Football Guide: Muskego Warriors Open Playoffs at Home

The Muskego Warriors football team begins what it hopes is a long postseason run when it hosts Milwaukee Washington in the first round of the WIAA Division 1 playoffs 7 p.m. Friday at InPro Stadium.

Here is a closer look at the 2011 Warriors:

Last week: The Warriors (8-1) finished with a second-place record of 6-1 in the Southeast Conference after holding off Oak Creek for a 42-40 victory in the regular-season finale. Washington (3-5) enters the postseason having lost its final two City Conference games.

Rankings: Muskego was ranked No. 8 in Division 1 in the WisSports.net state coaches poll (http://www.wissports.net/rankings.asp?yid=2011&rid=5&WeekID=8&sportID=3). The Warriors were also ranked No. 7 in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel state poll among all schools (http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/staterank16-131928153.html), tied for No. 16 in the Associated Press large division state poll (http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/aprank18-132022193.html) and No. 4 in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel area poll (http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/fbrank-18-132023263.html).

Playoff history: Muskego has qualified for the playoffs for the 14^th time in school history. … Making their first appearance since 2006 last year, the Warriors lost in the second round to Kenosha Tremper. … Muskego has an all-time playoff record of 9-13. … The Warriors lost in the Division 1 championship game to Arrowhead, 19-16, in 1994.

FYI: Muskego and Oak Creek combined for 41 points in a wild opening quarter in last week’s game. The Warriors jumped out to a 28-13 lead as Roland Dunlap had touchdown runs covering 35 and 47 yards, while Brady Simkowski had a 39-yard TD run and Jordan Gruettner had a 13-yard TD run. … Simkowski finished with 213 yards on 24 carries and Dunlap had 106 yards on seven carries. … David Kucharski also chipped in with 88 yards on seven carries. He had an 18-yard TD run in the second quarter and a 24-yard TD run in the third quarter. … Jeff Glisch and Tommy Stark led the defense with 11 and 10 tackles, respectively. Josh Breider also recovered a fumble. ... The Muskego-Washington winner will play the Kenosha-Bradford-Milwaukee Pulaski winner in the second round.

Quoteworthy: The Warriors are excited to be back in the playoffs for the second year in a row.

“This will be our first home playoff game since 2005,” Muskego coach Ken Krause said. “Our community and youth football organization has been awesome in attending our games and firing up our varsity football players. We have a ton of respect for Milwaukee Washington. They will be fired up. It is their first playoff appearance in 10 years.”

2011 schedule: http://www.southeastwi.org/g5-bin/client.cgi?cwellOnly=1&G5statusflag=view&schoolname=&school_id=5&G5button=13&G5genie=49&vw_schoolyear=1&vw_agl=1-1-15&category_sel=0&category=