By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

The opening round of the prep football playoffs are lurking two weeks away.

Two more weeks of regular season action will set the postseason pairings in stone with playoff action opening Oct. 27.

Before looking ahead to what awaits in the playoffs here are five things to keep an eye on Friday in week eight of the regular season.

Title Time

Four area teams can lock up district titles and a first round home playoff game with wins on Friday.

West High (7-0) can secure the Class 4A, District 8 title with a win over Linn-Mar (1-6) at Trojan Field while Solon (7-0) can clinch the 3A, District 5 crown with a home win over West Burlington (2-5).

In Class 1A, West Branch (7-0) and Regina (5-2) can both secure district titles with home wins on Friday.

West Branch hosts Tipton (3-4) in a District 3 matchup, while Regina hosts Columbus (2-5) for a chance to lock up the District 4 title.

Chasing Perfection

With two weeks remaining in the regular season there are 25 unbeaten teams in the state, including 20 in 11-player classes.

Area teams West High, Solon and West Branch are among the remaining unbeatens and are all heavy favorites to close the regular season 9-0.

Second-ranked West High joins top-ranked West Des Moines Dowling as the lone remaining unbeaten teams in Class 4A while top-ranked Solon is one of only four undefeated teams in 3A.

West Branch is one of five unbeaten teams in Class 1A.

Record-Breaking Bears

It’s already been a record-breaking year for the West Branch offense and the Bears might not be done yet.

Junior quarterback Beau Cornwell enters Friday leading Class 1A with 1,627 passing yards and needs 102 yards to break the single season passing record set by Cooper Koenig in 2015.

Koenig passed for 1,728 in 12 games two seasons ago, a total that Cornwell has a chance to surpass in eight games.

Cornwell is completing 67 percent of his passes while throwing for better than 232 yards per game and has 16 touchdowns with three interceptions.

The junior has already set a single season completion record

Playing Takeaway

Solon has been among the best defensive teams in the state this season.

One thing every good defense does is force turnovers and the Spartans have done it as well as any team this season.

Solon has forced 22 turnovers through seven games, returning six for touchdowns.

The Spartans have 11 interceptions, three by junior Coal Flansburg and two each by Jack Stahle and Adam Bock.

Solon has also recovered 11 fumbles with Bock and Tyler Linderbaum each falling on three fumbles.

Going Back to Zach

City High senior standout Zach Jones had an uncharacteristically quiet game by his high standards last week, catching five passes for 64 yards in a soggy loss to Muscatine.

Jones will leads Class 4A in both receptions (64) and receiving yards (910) entering Friday’s road test against fourth-ranked Bettendorf (7-1).

Look for the Little Hawks to get the ball into the hands of its most electric playmaker early and often against the Bulldogs.

Jones needs two receptions and 244 yards to break the single season records for receptions and yards both set by his older brother Jason in 2015.

The 5-foot-11, 175-pound Jones is 221 yards away from the career mark for receiving yards held by Mark Lumpa.