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"I've always seen the Olympics as a place where you could act out your differences on the athletic field with a sense of sportsmanship and fairness and mutual respect."
--Andrew Young
It won't be the Olympics Friday night but to the Iowa-Grant and Highland football teams it will be just as important.
Iowa-Grant moved to Division 7 this season from Division 6 and is the largest school in the division with 194 students. Highland is the smallest with an enrollment of 84.
But Friday will not be a question of size when the two teams meet in the D7 Level 1 of the post season. It will be a matter of both teams battling hard for a chance to advance.
"We don't think the division matters," Iowa-Grant coach Gary Allen says. "Highland is well coached and has some good athletes. We will need to play well."
"Getting back to the playoff was one of our goals this season," Highland coach Mike Aide said. "The players are excited to play Iowa-Grant on Friday. Both teams are very familiar with one another off the field. Some have played youth football and wrestled together and have respect for one another. Coach Allen has a great team and he will have them ready to play and It should be a great game Friday."
When it came to seeding Highland, the number two team in the Six Rivers, finished 6-2 in conference and 6-3 overall to earn the fourth seed along with the right to host.
Iowa-Grant is the number five seed, finishing in a second place tie in the SWAL at 4-2 and 5-4 overall.
The two teams share a common opponent in Pecatonica-Argyle. The Vikings beat both teams, handling Iowa-Grant 35-12 and Highland 27-10.
Kick-off Friday, after the 15 minuted ride for Iowa-Grant, is set for 7 pm.
Last Friday the Panthers closed out the regular season with a SWAL battle at Darlington where they met the undefeated Redbirds.
It was way too much Johnson as the Redbirds handled the Panthers 47-0. Hunter Johnson, a preferred walk-on for next year's UW Badgers, scored four touchdowns and his cousin, Trevor Johnson, rolled in for two, one on a 34 yard pass from Jared Meister.
Kameron Blosch got the seventh score on a 24 yard run.
Hunter Johnson scored on runs of 12, nine, 14 and 46 yards. The 6-1, 211 senior totaled nine carries for 145 yards.
Trevor Johnson had five carries for 92 yards. His run was for 69 yards to go along with his TD reception.
Meister was perfect on two tosses, one the scoring strike to Trevor Johnson for 34 yards and the other a 29 yard pass to Hunter Johnson.
The Redbirds did most of their damage on the ground with 335 yards on 25 plays.
Allen knew Hunter Johnson would be a handful coming into the game.
"Hunter Johnson is big and fast. He also has a very good line in front of him and other good athletes around him," Allen said.
Even though the Panthers did not score, Allen was impressed with their effort.
"Our kids played very hard," Allen said. "We tried to do what we do every game. We didn't really get close to scoring but we were able to get some first downs and put a couple of drives together."
Junior running back Brady Peat got close to 100 yards with 93 in 24 carries. Travis Arndt added 20 on 10 tries.
"Brady ran very hard as he always does," said Allen. "Our kids blocked well and gave great effort. They showed a lot of grit."
The Panthers totaled 107 rushing yards on 37 carries, gaining more yards than a lot of teams have against the Redbirds this season.
The Panthers tried to pass but quarterback Caleb Hill was only able to complete six of 19 and was intercepted twice.
Clayton Kite caught three passes for 42 yards and Peat one for 41.
Part of the reason for the low completion percentage was because of the Redbirds.
"We had a couple drops but pressure mixed with good coverage made it hard to complete passes," Allen said.
For Friday's game Iowa-Grant will be led by Hill who has completed 63 of 134 passes for 987 yards and seven touchdowns.
His main target has been Charles Christianson who has caught 22 passes for 483 yards and five touchdowns.
Peat has been the workhorse carrying the football with 1239 yards on 190 carries with a dozen touchdowns.
John Ross Linscheid leads the Cardinals in passing and running. The senior has completed 56 passes for 28 yards for 574 yards and eight touchdowns. He has also picked up 694 yards on 109 rushes and has scored nine times.
Sophomore Drew Hennessey is the leading pass receiver with 16 catches for 435 yards and six scores.