The 5-5 Beavers head to 7-3 State College Saturday for the semifinal round of the District 6-9 Class AAAA playoffs. Kickoff at Memorial Field is set for 7 p.m.

DuBois dropped a 34-0 decision at State back on Sept. 21. That score would lead one to believe that the Beavers have a tough chore ahead of them. Last week could have changed that outlook.

DuBois nearly knocked off Altoona at home, but lost to the Mountain Lions in overtime, 29-28. Altoona, the top seed in the playoffs, beat State College, 25-7, one week before State blanked DuBois. So if the Beavers can play as well as they did against Altoona, you never know.

DuBois head coach Lon Hazlet, coaching the Beavers in the playoffs for the first time in his second year with the team, knows that his team will have to play a solid game and avoid mistakes.

Senior running back Derek Marshall (1,507 yards rushing, 10 TDs) will be the focus of the Beavers offense, but DuBois will have to do more than just hand off to Marshall. Quarterback Chad Hilliard (630 yards, 8 TDs), receiver Mark Jones (250 yards, 3 TDs) and running back Josh Campbell (557 yards) will be other key figures in the DuBois gameplan.

State College used the big play to beat DuBois in the first game with two of its touchdowns coming from over 41 yards. Quarterbacks Kevin Suhey and Brandon Ream combined to complete 12 of 16 passes for three touchdowns and 205 yards. Running back Ryan Ricks rushed for 109 yards on only eight carries and scored on runs of 67 and eight yards.

Ricks needs 35 yards to reach 1,000 for the season, and Ream and Suhey have each passed for over 400 yards. Jon Stupar is the top receiver with 19 catches for 224 yards.

State is coming off a 34-13 win over Tamaqua. The Little Lions lost 21-20 to Erie Prep in Week 9, 24-17 to Downingtown in Week 4 and 25-7 to Altoona in Week 3.

State leads the all-time series, 27-17-1. The Little Lions have won the last five meetings with the Beavers and 10 of the last 12. This is the first time that the teams have played each other twice in a season.