The undefeated and top-ranked River Hill (6-0) football team was running through practice yesterday evening, getting ready for its meeting with No. 12 Marriotts Ridge at the Hawks' home field in Clarksville.

It was raining, but coach Brian Van Deusen's team didn't seem to notice. That's how concentrated the players are on tonight's 7 p.m. game.

"Marriotts Ridge is 12th in the state," said River Hill's junior right tackle Max Coale. "They're probably our first real formidable rival."

The Hawks' center and nose tackle, Sean Hull, was equally respectiful.

"It's a really big game to us," said Hull. "They're really the first team we've played with a winning record. They played Wilde Lake, which is a really good team, and they only lost to them by one."

The Hawks say Marriotts Ridge is a more balanced team than any they've played so far.

"They've got a good running back, good receivers and a lot of different formations to cover," said Hull.

So do all these words of praise mean River Hill expects a close, challenging, down-to-the-wire nail-biter tonight?

"No," said Hull. "Our coaches have prepared us really well this week. We've got a lot of new offensive plays. We've scored more than 50 points in four of our last five games. I don't think they're going to stop our offense."

Added Coale: "Our defense will step up. I don't think it will be a tight game. We are overly prepared. We've watched so much film of their games from this year and last year, we know plays we know they can run that they haven't even run yet."

-- Sandra McKee