Brian Cooper is in his eighth season as head coach of the Shenango football team.

And the veteran mentor knows when its time to change things up.

The Wildcats ran the Wing-T offense in the recent past.

But this year's offense looks much different with a spread formation.

"We changed to a spread offense because of the personnel we had coming back this year," said Cooper.

Shenango earned its first win last week, a 17-14 victory over playoff-hopeful Beaver in a non-conference affair.

The team lost its season-opener, 32-7 to Tri-County North rival Riverside.

The Wildcats will look to even their conference mark when they take the field at Mars Friday night for a 7:30 kickoff.

"Last week was a big win for us and a good confidence builder," added Cooper.

The coach's decision to go with a spread offense this season was due in large part to his quarterback, senior Rocco Colavecchia.

Last season, the signal caller threw for 1,411 yards within the usually methodical Wing-T attack.

That prompted Cooper to open things up even more, hoping to get as much as he can out of his skill players.

"(Colavecchia) reminds me of (Corey) Collins from Laurel," said Mars coach Scott Heinauer. "He will throw the ball 40 times Friday night, that's no secret. Their offense is built around him."

The Planets (2-0, 2-0) will hope to have as much success against Colavecchia as they did against Collins.

In the season opener, Mars' defense held the Laurel quarterback to just seven of 26 passing for 140 yards. He did throw a touchdown pass but was also intercepted twice. Mars won the game 32-20.

Colavecchia's top target is senior wide receiver Luke O'Hara, who tallied 106 yards in last week's win.

As for Mars' weapons, Shenango can take its pick.

The Planets Wing-T attack has several playmakers.

Wingback Josh Keil has caught seven passes for 183 yards and a score while rushing the ball 16 times for 59 yards.

D.J. Cannon has thrown for 252 yards and two touchdowns.

Fullback Billy Bair has 320 yards on the ground and five scores.

He should pass up his total from last year (346) on Friday night.

"It's a long season," said Heinauer. "But so far, (Bair) has met all of the expectations we had for him."

"The advantage of the Wing-T is that it can hit you from a lot of angles," said Cooper. "It can work if you have the right athletes and Mars certainly has that."

Senior inside linebacker Spencer Haben leads Shenango with 26 tackles after two games.

Since running through Tri-County North competition to an undefeated regular season in 2003, Shenango has not come close to making the playoffs.

Cooper is hoping that changes this season and the Wildcats can take a big step toward a postseason berth with an upset against the Planets.

"We have a lot of juniors and seniors on the team," said Cooper. "And we've been pretty young the last few years, so they've gotten a lot of playing time."

Mars won last year's meeting with Shenango, 36-13.