DOWAGIAC — The biggest game of the Wolverine Conference season pits defending champion Edwardsburg against host Dowagiac at Chris Taylor-Alumni Field Friday night.

The teams share one common opponent this season in the Allegan Tigers.

Dowagiac and Edwardsburg both defeated the Tigers 55-0.

Edwardsburg’s Wing-T offense has been grinding up the yards on the ground. The Eddies rarely throw the football, but that does not mean they will not attempt passes.

Dowagiac coach Mike Stanger knows that his team must be disciplined if it wants to stop the losing streak and hand the Eddies their first loss of the year.

“We are going to have to play assignment football,” he said. “Each player is going have to do their 1/11. We need to wrap on our tackles, can’t afford any missed tackles. You don’t want to fall behind to Edwardsburg with ball controlling offense. We definitely want to slow down their rushing attack, but they are throwing the ball more this year than in the past, so you have to be careful loading the box.”

The Edwardsburg rushing attack has multiple threats in Caden Goggins, Chase Sager and Isaiah Mitchell.

Goggins ran for 110 yards on seven carries for a pair of touchdowns against Paw Paw last Friday night.

Sager finished with 98 yards on seven carries with three touchdowns.

Edwardsburg quarterbacks Tre Harvey and Conner Nelson were a combined 2-for-3 for 30 yards passing.

Dowagiac has got to get better offensively according to Stanger if it wants to keep past with high-scoring Edwardsburg.

“We have to stop making the mental mistakes to improve our consistency on offense,” Stanger said.

Eddies coach Kevin Bartz knows that this is the biggest test of the season so far for his team.

“Dowagiac will be the best offensive and defensive team we have faced all season,” he said. “They combine size, strength, quickness and speed creating several matchup difficulties for us. The keys to us winning are to win the turnover battle and limit their big plays. In addition, we need to consistently move the ball offensively, which means limiting our mental mistakes as well as penalties.” 

After opening the season with a 54-14 win over Vicksburg, the Chieftains were defeated by Three Rivers 29-15 after giving up 22 points in the second quarter.

Dowagiac rebounded to beat Allegan 55-0 last Friday night after going scoreless in the opening quarter for the second straight week.

Kade Schreiber picked up his second 100-yard rushing game of the season as he went for 109 on nine carries with a pair of touchdowns.

Quarterback Cailyn Murphy added 81 yards on seven rushes with a touchdown and was 5-of-11 for 25 yards and a score throwing the football.

“Offensively they are explosive both running and passing the ball,” Bartz said. “Murphy in particular provides them with a duel threat of hurting us with his arm through the air and on the ground with his feet. They have several skilled athletes that can make a big play at any time. Dowagiac is also very well coached, they will come in with a solid game plan of how to stop our offense as well as well as how to exploit us defensively.” 

In a game that features a lot of offense, it could come down to who plays better defensively.

Bartz is concerned with the Chieftains’ aggressive defensive line.

“Dowagiac’s size and physical strength on their defensive line is a concern,” he said. “They are big bodies that will be difficult to move.”

Edwardsburg struggled with extra points last week, which if the game is close, could decide the outcome.

Bartz and his staff have been working extra this week to correct the issues.

“We are still experimenting with our extra points,” he said. “We have traditionally gone for two points, but have found it necessary to be able to kick PATs as well. We will spend more time this week working on both one and two point conversions. This is the kind of game that may very well be decided by one or two points.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.