GALENA, Kan. – The Galena Bulldogs have a shot at claiming a 3A regional championship Thursday night against CNC rival Columbus.

“It means a lot. It’s one of our goals every year to win a regional championship and move on to the state playoffs,” says Galena head coach Beau Sarwinski, “It would mean a lot to our seniors and everybody in our program. We just have to take it one play at a time and see what happens for our kids.”

Both teams are on a roll heading into Thursday’s showdown.

Galena is 7-2 overall and has won 6 straight games. Columbus is 4-5 overall, but they’ve won three in a row – including a 46-8 blowout over Burlington in the first round of the playoffs last week.

The Bulldogs beat the Titans 36-22 when they met in the regular season, but Galena knows they’re facing a different Columbus team than the one they saw six weeks ago.

“They’re playing with a lot of confidence. Any time you play a team that’s got confidence, they’re scary,” Sarwinski says, “They’re just going right after people and playing physical. Any time you can do that this time of the year, a lot of good things can happen for you. They can also throw it. They’re running the ball effectively, and I think it’s opening up some play action for them and has kept them to where they’re playing pretty well right now.”

Thursday’s game was previously scheduled for Friday night – but forecasted weather caused the two teams to move the game up to Thursday.

“Thursday is when you usually kind of polish things up,” Sarwinski says, “We’re just going to have to make sure we’re prepared on Wednesday and do the best that we can. It’s the same for both teams, so there’s no advantage either way. You just move forward and get ready to roll.”

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