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LISBON -- Friday night's trip to Lisbon is a homecoming of sorts for Madonna head coach Shawn McKinnon.
The Lisbon graduate, who played football for four years for the Blue Devils from 2010-2013, will this time be on the opposite sideline as he leads his Blue Dons into War Memorial Stadium to face his alma mater.
"I think it'll be pretty cool," McKinnon said of going back to his alma mater. "I know all those guys really well. Bill Meek, their head coach, was my offensive line coach when I was in high school under Jim Tsilimos. (Assistant coaches) Danny Donohue, Seth Davis, David Toot, I played on the same team as all those guys. I know them all really well. Bill was a great mentor to me, especially having him coach me in high school. So, it'll be a great opportunity to go back there, see a lot of familiar faces in the stands, and hopefully we can put a win on the board."
The Blue Dons (1-5) are coming off of a bye week, which came at a good time as they had some guys banged up and had dropped four-straight games.
"We used the bye week trying our best to get better and fix the little things, especially the turnovers and ball security," McKinnon said. "We also gave the kids a little bit of a break from football, just had a couple days over the long weekend and let the kids kind of relax and get healthy."
Getting back on the field, they will face a Blue Devils team that sits 5-3 and the thick of the Ohio playoff race.
Lisbon sits at No. 16 in Division VI, Region 21 and likely need to win out in order to jump into the top 12 and make the playoffs.
The Blue Devils have been good at home this season, sitting 3-1 at War Memorial Stadium.
They average 26.5 points per game and allow 21.5.
"Lisbon is a tough football team," McKinnon said. "They're coached really well. They're very violent. They attack the football on defense and they're aggressive. Offensively, they try to spread you out. They have a good quarterback in Grant Minor. He tries to get the football out of his hands or get out of the pocket and really tries to get down the field.
"It's going to be a tough test for us. I think our kids are up for the challenge to go out there and compete. That's just our big thing is trying to stay healthy and put some points on the board and play some good football."
Madonna's efforts this season have been led by tailback Thomas Davidson who has 537 yards on 67 carries, averging 8 yards per carry and has seven TDs. He's also two touchdowns and has another 193 receving yards.