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TORONTO -- When they have met the past two season, it has not mattered what Toronto and Buckeye Local's records have been -- the match up has produced a pair of hard-fought battles.
Both coaches expect more of the same on Friday night when the Panthers invade Clarke Hinkle Stadium for the rubber match between the teams who have each won on their home field in the first two installations of the series.
"We expect more of the same," Buckeye Local head coach Jim Hoover said. "The last two years this has been a close game and I expect nothing different. Every game we play is going to be a dog fight.
"They've got a good quarterback and tailback (Zane and Zeb Kinsey) that can run the ball well and they have some decent size up front. They're pretty similar to what they were last year, so we know we're going to have to be able to stop the run."
Stopping the run seems to be the key for both sides of the battle, as the Red Knights know the Buckeye Local ground game can be dangerous if it gets going as well.
"They're a big, physical ball team and they want to get downhill and pound the ball at you," Toronto head coach Josh Franke said. "They have a big physical back in Trey Hoover, who you have to account for, and they have Skyler Ebright and Dylan Palmer who are capable of beating you on the ground as well, and they have a big, physical line to go with it.
"Ebright is very athletic and can beat you on the edge, too, so we have to make sure we play disciplined football on defense and we have to be very physical up front to match their physicality on the offensive line."
For the Red Knights, not only is a big local game and a chance to avenge a loss from last season, it's also a big opportunity to score points in the rankings - AP Poll, playoff and OVAC.
"These games are huge for us, they are registered as a Division IV school this year so that is not only huge for us in the playoff point system, but also a big opportunity for us to get a large amount of OVAC points with them being a bigger school than us in the OVAC," Franke said. "There are a lot points on the line for us so it's a huge game for us all the way around."
Punching above their weight class is also nothing new for Toronto, who schedules that way on purpose to be ready when the games matter most in Week 11 and beyond.
"We embrace playing bigger schools, if you look at our schedule we only play four schools that are our size, so everyone else ranges from a little bit bigger to a lot bigger," Franke said. "This is a good measuring stick for us to see where we're at and what we're capable of doing against a bigger school, but also good preparation for the playoffs.
"You're not going to see teams in the later rounds of the playoffs that are going to be easy outs, so we're going to have get ourselves like this in the regular season where we are tested physically, mentally and athletically in order to compete for things long-term that we want to compete for."
Both teams are coming off victories. The Red Knights stayed unbeaten by pulling away from Lisbon in Week 3, while the Panthers got into the win column for the first time this season with a much better performance on the road at Shadyside to go to 1-2.
The Panthers are excited coming off a win, but still have the proverbial work boots on.
"The sun is always going to be a little brighter after a win," Hoover said. "But the kids at Buckeye always show up every day to work hard whether we win or lose the week before. They're upbeat and ready to go back to work."
As for what made the difference a week ago for Buckeye Local to get into the win column, and what they need to continue to improve on - the answer to Hoover is the same; fundamentals.
"We have to keep working on the fundamentals," Hoover said. "We have to keep blocking, moving our feet and be able to tackle. We tackled much better (against Shadyside) and that was a huge (reason for getting the win). We have to keep building on that and keep getting better up front."
For Toronto, who finds itself getting recognition for its start to the season by being ranked No.6 in the first Ohio AP Division VII Poll, it knows this is an important game they have to be focused for - a lesson learned the hard way last season.
"Last year we were 2-1 at this point coming into this game and a lot of these kids were on that team, and we went down to Buckeye, kind of took them a little bit lightly and they beat us by two scores," Franke said. "That was kind of the landslide point for us last year, we lost a lot of games in a row starting with that one and that really affected our season. We look as last year's game as a turning point moment and these kids no what happened.
"We have made very sure as coaches this week that our kids are aware of that and are prepared."
The kick Friday night is set for 7 p.m.