It's the goal of every football team to win titles.
League titles, regional titles and at the top, even state titles. It's every team's dream to claim them.
Well, for every football team that wants to claim the Pioneer Valley Conference championship, they'd better be able to beat the Monroe Central Seminoles.
Monroe Central has won 19 straight PVC games dating back to 2008. The last loss for the Seminoles came 27-6 to the River Pilots in 2008 when River went 12-1, losing 38-14 to Malvern in the Ohio Division VI playoffs.
All told, the Seminoles have won 28 of 32 PVC contests dating back five years to 2006 and 47 of the last 56 league games going back 10 years to the 2001-02 season. Just twice in that span did the Seminoles lose more than one league game in a season.
The Fort Frye Cadets are aiming to be the team to break that league winning streak Friday night.
Fort Frye travels to Woodsfield for a 7 p.m. contest Friday as a pair of 3-1 teams will square off on the gridiron.
"Both teams coming in at 3-1, this is another big step as far as the PVC is concerned," said Monroe Central football coach Jay Circosta.
It's been 11 years since the Cadets last beat Monroe Central and prior to Fort Frye's 24-0 victory in 2000, the Cadets hadn't beat the Seminoles since 1985.
"This is definitely our biggest challenge so far," said Fort Frye football coach Eric Huck.
To break that streak, the Cadets have to contain an offense that in the past two weeks has dominated one opponent with the passing game and another with the run.
"As usual, they're a very physical, awfully good football team. (Tyler) Kinchen and (Kole) Hogue are awfully good at the quarterback and running back position," Huck said.
Against River in Week 3, Kinchen threw for over 200 yards as the Seminoles won 14-0. Last week against the Caldwell Redskins, the Seminoles had three backs rush for at least 90 yards as Kinchen and Curtis Nixon crossed the century mark and Hogue was right behind at 90 yards in the game.
But that was last game. This is a whole new challenge.
"Last week was a big game and it was a big step, but last week was last week. Now we're looking toward this week," Circosta said.
Though they have shown they can throw the football, passing for 455 yards through four games, Huck expects the Seminoles to be the power team they were against a solid Caldwell team last week.
Hogue leads the Seminoles with 223 yards rushing on 51 carries while Kinchen has picked up 213 yards on 67 tries. Nixon has 141 yards on 16 attempts.
"We definitely need to start with the run. You have to stop the run first. I think Monroe is going to come out and try to run the ball on us," Huck said.
But Huck realizes the Cadets can't key solely on the ground.
If the ground game is unavailable, the Seminoles have receivers like Korey Lafferre, who has 13 catches for 172 yards, and Tyrone Kinchen who is a big play threat averaging 17.6 yards per catch.
"They've got threats all over the field. As soon as you think you're taking care of one thing they're going to be able to do something else," Huck said.
Circosta and his team are counting on that balance to continue against the Cadets and Monroe Central will once again look to get multiple players the ball.
"We feel we have a number of weapons. We don't just have to count on one person. Last week was an example of that in that we got three different guys involved in the rushing attack," Circosta said.
As good as the Seminoles have been offensively, they've been equally tough defensively and Huck knows his team needs to control the line of scrimmage if the Cadets are to have any hope of getting the ground game with Chandler Lang, Spencer Lang and Max Alsbach going.
In last week's 13-12 win over River Valley, Fort Frye rushed 39 times for 137 yards and passed for 83.
Chandler Lang led the ground attack with 68 yards on 14 carries while Spencer Lang ran 16 times for 47 yards.
Putting up numbers similar to those against the Seminoles won't be easy, however.
"They are very good defensively. They're going to put eight guys in the box and make it tough for you to run the football on them," Huck said.
The Lang brothers figure to draw plenty of attention from the Seminole defense, which enters Friday's contest allowing 215.7 yards per game.
Monroe Central has held teams to just 71.2 yards per game passing and 144.5 rushing, but have improved week to week Circosta noted.
The Seminoles will need that to continue this week against the Cadets, who like Monroe Central, have the ability to get a lot of people involved in the offense, beginning at the quarterback spot with Chandler Lang.
"We need to, I think, get some pressure on the quarterback. We can't allow him to sit back there and throw. He does a lot of play action, so we'll have to be on our toes there," Circosta said.
Holding the offense in check by playing lights out defense and scoring just enough points to produce a victory will give one team another crucial step in the 2011 football season.
And it's not just about the PVC, either.
It's the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference, which both Fort Frye and Monroe Central are a member of, and the Ohio Division V Region 17 playoffs, too.
Though its only Week 4, Monroe Central is in the eighth and final playoff spot while the Cadets are sitting behind them in ninth, adding a little more drama to an already big game.
"It is a big game all around. It seems like each week that you win the stakes get a little higher and it gets a little bigger," Circosta said.
