Football teams cleared the first playoff hurdle last week and are now taking aim on the next challenge that lies in front of them with quarterfinal action tonight.

A pair of area teams will be hosting contests as Colman-Egan heads to Warner in Class 9B, and Sioux Falls Lutheran visits Britton-Hecla in Class 9AA.

While Colman-Egan and Warner are more than 150 miles apart, the two athletic departments share a bit of recent history.

Colman-Egan defeated the Monarchs in the Class 9A state championship game in 2016, and last year the two schools met in the SoDak 16 in both volleyball and girls’ basketball.

“It’s two schools that have historically been pretty solid at sports,” Warner football coach Derek Hoellein. “It’s an opportunity for us to get together one more time.”

In the opening round Beckham Cantalope rushed for four touchdowns to the power the Warner offense in a win over Northwestern.

Hoellein said that Colman-Egan also likes to run the ball. That means the battle on the line of scrimmage will be crucial.

“Any time you put the pads on, you’re trying to win the line scrimmage, one side or the other,” Hoellein said. “I think that’s a key in this one. They’re big, they’re physical, but so are we.”

The Monarchs, 9-0 on the season, will try to take advantage of playing on the artificial turf of their home field, where they have lost only once in the past five years, that coming in the quarterfinals to Howard last season.

“We do like playing at home. Just a little bit different vibe when we’re at home as opposed to on the road. Our kids play well at home,” Hoellein said. “You get used to playing on that turf. We play on it every single day in practice, so we tend to think that that is a little bit of an advantage as well.”

And the Monarchs have a little extra motivation after that postseason setback a year ago.

“Last year this is the round we got beat out,” Hoellein said. “Minus a couple of players, this is the same group we had last year, so that’s something that’s burning in them a little bit.”

Colman-Egan’s only setbacks on the season came to Dell Rapids St. Mary and Avon, two teams that will also host 9B games today.

“This is a very capable football team,” Hoellein said, “and we can’t afford to look past it.”

The Monarchs have been studying up on their opponent. Hoellein said today’s technology makes prep work much easier than in the past when people used to drive two hours to exchange VHS tapes.

“We’ve got every game that they played in,” Hoellein said. “You’re looking at every film and trying to gain an advantage in any way.”

Now, it’s a matter of putting that preperation into action.

“I think we’re going to be prepared,” Hoellein said. “It’s all about going out there and executing now.”

Britton-Hecla pulled away from Bridgewater-Emery-Ethan in the second half of last week’s postseason opener.

“I just think they played more loose in the second half,” said Braves coach Jacob Skogstad of his players. “They were less worried about making mistakes.”

Quarterback Jace Rein ran for three touchdowns and passed for two others to help fuel that victory.

“The game is starting to slow down for Jace a lot,” Skogstad said. “Being a 3-year starter at the quarterback position, he’s really seeing the field well, and then his explosiveness in the run game is huge for us, too.”

The Braves, 8-1 on the season, are favored on paper, but Skogstad said he doesn’t put much stock into that.

“When you get to this point in the season, favorites don’t really mean much,” Skogstad said. “It’s just whoever wins the game gets to keep playing football. We’re preaching just go 1-0, and do our things that got us here, do those well and give ourselves a shot to keep playing.”

Those things are playing efficient on offense (the Braves have turned the ball over just four times this season), solid on defense (they have allowed more than 160 yards rushing just once this year), and winning the special teams battle.

“We’re just playing good complimentary football right now,” Skogstad said. “That’s what playoffs wins are all about it. Making sure all three phases are looking like they should.”

Britton-Hecla hosts a Sioux Falls Lutheran squad that went on the road and won an opening game last week.

“It’s probably the most athletic team that we’ve seen since Hamlin in week two,” Skogstad said of the Eagles. “They’ve got playmakers on the outside. They like to get the ball to them. … They just keep the chains moving. Our guys are going to have to tackle really well on the perimeter, because they’re going to try to get one-on-one matchups.”

Skogstad said it doesn’t matter what the game looks like on the field, the only thing that matters is what’s on the scoreboard at the end of the contest.

“It doesn’t need to be pretty at this point in the year,” Skogstad said, “it’s whoever has the most points at the end of the game gets to keep playing.”

In other action involving area teams, Milbank (3-6) plays at Sioux Falls Christian (9-0) in Class 11A, Deuel (7-2) is at Winner (8-1), and Wagner (7-2) is at Clark-Willow Lake (10-0) in Class 11B, Great Plains Lutheran (7-2) is at Hamin (8-1) in Class 9AA, Bennett County (8-1) is at Sully Buttes (8-1), and Centerville (7-2) is at Castlewood (9-0) in Class 9A, and Herreid-Selby Area (5-4) is at Wall (9-0), and Hitchcock-Tulare (8-1) is at Avon (7-2), in Class 9B.