens, The Bulldogs will be TV’s next opponent if both teams hold up their ends of the bargain. Two-way standout Hunter Mohler admits the Black and Golf are hungry to get another shot at A-Town, but first the Dawgs need to take care of what’s in front of them.

"Honestly, yeah, we started out a little bit slower this week," Mohler said, admitting that much of the team has been looking forward to the rematch with Athens for quite some time.

"But I think the last few days we’ve kind of picked it up and we really thought about ‘Ok, we need to take care of business week 11 before we go to week 12," he said.

You can listen to all the action live tonight on Highway 103. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.