By Sean Duffy

As the saying goes better late than never.

The end of the  high school football regular season is upon us,  week 10 is the final chance for those teams on the bubble to extend their season.  Those teams not in the playoff race look to end their 2017 campaign on a winning note.  Our game of the week is a Greater Cleveland Conference matchup  between two rivals  who are much improved from the 2016 season. Both teams  have identical 5-4 records, and one team has an outside shot of a playoff berth should they be victorious. Our Game of the Week has the Strongsville Mustangs travel to Brunswick Stadium to take on their rival Blue Devils.  Below are the three keys  to watch for in Friday’s Matchup.

1.  Brunswick’s offense has been  scoring at a pretty good clip in the past few weeks, especially considering the 54 points put up in a loss at Euclid.  Look for Brunswick to try and use a balanced attack on offense against the visiting Mustangs.  Key players to watch for Brunswick are QB Cole Zamiska, WR Ethan Flanigan, and RB Ben Mewhinney.
2. Strongsville  has been on a similar roll offensively with big wins over Elyria, Shaker Heights and Medina.  It is going to be critical that the Strongsville Defense not allow the Blue Devils to control the pace of the game.  that means clean penalty free defensive plays .  Key players to watch for the Mustangs will be QB Jony Major, RB Taylor Griffin, and WR Nick Adams.
3. These two teams are old rivals, and as the cliché goes you can throw out records, playoff implications, and conference standings.  Look for emotions to be high in this rivalry game, these teams are close not only in a geographic sense but they having similar seasons.  Each of these teams have seen their share of peaks and valleys over the course of the season and nothing would be better than ending their season with victory over their bitter rival.

I expect this game to be a highly competitive contest, with two programs at similar stages in the building process it is sure to be an electric atmosphere in Brunswick on Friday nigh.

Sports on Tap will be in full force with Rob Trautman bringing you all of action with video highlights, Josh Jeffi will be live tweeting all the action @sotpodcast on Twitter,  yours truly will be up in the pressbox  and writing an article recapping all the action for your reading pleasure.  Our own Ed Dick will be on the Brunswick sidelines as part of their special teams staff  trying to help the Blue Devils get their 6th win of the season.

Please make sure to follow us on twitter @sotpodcast, join in on the conversation using #sothsf.

See you at Brunswick Auto Mart Stadium!