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CADIZ -- Harrison Central enters Week 8 in pretty good shape following a 32-6 win against Indian Creek.
Head coach Anthony Hayes' Huskies are 5-2 and currently rated No. 4 in Division V, Region 17. That's the good news in terms of playoff positioning.
The bad news is that to this week's opponent, Division VII Waterford, the Huskies look like a juicy Harbin points cow that could provide a major boost to the Wildcats' own playoff position.
Waterford is presently 5-2 but rated No. 9 in Region 27. A win against a Division V team with five wins could jump the Wildcats up quite a few spots come the following week's ratings release.
Despite the added important of playoff bonus points, Hayes was already expecting a tough game at Waterford.
"They are traditionally a good program and are well coached," Hayes said. "Year in and out, they win at least seven games and after finally seeing them on film, they are more athletic than we initially thought.
"They are pretty athletic and have a couple of nice wide receivers, and some big strong kids on defense that like to put a lot of pressure on the quarterback so we'll have our work cut out for us keeping our QB clean.
"Their quarterback does a nice job of distributing the ball around."
Waterford has won 4 of 5 games since a 41-14 dismantling at the hands of Caldwell. The lone loss during that five-game stretch is a narrow 21-20 defeat to Eastern. Last week, the Wildcats defeated Southern 49-7 a week after blanking Frontier 31-0.
The Wildcats' two losses came to the only teams with winning records on their schedule. The win-loss record of the five teams they beat--6-29.
QB Hayden Jones was 7-of-12 for 199 yards and three TDs against southern while his brother Colton ran for 129 yards and two TDs on 11 carries.
Receiver Max Roberts had three catches for 138 yards, bolstered by an 80-yards scoring connection with Hayden Jones.
Harrison will counter with its balanced attack, featuring the running of Mykel Quito and a passing attack led by Hayden Cassidy.
The key for the Huskies this season is the ability for either the run or passing game to be the feature weapon on a week to week basis.
"We've been pretty balanced," Hayes said. "Some weeks we have really realied on Hayden to make plays throwing and running, and other weeks, we've leaned on Mykel. It's a nice luxury to have that if one aspect is taken away, we have the ability to get the ball into the other players' hands.
Quito's rushing totals include 828 yards and 13 TDs, an average of 118.3 per game. Parker Hutton is the leading receiver with 422 yards on 30 catches, but opposing defenses can't be too keen on shutting down Hutton as both Clayton Vermillion (14 for 142) and Cam McAfee (13 for 163) can cause havoc should opposing defenses make the error to ignore them.
"Cam can do a lot of different things and he creates problems for defenses," Hayes said. "He can get guys open because of what he brings to the table."
Cassidy has thrown for 954 yards and 11 TDs, averaging 136.3 yards per game.