After every practice, before games and often when it enters and leaves the locker room, the Watterson High School football team breaks to the chant, "Believe."

According to senior Matt Redfield, it has been the slogan this fall for a team which he said had many doubters after the Eagles lost a large 2009 graduating class after two down seasons.

The Eagles think that following that motto should take them a long way when they face DeSales for the Division III, Region 10 championship Friday at Dublin Coffman.

"We obviously haven't had much success against them lately," Redfield said. "We need to keep our focus and have everyone do their jobs against them. We have to believe in the person that is next to (us)."

DeSales defeated Watterson 17-10 on Oct. 9 to win its third consecutive CCL-Silver Division championship, and has won each of the last four meetings. The Eagles' last victory in the series came in 2006, when they won 40-34.

In the first matchup this year, Watterson led 10-7 and was at the Stallions' 8-yard line when Eagles quarterback Greg Hock was intercepted by Chi Chi Ariguzo. DeSales drove 90 yards on seven plays on the ensuing possession to take a 14-10 lead into the fourth quarter. The Stallions extended their lead to 17-10 on a 40-yard field goal by David Harper and Evan Kendrick intercepted Hock with 4 minutes, 8 seconds remaining to seal the victory.

The Eagles got inside DeSales territory only once in the second half.

DeSales quarterback Nick Gentile had one of his best games running the option. He finished with 160 yards on 22 carries and completed 3 of 4 passes for 46 yards.

"When you look at the DeSales-Watterson game even before I got here, it's always down to the wire," Stallions coach Ryan Wiggins said. "The ball has bounced our way of late. We need to take care of the details and get ready for a physical battle."

While DeSales is coming off a 54-14 domination of Tipp City Tippecanoe at Dayton's Welcome Stadium, Watterson needed a stout defensive performance to hold off Napoleon 6-3 at Findlay's Donnell Stadium last Friday.

Led by Adam Griffin, who rushed for 118 yards and three touchdowns, the Stallions finished with 314 total yards and got two interceptions from Corey Scott and one apiece from Chris Colatruglio and Ariguzo.

Hock was 8-for-14 passing for 112 yards, including the game's only touchdown, a 24-yard pass to Marc Elberson, who finished with five catches for 67 yards.

The Eagles survived by holding Napoleon's running game to 44 yards on 25 attempts and allowing just 5 passing yards.

DeSales opened the playoffs with a 45-21 blowout of Bryan on Nov. 6. That same day, Watterson shut out Bellefontaine 26-0.

Elberson believes the Eagles' familiarity with DeSales' option offense gives them an advantage over the other teams the Stallions have faced in the postseason thus far.

"We all want to go out and beat them, and we know nothing is going to be given to us," Elberson said. "As seniors, this game will be our last memory against DeSales and it will erase the others. We made a few mistakes the last time we played them with two letdowns on defense and some costly turnovers.

"We know we can compete with DeSales. The option is something that is tough to stop, and you can't really do that if you don't see it. We've played them so many times that we have experience playing against the option."

This marks the fifth time the programs have met in the playoffs. Watterson won in 1995, 2003 and '04 and DeSales won last year, 20-17 in the first round.

"They just line up and do what they want to do," Ariguzo said. "If everyone just does their jobs and reads the play, we should be OK. Basically everybody on our defense can make a play."