Knox Redskins ready to reclaim regional championship title following last year's one point defeat

STARKE COUNTY, Ind. -- It's Friday, that means it's another night of high school football in Michiana.

The remaining Hoosier teams are playing for regional championships.

ABC57's Game of the Week is back in Knox: the still undefeated Redskins host the 7-5 Angola Hornets at Community Field.

"If you're lucky enough to be right here where we are right now, you've got to play with a different intensity, and I hope we can bring that out," says Russ Radtke, Knox High School Football Head Coach.

The reigning sectional champs are ready to bring a different kind of intensity to the field as they chug on in Week 13.

Radtke says he's proud of his team for getting over the first hump of the postseason.

"It's so hard to win a sectional championship, I think it's the toughest championship to try to win, because those eight teams that are in there, you only see three of them, but everybody's wanting that last game," explains Radtke. "Therefore, when you get to the championship, you don't have a team that's just lost the last one." 

That title is one thing the Redksins have in common with their regional rival coming in from Angola.

They might not be undefeated, but the Hornets know how to write a perfect comeback story.

In their last two games, they clinched a win by just one and two points.

"The one we're playing right now is very hungry," Radtke says. "They try awful hard and they've come back from behind twice to win their sectional championship." 

At this point in the season, Radtke is reminded of last year's fate when the Redskins were knocked out of the postseason in regionals by Garrett, coming up just one point short. 

"We were there last year, we lost it; it got taken away from us, and a lot of those guys are back, and they're a little hungrier as a result of that," says Radtke. "They've had to live the past 364 days until we're back here again." 

But this Knox team is hungrier than ever, and they're on the hunt to break school history by making the trip down to Indianapolis for the State Finals in just a few weeks. 

Radtke says they're just going to keep doing what they're good at doing as far as preparation is concerned, but their focus needs to remain laser sharp on what's ahead. 

"If you dwell upon it, even on Saturday morning trying to come up with films, or review what you did wrong, you don't have time for that right now, you're on the run, you're on the fly, you got to be ready for that very next week's game," Radtke says.

Knox's Myles Mclaughlin continues to build on his rushing numbers as his team goes deeper into the postseason with 11,389 yards under his belt.  

Two weeks ago, he broke the state all-time career rushing record and now, he's got his eye on the national record which has been held by Baltimore Ravens star Derrick Henry for more than ten years with 12,124 yards.  

Henry was asked on a podcast last week about Myles.

"He's a beast, go break it man. That's what records are, meant to be broken. I've had it for 10 plus years, man go get it, break the record man. I hope you win the state championship with it," says Derrick Henry, running back for the Baltimore Ravens.

With the blessing of King Henry now secured, Myles would need to average 245 yards over the next three games to claim the record, which is a task that should be within reach as Knox's #2 has averaged 366 rushing yards a game throughout his record-breaking season.