When Aberdeen Central hosted Tea Area in the second game of the season, the Golden Eagles were trying to find their identity. Now, as the two teams are set to square off again in the semifinals of the Class 11AA football playoffs Friday night, everybody knows who Central is and what the Eagles have accomplished.

Since that 35-0 setback to the Titans, Central (6-4) has turned its season around thanks to an opportunistic defense and potent ground game. As a result, the squad has won six of its last seven games and will head to Tea with a load of momentum.

“It just comes from each week and our guys getter better and better and better, and our guys gaining confidence in their abilities,” said Central coach Justin Briese.

The Golden Eagles defense was front and center in a playoff win over Spearfish one week ago.

“They’ve been playing great all year. Last week they got us some interceptions, got some turnovers for us, put us in good field position to give us a short field offensively,” Briese said. “That just makes our job as an offense that much easier.”

When Briese took over as the head coach this fall, he wanted the Eagles to become more physical and that has shown up in the team’s powerful running game led by Karson Carda. When reserve Tate Huff came on in relief of Carda last week, he also produced a rushing touchdown.

“That’s just a credit to our offensive line. It doesn’t matter who’s running the ball,” Briese said. “They’re going to do what they do and the hole is going to be there for our running backs to fill or go through.”

That physicality will be put to the test against Tea Area (9-1), which pulled away in the second half of the first encounter in Aberdeen.

Briese knows that Friday’s rematch will come down to who can win the battle up front.

“That’s where games are won and lost,” Briese said. “If our offensive line can move the line of scrimmage and we can gain yards, we’re going to have a pretty good chance to win the game. If their defensive line can play in our backfield most of the game, it’s not going to be good for us, and same thing when we’re on defense and they’re on offense.”

That said, there likely won’t be many surprises when the teams hit the field for a chance to advance to the state title game on the line.

Look for both sides to try to impose their will on the other when push comes to shove.

“They’re level of physicality is a big part of it. They play physical football just the same way that we play physical football,” Briese said. “By having someone come after you play after play after play, it kind of wears the other guy (down) when that happens. That’s kind of what our goal is as well. They do the same kind of stuff.”

Briese expects the Titans to try to slow down Central’s running game and take their chances with the passing attack. That means there will likely be lots of hard hitting along the line of scrimmage going both ways.

“They trust their secondary to be man-to-man on our receivers. They’re going to put as many guys as they can in the box. And we’ll smash heads when we’re on offense,” Briese said. “When they’re on offense they kind of have a similar plan, where they like to run some smashmouth football. At the same time they like to do their play-action passes and their screens. It’s going to be coming at each other a lot. I’m excited. It should be a lot fun.”

There’s no doubt that the Titans will be highly motivated to get back to the championship game where they lost to Pierre last season.

The Golden Eagles also have plenty of motivation as they try to return to the title contest for the first time since 2009.

Briese said his current group of 22 seniors has provided solid leadership this season and understands what is at stake.

“They’ve done a great job of leading this year. At the same time they’ve been able to keep things in focus as far as we can’t control what happened last week, we can’t control what happens next week, we just take care of this one week right here,” Briese said. “They know that if they don’t take care of things this week, there is no next week. They know that this is their time.”