SITE Louisville Stadium, 7 p.m.
RECORDS Marlington 7-1, 4-1; Louisville 8-0, 5-0.
LAST WEEK Marlington 41, Canton South 0; Louisville 26, Alliance 7.
LAST MEETING Louisville won, 49-22, last year.

WHAT TO WATCH Marlington enters this game in second place in the NBC, behind the undefeated Leopards, with both their playoff and league championship hopes on the line Friday night. A Louisville victory would clinch a second straight NBC championship and push the Leopards closer to a home playoff game in the first round. Marlington relies heavily on a ground attack that has gained 1,943 yards through the first eight games, led by the freshman and sophomore duo of Dymonte Thomas and Alden Hill who have combined for 1,350 yards and 14 scores. The Dukes defense accounted for two of the six touchdowns in their 41-0 win over Canton South a week ago, the Dukes are second in the county in points allowed with 63. For Louisville, sophomores Chad Neff and Lucas Poyser have carried the offense following the injury to senior Bob Swigert. Neff has scored nine touchdowns on the ground this season to go along with his 515 rushing yards. Poyser has be equally impressive rushing for over 650 yards and eight scores to lead a ground attack that has replaced the dangerous Louisville passing attack. The Leopards defense has been just as tough as the Dukes, allowing just 59 points through the first eight games and ranked first in the county.

*Stats from FridayNightOhio.com

Josh Weir
The Repository

ALLIANCE Physical and fast.

Those adjectives succinctly describe the Louisville High School football team. Funny thing is, they describe the Alliance Aviators, too.

So maybe it’s not so surprising that Alliance put up a fight that belied its record before Louisville — the state’s No. 1-ranked Division II team — pulled away for a 26-7 win Friday night at Mount Union Stadium.

SITE  Mount Union Stadium, 7 p.m.
RECORDS  Louisville 7-0, 4-0; Alliance 1-6, 0-4.
LAST WEEK  Louisville 52, Carrollton 0; Marlington 13, Alliance 10.
LAST MEETING  Louisville won, 49-0, last year.

WHAT TO WATCH  The Aviators haven’t scored on Louisville in 10 straight quarters, dating back to the first half of their 13-7 win in 2006. It won’t be any easier this year. Louisville’s pitched two shutouts and allowed a Stark County-low 52 points. MLB Hunter Potts has teams highs of 62 tackles and 12 tackles-for-loss. DT Joe Poyser leads with 12 sacks to go with 10 TFLs. DB Jeremy White has four interceptions. Alliance, the third lowest scoring team in the county, has thrown 15 interceptions so far. During the Aviators’ five-game losing streak, they’ve lost once on a late fumble that led to the game-winning score, once by 2 in a game they allowed 79 yards of offense and twice in overtime. LB Alex Oesch leads the Aviators with 70 tackles. Louisville sophomore Chad Neff is averaging 11 yards a carry. He’s been at QB for 12 possessions the last two weeks. The Leopards have scored on 10 of them. In basically three quarters of action, he’s rushed for 341 yards and six TDs. Sophomore RB Lucas Poyser has four straight 100-yard rushing games, during which he has 519 yards and eight TDs. The Leopards have won 23 straight regular season games, matching their longest streak since winning a program-best 38 straight from 1963-66. They’ve also won 17 consecutive NBC games, during which they’ve allowed an average 9.3 points and yielded 20 or more only three times.

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