Trevor Moran (10) of North Union picks up yardage against Genoa Arena. The Wildcats will travel to Findlay Liberty-Benton for their third playoff game on Saturday. (Journal-Tribune photo by Sam Dillon)
The North Union football team has an uphill battle on its hands as it moves into the third round the Division V, Region 18 state playoffs.
The Wildcats will have to make the trip to Findlay on Saturday (7 p.m.) as they take on top-seeded Liberty-Benton.
North Union, which is the No. 8 seed, has found itself playing solid football of late. The Wildcat defense has only given up seven points in the past two playoff games, but head coach Nick Hajjar doesn’t want his team getting ahead of itself.
“We’ve got a lot of momentum right now,” he said. “Handling success can sometimes be more difficult then handling defeat. You can get complacent.”
The Cats will have to play at their best to beat the fourth-best team in Associated Press’ Division V state poll.
The Eagles, who won their playoff opener against 13th seeded Bloomdale Elmwood 33-13, like to throw the ball.
They went 6-0 in the Blanchard Valley Conference by tallying 1,126 yards in the air, while picking up 844 on the ground.
The aerial attack is led by senior quarterback Ben Spiess. He has tallied all of the passing yards for the Eagles with 14 touchdowns and only two interceptions.
Dru Baker leads the Eagles in rushing with 322 yards and three TDs.
Hajjar said there isn’t one player upon whom Liberty-Benton relies.
“They are really good,” he said. “It isn’t one guy who does a lot for them. They have a lot of guys who do a lot of different things.”
As impressive as the Eagles’ offense looks on paper, their defense has been playing extremely well.
The Liberty-Benton defense is yielding only 8.2 points per game.
The Eagles have given up 1,032 total yards, with the majority of those coming on the ground.
That’s something in which the Wildcats are well versed.
“Their base defense is a 4-3 and they are just sound,” Hajjar said. “They protect the gap well and don’t make mistakes.”
The Wildcats, however, have a solid offensive weapon of their own.
Running back Trevor Moran led the Central Buckeye Conference with 991 yards and has 12 touchdowns.
Regardless of what Liberty-Benton has done, Hajjar said the Wildcats are looking at themselves.
“All we can control is what we do,” he said. “We have go out there and play unselfish football and keep doing what we have been doing for the past two weeks.”
Besides being physically tough, Hajjar said his team will also have to be mentally strong as they take their first playoff trip on the road.
“There is something uncomfortable about going on the road into hostile territory, but that is playoff football,” he said.