No. 4 King’s Fork (10-2) at No. 1 Lake Taylor (12-0) – Friday at 7:30 p.m.

The King’s Fork High School football team will get the chance to write a new ending to the Region 4A South semifinal this year.

The Bulldogs are no stranger to the game. They suffered a disappointing 13-7 loss to Heritage High School at this same point in the playoffs last year.

They have turned the loss into motivation to give themselves another chance.

“When we started working out in January, this is where we wanted to be,” KF coach Joe Jones said. Even beyond that, he later added, “The expectation was to get here.”

All signs point to this year’s challenge of advancing as being a formidable one.

“Lake Taylor’s a very good football team,” Jones said. “They’ve proven themselves.”

Some consider the Titans to be a fairly solid favorite to win the Group 4A state title. Last week, they defeated No. 9 Dinwiddie High School, the defending 4A state champions, 42-14.

Jones and his staff have been busily preparing for what the Titans like to do on both offense and defense.

Offensively, “Lake Taylor is a split-back, veer-option team,” he said, noting the Titans like to run both inside and outside veer options.

King’s Fork has been an option team, helping Jones to know that the difficulty in defending it comes in the execution.

“With the option, it’s not a hard offense to prepare for, it’s a tough offense to play against (on) game night,” he said.

Jones said his players must catch their assignments, making sure the options are covered.

Some of Lake Taylor’s effective players in the backfield include junior running back Dazmine Palmer, senior running backs Marcus Hawkins and Marquise Poole and senior quarterback Shiheem Johnson.

“They’re not afraid to throw it,” Jones said, offering praise for Johnson’s defensive role on the Titans. “Anytime you’ve got your quarterback playing inside linebacker, he’s got some toughness to him.”

Effective targets for Johnson include senior wide receiver Nhyre Quinerly and junior wide receiver Wayne Davis.

Defensively, the Titans are very aggressive.

“Most of the time, they’ve got all 11 guys within five yards of the ball,” Jones said.

While this leaves no one at the second and third levels if a runner can get there, Jones said, the Titans make their style work because all 11 defenders are good athletes.

“Their philosophy is, ‘Block us,’” he said. “We’ve got to be able to do that.”

The Bulldogs hope to have junior feature back Deshaun Wethington in the game, but he aggravated a hamstring injury during a long run last Friday. Jones said Wethington’s status for Friday’s game remains unknown.