Staff photo / Brian Yauger South Range quarterback Billy Skripac drags a pair of Cardinal Mooney defenders Friday during their regional semifinal matchup. Skripac scored five touchdowns in the game.

It feels like this is said every week now, but the stakes continue to get higher and the opponents continue to get tougher for South Range.

This week’s showdown for the Raiders is definitely the toughest yet as South Range takes on Perry, a school coming off a playoff run in Division IV a season ago.

Last season the Pirates fell to West Branch in the regional semifinals, and the Raiders are hoping to be the next team from Mahoning County to slow them down.

While tonight’s game won’t have the conditions of last week’s games, the Raiders and Pirates will still have to battle the elements of some kind. This time, just the cold of a mid-November night.

That being said, don’t expect South Range to drastically switch things up from what’s been working. If the cold rain didn’t make them change much against Cardinal Mooney, they won’t shy away from their brand of football just because of the cold.

“(The weather won’t affect our game plan) a whole lot,” Raiders coach Dan Yeagley said. “We didn’t adjust (much) because of the rain. We still threw the ball, we still ran the ball when we needed to, we did what we had to do to win and we’re going to do the same thing (tonight). It doesn’t matter. We’ve got to be smart. They’ve still got to dress warm. We tried different things all week since we were outside all week. We tried different clothes and tried to try to be ready for the elements but I think we’ll be okay that way. We’re not going to change our game plan, we’re just going to do what we do.”

Stylistically, South Range compares well with the Pirates. Both teams have a very solid quarterback, Brayden Richards for Perry and Billy Skripac for the Raiders.

Skripac had a strong outing during last week’s showdown with the Cardinals, going 11-of-18 through the air for 198 yards and three touchdowns, while running for 78 yards and two additional scores.

The similarities between the two pirate-themed squads don’t end there. With really good skill guys top to bottom and a solid offensive line, this could be a “mirror match”.

“I told the kids that I thought they’re a lot like us,” Yeagley said. “They have the quarterback, they have some good skill kids, their line’s pretty good and they have a couple of big kids up there on the defense that play really well. They play really good defense a lot like us. X’s and O’s, we match up real well. It just comes down to execution on Friday night. We’ve got to do our best Friday night because if you don’t, you’re going to get beat because all the teams are good right now.”

This has been the hump South Range has made it to, but couldn’t get over in each of the last two seasons. Both of which were losses to Kirtland. While this opponent isn’t the juggernaut Hornets that have stalled the Raiders in recent years, Perry is going to be just as tough.

Skripac and the rest of the 20-deep senior class for South Range have a bit of a chip on their shoulder however.

“I’ve been here twice and you know, this next game is going to be personal,” Skripac said after the Mooney game. “This is the hump. This is what we’ve been waiting for. Going in all summer, working really hard and the whole team is ready for it.”

When two tough forces collide and there’s a third factor involved, in this case the weather, it’s going to come down to mentality above all. Both teams have skill for days, but if it’s a close game late, the stronger team mentally is going to move on to the state final four.

“I think the team that handles the elements, the temperature, because it’s going to be cold and you’ve got to adjust for that and the kids mentally have to prepare for that,” Yeagley said. “Just like last week we had to prepare for the rain, this week we’ve got to prepare for the cold.

“We have to be able to play South Range football. We’ve got to be able to run the ball, we need to be able to throw the ball and defensively we’ve got to stop their main guy. We need to know where he’s at and we’ve got to play good defense against them.”

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Great Lakes Cheese Stadium near Berkshire High School in Burton.