CHERRY TWP — Before Steve Wilson arrived, Moniteau High School's all-time football won-loss record was 133 games below .500.

Now he's taking a four-year record of .500 — 20-20 — into Friday's 7 p.m. District 9 Class AA playoff game at Karns City.

"Not good enough," Wilson said.

A victory Friday would give Moniteau only its second six-win season since 1986 — and Wilson's second in three years.

"We're not there yet," Wilson said. "But we keep working toward it.

"Those close losses this year to Clarion-Limestone (8-7), Karns City (10-0) and Clarion (7-3) — a good team finds a way to win a couple of those games."

Senior Clay Campbell, a 212-pound guard, accepts some of the blame for those narrow losses as a veteran member of the Warriors' offensive line.

"No excuses," Campbell said. "We just didn't get it done."

Campbell and fellow seniors Garth Kohlmeyer, Ryan Flick, Aaron Anderson and Matt Schandelmeier were freshmen the year Moniteau reached the District 9 playoffs for the first time — only to wind up on the wrong end of a 69-23 shellacking at Karns City.

"I remember that game," Schandelmeier said. "It's kind of hard to forget it."

"First playoff game in school history and we got killed," Campbell said. "It was embarrassing."

Wilson admitted that game was a mismatch.

"We were outmanned," he said.

But that was then. The Warriors have been in the playoffs each year since, losing 20-12 to Brockway in the first round in 2003 and 20-13 in the first round to Brookville last year.

Moniteau has been blown out of just one game this year — 38-14 at Redbank Valley in Week 8 — and earned the school's first-ever playoff win with a 35-25 decision at Brookville last week.

"I really think the Redbank game was a fluke," Wilson said. "That was a mud bath that night. They played well in the mud and we didn't.

"We may get another shot at them — but first things first."

Redbank plays Brockway in the other District 9 Class AA semifinal this weekend.

Moniteau's program has grown as its players have grown. Schandelmeier was 6-feet-2, 186 pounds as a freshman. He's 6-3, 216 now.

Kohlmeyer was 5-10, 164 as a freshman. Now the quarterback's 5-11, 207. Campbell was 5-8, 194 as a freshman and is 5-11, 212 now. Flick has gone from 6-0, 278, to 6-2, 339.

"Our guys don't use any of that muscle-building stuff like creatine," Wilson said. "I don't believe kids should take that route. We get in the weight room and get to work. We're big on nutrition, too.

"You always want your kids to be more dedicated to the weight room, but a lot of our guys play other sports and we encourage that. You're only a kid once. At least they're staying in shape, not sitting at home doing nothing."

Defensive tackle Flick said his weight gain was parallel to his working out.

"I wanted to get bigger and stronger," he said. "I get double teamed a lot, but part of our (tackles) job is to free up Clay and Matt to make tackles."

At 5-10, guard-defensive tackle Anderson is two inches taller than he was three years ago, but is only three pounds heavier.

"We've worked as a team to get bigger and stronger over the years, and that helped us to come together as a team," Anderson said.

In a span of two years, Moniteau has gone from being a wide-open, big-play offense to a grind-it-out style that relies on getting good field position.

"People don't realize how important playing on a short field is," Wilson said. "But that's how we won last week."

The Warriors have rushed for 1,969 yards and 22 touchdowns this year and average 5 yards per carry.

They've passed for 476 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 3.6 completions per game.

To win at Karns City, Moniteau will have to overpower Karns City.

"It's the only way we know," Campbell said.

But the Warriors aren't familiar with the type of atmosphere they'll be entering Friday.

"This rivalry's pretty intense," Schandelmeier said. "This game will be bigger than when we played them here and there were 4,000 people here that night.

"It'll be the biggest game I've played in, I know that."