Last week's win gave Canton football the jolt they needed, and the now the Warriors are hoping to take that momentum into top seeded Montgomery Friday for the District IV, Class A semifinal.

"It feels great to get another week in," said Canton's Marcus Solomon. "I'm just blessed."

The Warriors had their best rushing night of the season in their win over Northwest last week, led by Bailey Gardner's six touchdowns.

"There's not better feeling than coming out of a game with six touchdowns," he said. "Hopefully we just carry that momentum forward to get us another one."

The Warriors ended a 4-game losing streak in their win over Northwest last week.

"It gives us a lot of confidence," Gardner said.

Canton played the 9-1 Raiders way back in week two of the season, falling 48-14, but in a football season that might as well have been a lifetime ago.

"I would say both teams are different from what they were then," said Canton coach Tyler Sechrist. "Football is a grinding, grueling season. We're about as healthy as we've been all year right now, which is a good place to be."

Montgomery comes in as a ground and pound team with nearly 3000 yards rushing through 10 games, led by Josh Knoebel (104 carries, 789-yards, 13 touchdowns) and Trace Furman (75 carries, 756-yards, nine touchdowns), though Furman suffered an injury two weeks ago in their season finale against CV. Lincoln Miller (88 carries, 655-yards, 10 touchdowns) will also get some touches.

"We know it's going to be a battle in the trenches," said Solomon. "We've just got to fill gaps and fly around. We've played them before, so we know what to expect."

The Warriors are planning on taking the fight to Montgomery on the defensive side of things.

"We're going to be aggressive this week," Sechrist said. "We're going to go after them, and we've got some stuff in there, too, that maybe causes some turnovers. We've got to play full speed, and we've got to be able to slow down their run. I understand it's going to be hard to stop, but we can't let them run on us like they did the first time we played."

Canton's hoping their own offense will be able to keep Montgomery off balance in order to sustain some drives, and put up some points.

"We're going to run the ball at them," Gardner said. "Get to the outside, and see what we can do."

Sechrist believes a change in strategy helped them in that regard.

"Coach Kitchen did a good job putting the option in last week, and they hadn't seen option," said Sechrist. "Our line opened some holes for Bailey, finally, and gave him some space to run, and I think he didn't want to be done yet, so he had a heck of a game. We scored in a hurry and I think it's given them some confidence going into this week."

Sechrist draws on experience when facing Montgomery this week, and not the best kind for them.

"It's always tough to play a team twice," he said. "We struggled with it a lot back the first three times we made the district championship. I was telling these guys we played a Muncy team that we beat in the regular season and then lost to them."

No matter what happens this has been a boon for Canton as they work their way back to the top of the district.

"It was a good win for our program last week," he said. "We're excited about the opportunity to go down there with nothing to lose, and just lay it on the line - play football and see what happens."