It's a regular-season game, but Friday's Jackson County Central-Pipestone football game will have a bit of a postseason feel to it.
To be sure, there's one big difference. The losing team won't have to turn in its equipment.
But the game does carry a lot of weight for the Huskies and Arrows as they position themselves for the South Central Silver District title and probably of more importance, the number one seed for the Section 3AA playoffs.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Paulsen Field in Pipestone.
Jackson County Central comes in having won three straight games and has a 4-2 record after last week's 36-0 shutout of Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial.
"We're seeing improvement in some places and there's room for more growth yet," said JCC coach Tom Schuller. "We continue to be a work in progress but test time is coming up real fast and the biggest one is coming next week. We think if we still have a chance to get the one seed if we can beat Pipestone and St. Peter and that's a really big deal in our section. No disrespect to the other teams but if we can get the one seed we only have to go through Pipestone OR Redwood and not both."
The Arrows are 6-0 after coming from behind to win at Luverne 20-16.
Pipestone quarterback Kellen Johnson was 23-for-34 passing for 241 yards and three touchdowns in the win over the Cardinals.
"He has an arm you don't see come around very often," Schuller said of the Arrows' signal caller. "This is a Division I arm on this kid. With some high school teams when they spread the fields with receivers you can kind of say yeah, whatever, and keep your guys in there because the quarterback can't get it out there in a hurry. This guy can get it anywhere out on the field he wants to get it."
Schuller said Pipestone can move the ball on the ground as well.
"They're a well-balanced team and their quarterback has a great arm," he said "they're going to create some problems and we think we're going to give them some problems with our offense so it's going to be a really excitng high school football game with a lot on the line."
JCC leads the South Central Silver District standings with a 3-0 record, with Pipestone 2-0. The Arrows close their season with a district game at Windom.
The Huskies are third in the Section 3AA QRF standings but can make up ground with a win over Pipestone, which has those six wins.
Jackson County Central closes its regular-season schedule Wednesday at St. Peter. The Saints are a Class 4A team that has four wins heading into a Friday game at Tri-City United.
SOUTH CENTRAL SILVER DISTRICT
Standings
Jackson County Central 3-0
Pipestone 2-0
Redwood Valley 1-2
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial 0-2
Windom 0-2
This week's games
Friday
Jackson County Central at Pipestone
Sibley East at Redwood Valley
Windom at Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial
SECTION 3AA
Football QRF standings
Won-loss record in parenthesis followed by QRF value
Pipestone (6-0) 56.6
Redwood Valley (4-2) 50.9
Jackson County Central (4-2) 45.6
Minnesota Valley Lutheran (3-3) 22.3
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial (1-5) 18.0
Sibley East (1-5) 17.8
Windom (1-5) 16.7
St. James Area (0-6) 8.5
This week's games
Friday
Jackson County Central at Pipestone
Sibley East at Redwood Valley
Murray County Central at Minnesota Valley Lutheran
Windom at Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial
St. James Area at Wabasso