A battle of two top-five ranked teams will play out today at 1 p.m. when the Big Sandy Pioneers host the Winifred-Roy Outlaws in a quarterfinal 6-Man football playoff game.

The top-ranked Pioneers are 9-0, while the fifth-ranked Outlaws are 6-2.

With the rankings, the game has the makings to be a good one. Both head coaches agreed.

"They are really big and they don't do a lot of different things, but they are good at what they do," Outlaws coach Dave Udelhoven said. "They power the ball at you and one of their running backs is pretty quick. They have a pretty good combination of things."

"They are a big team, so we have to play physical with them and don't beat ourselves and keep the penalties and turnovers to a minimum," Big Sandy third-year coach Greg King said. "They have to do their duties and do their jobs."

The Pioneers defeated Bridger 55-13 last week in the first round of the playoffs.

Nine players are back from last season's Big Sandy team, which finished 3-6 in its first year of 6-Man, including three starters and two others who played extensively.

"The kids are playing well," King said. "We have some kids stepping up and playing and doing very well. We just have to have everybody hitting on the same cylinder all at the same time and that will be a big help."

Defensively, Big Sandy boasts two big ends in 6-foot-7 senior Blake Brumwell and 6-3 senior Taylor Ophus. They also play end on offense. Senior linebacker Corbin Pearson is 6-4. Other top defenders are senior Scott Drga and junior Ryan Miller. Senior Kruz McDermott is a safety.

Those six players get a majority of the time offensively, as well. Miller has run for 994 yards and is averaging seven yards a carry. McDermott has passed for 531 yards and Brumwell has 481 receiving yards.

The Outlaws are a newly formed co-op this year. Last season, Winifred played eight-man and competed in the Southern C-North, while Roy was in the Southern 6-Man with Grass Range and Winnett. The Outlaws' only losses came 7-6 in the first week to third-ranked Hysham and 40-20 to second-ranked Denton in the final week of the regular season.

"It's gone pretty good," Udelhoven said of the conversion to 6-Man. "With a couple breaks we could be undefeated."

Last week Winifred-Roy topped Jordan 46-6 in the first round of the playoffs as leading rusher Tel Foran scored three touchdowns. Foran, a senior tailback, has approximately 1,000 rushing yards and averages 16 yards per carry. Senior fullback Joe Econom averages 10 yards per tote. On the defensive side, Econom plays middle linebacker and leads the team in tackles.

Junior Porter Sturm is the Outlaws' top receiver.

"We are going to have to slow down their run," Udelhoven said of the key for victory. "They like to power the ball at you. We have to slow that down and keep them from getting their play-action passing game working. They like to run some sweep passes and pitch the ball and have Pearson throw."

In other 6-Man quarterfinal games today, Hysham (9-0) hosts Dubois, Idaho (7-2), Denton (8-0) hosts Augusta (8-2) and Great Falls Central (9-1) hosts North Star (6-3).