Friday night is the start of the highly anticipated WIAA Football playoffs and Appleton North will start postseason plays with a matchup against Bay Port. The Lightning advanced to the playoffs after a 4-4 regular season record.

“We are ready for the challenge,” head coach Rob Salm said. “Our guys have worked all week on stopping Bay Port’s run game, and working on our balanced game plan for the offense.”

The keys to a win tonight, according to Salm, are stopping the run, controlling time of possession, eliminating the big plays on defense, and making the most of the scoring opportunities. “Our receivers are expecting a big game tonight, as well as our secondary,” Salm said.

Lightning starting wide receiver, Adam Zeratsky, expects to win the one-on-one battles and find the open spots in their zone coverage in order to have a big game tonight. Zeratsky said that this week in practice the team has been focusing on particular areas. “We have been working on our timing with new plays and formations in our playbook.”

Coach Salm and Zeratsky both predict that there will be a good amount of offense tonight, but it will come down to who can make the defensive play to seal the game for either team.