Moniteau doesn't have to worry about a District 9 playoff spot being on the line when it closes the regular season by hosting Clarion Friday night.

But what about playoff seeding and momentum?

That's a different story.

"You want to enter the playoffs coming off a good game, a big win," Warriors coach Steve Wilson said. "That's what we did last year when we beat Clarion-Limestone.

"Our school policy is we're allowed to enter postseason with a .500 record or one game under if we play an odd number of games."

Moniteau is 4-4 on the year and is coming off losses of 10-0 to Karns City and 38-14 at Redbank Valley.

Clarion (7-2) is coming off a 14-12 loss to Kennedy Catholic in which it failed to secure a game-tying two-point conversion with 31 seconds left, but the Bobcats lead the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference.

Clarion's next victory will be the 400th in their program's history.

"They've been the team to beat all year and rightfully so," Wilson said. "We're coming off our worst performance of the year. The field was drenched, muddy — and we were terrible."

Matt Schandelmeier did surpass the 1,000-yard mark for the second straight season. He has 1,011 yards rushing and 14 touchdowns. Adam Cousins has 91 carries for 450 yards and four TDs.

Cousins also is the Warriors' leading receiver with 10 catches for 145 yards and a touchdown.

Moniteau quarterback Garth Kohlmeyer has completed 32 of 85 passes for 387 yards, three touchdowns and six interceptions. The Warriors are averaging just 10½ passes per game.

Redbank's Skyler Smith rushed for 193 yards against Moniteau last week.

"He broke off three long runs on us," Wilson said. "Once that kid gets by you, you're not gonna catch him.

"Clarion's back is more of a power runner. They like to line up and come right at you," he added. "They have a big line and a strong running game, but the past couple of years we've done OK when it's big on big."

Chris McSwain has 1,037 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns for the Bobcats. He needs 111 yards on the ground to reach 3,000 for his career.

Senior quarterback Sean Wolf has completed 50 of 91 passes for 652 yards and seven touchdowns. Manny Carpin has been his go-to receiver with 34 catches for 467 yards and six scores.

Clarion has scored 40 or more points in five of its nine games. The Bobcats average just under 32 points per game.

"Everything revolves around McSwain," Wilson said. "He's a hard runner and they do a lot of play-action passes off fakes to him.

"If we want to win Friday, we have to find a way to contain him."

Wilson reported his team is healthy for the game.

"Other than a few bruised egos, we're fine," he said.