By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

The final week of the regular season is here.

As scoreboards around the state hit triple zeroes on Friday the 2017 playoff qualifiers will be secured and in the early hours of Saturday morning teams will learn their postseason fate.

There will be plenty of time for dissecting playoff paths in the coming days for now the focus is on the final week of the regular season and what to watch on Friday night.

The Road to 9-0

There are 23 undefeated teams entering the final week of the regular season and three area teams are among the list of the unbeaten.

West High, Solon and West Branch can all complete 9-0 regular seasons with a win on Friday.

The Trojans are the lone remaining unbeaten team in Class 4A and would secure their first unbeaten regular season since 2012 with a win at winless Ottumwa.

A road trip to Guttenberg and matchup with Clayton Ridge (3-5) is the lone barrier standing between West Branch and the third unbeaten regular season in four years and 14th in program history.

Solon has the longest drought without an unblemished regular season but can go 9-0 for the first time since 2009 with a home win over Fairfield (2-6) on Friday.

All three teams join Regina (6-2) as area teams that have already locked up district titles and first-round home playoff games.

Finishing It Off

The seasons for City High and Clear Creek Amana will end on Friday night and both teams are hoping to go into the offseason celebrating a third win.

City High (2-6) hosts Davenport Central (2-6) in its regular season finale while Clear Creek Amana (2-6) travels to Central DeWitt (1-7).

Both teams enter Friday’s season finale stuck in three-game losing streaks and a win to close the season would be huge morale boosters for both programs.

Both teams earned wins over their week nine opponents last season.

Elite Company

There have been plenty of talented players to come through City High and West High in the history of the two highly successful football programs.

A pair of current players can put themselves in elite company at their respective schools on Friday.

City High senior receiver Zach Jones needs 82 yards on Friday to become the third player in program history with 1,000 receiving yards in a season joining older brother Jason Jones and John Chelf.

Jones has caught 65 passes for 918 yards and seven touchdowns this season.

West High senior quarterback Evan Flitz needs 102 yards passing on Friday to surpass Charlie Rogers for most career passing yards in school history.

Flitz has passed for 1,902 yards and 21 touchdowns this season and has 4,139 yards over the last two seasons.  Rogers threw for 4,240 yards from 2009-2011.

Rolling Regals

November is right around the corner which means Regina is likely getting close to playing its best football of the season.

Regina (6-2) has won six straight games since back-to-back losses to unbeaten 3A opponents to open the season, outscoring opponents by an average of nearly 36 points per game during that stretch.

Since a week-two loss to Solon the Regals have averaged 47 points and 447 yards of offense per game.

Regina closes the regular season on Friday at Louisa-Muscatine (3-4).

Late Night, Early Morning

District champs and runners-up will be decided as tonight’s state-wide slate of games wraps up with at-large berths in each class determined shortly after.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association expects to have playoff pairings available around 2 a.m. on Saturday.