Correspondent file photo / Michael G. Taylor Canfield quarterback Broc Lowry (12) is wrapped up by an Ursuline defender Friday night. The Cardinals take on Chardon for the third straight postseason Friday night.

CANFIELD — For the past two years, the Chardon football team has ended Canfield’s season.

The Cardinals have the opportunity to reverse their fortunes Friday when they travel to Ravenna’s Harry Gilchrist Field at Portage Community Bank Stadium to take on the Hilltoppers for the third straight postseason.

Two years ago, the Hilltoppers took down Canfield 38-6 in the regional finals after going 9-0 in the regular season and playoffs.

Then, after suffering their lone loss to Dover earlier in the season, the Cardinals fell to Chardon in the playoffs for the second straight year, 27-14 in the regional semifinals a year ago.

Chardon went on to defeat Dover 31-3 in the regional finals.

“Our kids are excited, there’s no doubt about that,” Canfield head coach Mike Pavlansky said. “The last two years obviously Chardon has been really good. They are the measuring stick for Division III, and they’ve gotten the best of us in the playoffs both years. But our kids are looking at the past two games from the past two years to figure out why it happened.

“It happened one because they are really good and two because we need to play at a higher level Friday night because again, (Chardon head coach) Mitch (Hewitt) does a great job with his program. They are an excellent team again.”

Chardon comes into Friday’s contest as the winners of eight straight. Their only loss this season came in a 21-7 decision against Riverside on Sept. 9, but other than that, the Hilltoppers have been at the top of their game.

The Hilltoppers have outscored their opponents 387-139 this season and have allowed only one team to score more than 20 points.

Outside of their loss to Riverside, this past week’s playoff matchup against Kenston might have been their closest game of the season, as it was the first time since 1988 that they won a football game without an offensive touchdown.

Pavlansky knows that the Hilltoppers are still the standard though.

“They are 39-1 over the last three years for a reason,” Pavlansky said. “There’s great leadership up there, great program, physical program, they believe in who they are. There isn’t going to be any secret about who’s going to show up Friday night. You are going to get a physical, violent crew coming in.”

Over the past two years, that physicality is what has allowed the Hilltoppers to top the Cardinals. But after those two losses, Canfield now knows what to expect when it comes to taking the field Friday.

“We are just trying to take it a day at a time in practice,” Canfield quarterback Broc Lowry said. “We want to win the game this week in practice, Monday through Thursday so when Friday comes the game slows down as much as possible.”

With the history between the two teams, there’s definitely a lot of motivation to take down the Hilltoppers and get revenge for the past two seasons, but the Cardinals are always looking to do something a Canfield football team hasn’t done in over 15 years.

“This is another opportunity, not to just beat Chardon but to capture another regional title,” senior lineman AJ Murphy said. “We’ve had one in school history, and we’re hoping this will be our second since the 2005 class. But we’re just excited for another opportunity.”

When the Cardinals captured that regional title in 2005, they made a run to the state final before falling to Toledo Central Catholic in the Division II state championship.

Canfield will have to do a lot to come away with a victory, but it starts with doing what it’s good at. Murphy, along with the rest of the Cardinals, want to get the ground game going in order to keep up with a strong Chardon team.

“We just need to control the line of scrimmage. We definitely need to be able to run the ball and stop the run,” Murphy said. “They love to run the ball. I mean, I love to run the ball but they love to run the ball more than I do. So we just need to control the line of scrimmage and limit the turnovers. We just need to play Canfield football. I think if we play Canfield football, we will be just fine.”

Heading into Friday, with only one loss on their resume, the Cardinals are looking to accomplish something that they haven’t since 2005 and they’ll be up against their toughest challenge of the season. But, after watching the tape and studying the game plan, Pavlansky believes they know what they are up against.

“They understand the level that they are going to have to play at, they understand how physical this game is going to be, and it’s probably going to be the most physical game of the year,” Pavlansky said. “It has been the last two years. It’s just two really good programs that love to play physical brands of football and it’s going to be another battle on Friday.”