Number one awaits

The Tennessee Valley Vipers have had their hills and their valleys this season. Luckily for the Vipers (11-6) the biggest hill peaked at a seven game winning streak and helped the club to secure a playoff berth for the first time since 2004.
Unfortunately, however, awaiting the Vipers this week is the team that stopped that seven game winning streak.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton comes into this week's quarterfinals match up with a 15-2 record and the 2007 af2 Offensive Player of the Year in quarterback Ryan Vena.
Vena is 13-1 as the Pioneers starter this season and is statistically one of the top quarterbacks again this season.
With a plethora of capable receiving options, Vena threw for 87 touchdowns in the regular season. J.J. Outlaw led the talented trio of receivers with 31 touchdown grabs, but Ruch Musinski hauled in 28, while Larry Kendrick caught 26 touchdowns of his own.
The offense averages 63.6 points per game and the stingy defense allows under 40 points a contest. The Pioneers beat their opponents by an average of 26 points.
When the Vipers traveled to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton earlier this season, the Vipers held a 1-point lead in the fourth quarter before a barrage of miscues led to 28 unanswered points for the Pioneers to blow open a 77-49 win.
While Tennessee Valley has prided itself on the dominance of it's defensive line this season, Wilkes-Barre quietly recorded 54 sacks on the season--second most in af2 history and nine more than the Vipers this season.
Countering the Pioneers on the side of Tennessee Valley will be quarterback Kevin Eakin. Eakin has been less than stellar as of late, but has played against the toughest of defenses. Against the Pioneers in their first match up, Eakin threw for 351 yards and seven touchdowns, but had two costly interceptions and lost two fumbles.
One area the Vipers are definitely better is the rushing attack. Travis Blanchard now holds the Vipers franchise record for most rushing scores in a season and Tennessee Valley has punched in 35 scores this season on the ground.
The key to the game for the Vipers will be controlling the line of scrimmage and keeping mistakes to a minimum.
To beat Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, teams must play perfectly.
A group of Vipers fans will be at Indigo Joe's in Huntsville to watch the game on a big screen television. Join the Vipers' fans as they cheer on your hometown team!