Playoff football gets underway in southeast Iowa tonight. On the eight-man field, the No. 1 ranked Winfield-Mt. Union Wolves aim to continue their successful 2023 campaign as they host Belle Plaine. 

WMU capped off a perfect regular season last week, steamrolling HLV 66-0. The Wolves recorded three special teams touchdowns to complement an offense that bullied the Warriors up front, and a defense that recorded its first shutout of the year. 

An abundance of skilled players like Cam Buffington, Abram Edwards, Cole Milks, and Eli Miller helped the Wolves score more than 55 points per game this season. With quarterback Jake Edwards as the facilitator, 55 offensive touchdowns has them tied for eight-most in eight-man football. While WMU has the ability to attack defenses from the air, the offense is predicated on a commanding run game. Their 9.6 yards per carry are second-best in the class. Buffington, who leads all eight-man backs with 13.8 yards per run, is responsible for more than 50 percent of the team’s production. On the other side of the ball, eight different Wolves have more than 20 tackles. The defensive front has gotten to the quarterback for a seventh-best 24 sacks, taking the ball away 15 times. 

Preparing to face the Plainsmen, WMU Head Coach Scott McCarty tells KCII what he expects from this unfamiliar opponent. “Belle Plaine, they’re just starting eight-man so we have no history with them. They’re a really nice run team. They don’t throw the ball a ton. Their game is to line up and try and punch you in the mouth and I think our strength on defense is the run defense. It sounds cliche, but if you control the line of scrimmage you’re gonna control the game, and I think that holds true.”  

Belle Plaine limps into the playoffs as an at-large team, losing two of their last three games to end the regular season. Averaging 50 points per game, they are tied for eighth in eight-man with 40 rushing touchdowns, but will be without their top scorer Ty Alcott. Defensively, they lead the class with 24 fumble recoveries, nine more than the next closest team. Jax Stamp is the big playmaker with eight of those, while also leading eight-man with 29.5 tackles for loss. 

You can listen to WMU begin their postseason run on the KCII3 stream, with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m. and kickoff between the Wolves and Plainsmen live from Winfield at 7.