The Harbin Ratings used to seed the high school football playoffs are not always perfect, but they seem to have nailed it in Division I, Region 3.

After the top four teams advanced to last Saturday's semifinal round, top-seeded Dublin Coffman and second-seeded Hilliard Davidson found ways to win and move on to Saturday's regional final at Upper Arlington. Davidson and Coffman were the top two teams in the Region 3 standings for the final five weeks of the season and were the top two teams in ThisWeek's Super 7 poll for the final two weeks.

Davidson coach Brian White, whose team beat Pickerington Central 17-7 last Saturday, said as tough as Central was, he knows his team has to elevate its play even more this week.

"We did well enough to beat what I think is a really good team, but I obviously think we have some improvement to make this week," said White, whose team is 10-1. "We can't play like we did last week and expect to beat Coffman this week."

The Shamrocks, who are 12-0 and have been ranked as high as third in the state poll, beat Westerville South 21-19 last Saturday in their closest game of the season. Coffman had to stop South tailback Jayshan Jackson on fourth-and-goal from the 1 with 35 seconds to play in order to hang on.

The Wildcats were considered by many to be the hottest team in the area, but the Shamrocks forced three crucial turnovers and came up with enough big plays offensively.

There will be few surprises in Saturday's meeting. Coffman and Davidson are familiar not only with each other, but with this level of the postseason as well. Davidson is making its fifth appearance in a regional final since 2002 and Coffman is making its third.

The teams met in a 2006 regional final, with Davidson rallying from 13 points down to win 28-20 en route to a Division I state championship.

The Shamrocks have won two of three meetings since that point, including a 10-7 win Oct. 16. Coffman coach Mark Crabtree said his coaches and players know exactly what to expect in a game with Davidson.

"It's the same style, same philosophy. The players in their program have been running the same scheme since they've been in high school," Crabtree said. "To be quite honest, we haven't learned anything (from the Oct. 16 meeting) other than it's the same Davidson that it always is. They're going to be tough, physical, well prepared and just real good football players."

There will be a couple of key differences personnel-wise in Saturday's game compared to the regular season meeting. Coffman is now without linebacker Brett Buehler, the Division I district defensive Player of the Year. Buehler has been out with a foot injury since the first quarter of a 31-12 win over Springfield on Nov. 7.

Coffman, which has allowed an average of 5.2 points per game defensively, proved last Saturday that it could still slow down a high-powered offense without Buehler.

"Going into practice (the week of the South game), we all knew we had lost our big star at linebacker," fellow linebacker Kyle Frazier said. "He's a hell of a player, but we knew we had to step up for him and do our jobs to make up for him."

For the first time in more than a month, Davidson had its entire starting backfield available last Saturday. Running backs Rico Butler and Spencer Delande returned after missing five games, and quarterback Jake Trubiano is healthy after struggling with the flu for several weeks. White said Butler and Delande were understandably rusty last week -- they each fumbled once -- but he expects his team's offense to be more in sync Saturday.

"We didn't really game-plan, to be quite honest with you, with the thought in mind that we were going to have those guys (last Saturday)," White said. "We didn't probably expand our offense as much as maybe we will this week, knowing that we're going to have those three guys and that hopefully they'll be even a little more healthy."

Coaches agreed that Saturday's game will be determined by a couple of factors. Davidson's option offense averages 28.9 points per game, but White acknowledged that false-start penalties make it particularly difficult for his team to pick up first downs.

Crabtree said his team has to handle Davidson's physical play up front. The Wildcats were the only team to hold the Shamrocks to less than 21 points this season.

"As it always comes down to with Davidson, at least when we play them, (the key is) can you match their physical style of offense with your defense and can you do the same thing with your offense as far as matching their physical style," Crabtree said. "I think if we can do that and match the intensity that we put out, I think we'll feel good about it no matter what happens."