CULVER - The proverbial immovable object meets irresistible force Friday when Culver Military Academy's football team visits New Prairie.

The immovable object - the Eagles' rush defense - surrenders a paltry 90 yards per contest.

The irresistible force - the Cougars' triple option offense - averages more than 350 yards on the ground each game.

“Something's gonna give,” CMA head football coach Andy Dorrel said.

And with the Class 3A Sectional 19 title on the line, Dorrel hopes his team's defense maintains its rock-solid core against Class 3A No. 5 New Prairie and quarterback Zach Blackwood.

“(New Prairie) has probably the finest option attack I've seen in my years of coaching,” the Eagles' ninth-year skipper noted. “Their quarterback, Zach Blackwood, is their leading rusher and does a tremendous job directing that offense.”

Blackwood, who takes snaps out of a deep crouch, effectively hides the ball and leaves defenders guessing the pigskin's whereabouts. Add several capable backs and a sizable offensive front, and the Cougars boast ample big-play potential.

Dorrel puts minimizing big plays at the top of the Eagles' agenda.

“The key is to limit their big plays,” Dorrel commented. “We have to limit their gains over 15 yards. If we can force them to have to move the ball down the field through long drives, I like our chances. Our defense has to get the correct read time and time again. I have a lot of confidence that our defense can do that.

“We're going to have to get a few scores of our own because they're going to score,” Dorrel added. “We're going to need to put up three or four of our own big scores.”

CMA (9-2) notched a pair of big fourth-quarter scores in a nail biting 21-13 come-from-behind win over defending state champion NorthWood last Friday.

The Eagles fashioned a 14-play scoring drive - capped off by the first of wingback Neven Fingerhut's two fourth-frame touchdowns. Kicker Kyler Scott then recovered his own on-side kick to set up Fingerhut's 50-yard scoring jaunt on the next play.

Barrick Bollman also intercepted a deflected pass to terminate the Panthers' last possession.

“It was certainly rewarding to beat the team that had beat us three years in a row in the sectional,” Dorrel said. “That was a real gutty performance. We talk all the time about finishing. We finished with a lot of determination and character.”

The Eagles, coming off that monumental victory, enter the sectional championship game with what Dorrel termed “an arrogance of intent.”

“I don't want that to sound wrong, but what we mean by arrogance of intent is that we know the way we want to play, and what we want to do and that's what we're going to do,” Dorrel explained. “We have to be physical. We have to execute. We have to control the clock. It's not that we're cocky. It's, ‘here's our job and we'll try to do that job.'”

CMA, hunting its first sectional crown since 2000, stands a single victory from surviving a brutal field. Six of the sectional's eight teams finished the regular season with at least seven wins, and another, defending state champion NorthWood, entered 5-4.

“It's been obvious that our kids want to keep playing football,” Dorrel concluded. “To win a sectional would be a great testament to the character and determination of this team. We beat a 7-2 Lakeland team, beat the defending state champs and now face 10-1 New Prairie. To win would be a great statement of our team's character and determination.”

Game time is 8 p.m. at New Prairie.