Notre Dame (6-2) vs. Dundee (8-0)
Noon, Saturday, at PAETEC Park
The Notre Dame football team has been on a roll, cruising through the opening two rounds of the playoffs by a combined score of 111-6.
The Fighting Irish blasted DeSales 55-6 in the first round and then thrashed Perry 56-0 last week. Everything is clicking.
The defense has only allowed a total of 142 yards rushing in two games and the Yellowjackets only had one serious chance to score in the semifinals.
Craig Houseknecht, Rick Lair and the rest of the defense is playing near-perfect football; and they are going to have to keep that up to avenge last year's 18-13 loss in the semifinals at the hands of Dundee.
The Scotsmen have put 385 points on the scoreboard this season and have crushed some teams, even giving Red Jacket an 89-6 beat-down in Week 5.
The offense is led by junior running back Steve Webb, who earned Offensive Player of the Week in a 53-14 win over Marcus Whitman, when he rushed for 190 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Dundee will throw the ball a little and does have a few other options, but Webb is the go-to guy.
Notre Dame's offense has turned from good to great in recent weeks and will also face a stiff challenge because the Scotsmen have only given up 45 points this season. Marcus Whitman is the only team to score over 10 points in a game this season against them and Dundee is coming off a 49-0 blowout of Geneseo.
The Fighting Irish have a ton of team speed and last week it was Mike Pratt to take advantage of the East Rochester turf, picking up 109 yards with three touchdowns. He is now at 615 yards on the season.
Kevin Schildwaster is a speedster in the backfield and has 675 yards and 10 touchdowns.
The passing game will most likely be needed because of Dundee's stout defense, and Notre Dame has had little difficulties with that.
Nick Bochicchio threw two more touchdown passes last week, even though there was little need to throw the football. His top target is always going to be Kevin Francis.
Francis had a nice punt return last week but is the biggest threat on the turf. It is only a matter of time before he gets some space on a kick return, punt return or short reception and he's going to make a big play. There aren't many players as fast as Francis playing football in the smaller schools in Section 5.
Neither team lacks experience as Dundee has a bunch of players that return after going to the sectional finals last season and Notre Dame has plenty of talent that were sophomores on the 2006 sectional championship squad.
Dundee is sixth in the state in Class D and the Fighting Irish debut at No. 15 this week.
