Wilmington's Greyhounds are aptly named.

"Their quarterback, running backs, receivers — they're all fast,"Moniteau coach Steve Wilson said. "I'm not talking about kids being quick to hit a hole, or kids being elusive. These guys are flat-out fast."

The Warriors (6-3) will try to end a three-game losing streak when they travel to unbeaten Wilmington for a 7 p.m. kickoff Friday night.

The Greyhounds are among the top-10 ranked Class AAteams in Pennsylvania. They have outscored their opponents 323-53 and have not allowed more than seven points in a game since edging Ford City, 29-26, in their season opener.

Wilmington coach Terry Verrelli, in his 28th year, is 200-98-3. His 200th win was a 19-0 shutout of Northwestern last week.

"We were a young team last year and still reached the District 10 championship game,"Verrelli said. "Now this is a veteran team that's gotten better with each week, particularly on defense.

"Our offense was ahead of our defense early in the year, but our defense has caught up."

Wilmington runs a Wing-T attack with a lot of variations. Quarterback Jake Reiber has thrown for more than 700 yards, with receiver Jeremy Beatty as his primary target.

Junior Chris Burns leads the rushing attack with 850 yards. David Bruno adds more than 400 yards rushing and Forrest Minteer has more than 300 yards.

"Chris is our most talented back and our fastest back,"Verrelli said. "He should probably get the ball more often, but we spread things around and keep people fresh."

Defensively, junior tackle Lou Campbell and ends Brandon Pallandino and Minteer — weighing 160 and 165 pounds, respectively — control the line of scrimmage and Nate Reynolds is a stellar inside linebacker.

"Our ends are small in size, but they're very quick and pretty strong,"Verrelli said. "They're tough to defend."

Moniteau is coming off a 26-7 loss at Clarion in a game that boiled down to five big plays.

"We had some breakdowns defensively for the first time all season,"Wilson said. "That's a concern. Offensively, we didn't put points on the board.

"For three straight games now, we've moved into scoring position and failed to capitalize. That's definitely a concern."

The Warriors scored a single touchdown in the last two games, having dropped a 7-6 decision to Redbank Valley two weeks ago. Running back Adam Cousins didn't play in either game because of a knee injury.

Cousins had not practiced through Tuesday, but may see limited action Friday night.

"Where we've really missed Adam is on special teams: punting, kicking, returning punts and kickoffs,"Wilson said. "Field position is important to us and our special teams have been affected by Adam's absence.

"We have other kids who can do those things. They're just not used to doing it."

Sophomore quarterback Tyler Armagost's passing numbers have dwindled over the past two games as well.

"We haven't run the ball well, so teams are loading up on pass coverage now to stop us,"Wilson said. "If we run the ball better, we'll throw it better."

Armagost has thrown for 1,026 yards and only three interceptions. Cousions has 501 rushing yards, but no one else on the team has rushed for more than 159.

"Moniteau has some skilled players offensively and they play aggressively on defense,"Verrelli said. "They will be a formidable opponent for us."

Wilson is happy to say the same about Wilmington.

"I always like to play good teams going into the playoffs,"Wilson said. "Kids really do play to the level of their competition at times and we want to be playing at a high level right now.

"We'ree not going up there to work on certain plays or to experiment with anything. We're going up there to try to win a football game. We have it in us to beat them. Now we have to bring it out."