Siuslaw Vikings football coach Tom Dodson likes that the Junction City Tigers play the double-wing offense his team's defense will hate to play.

The Vikings open the 2015 4A state playoffs with a play-in game at 7 p.m. Friday at Junction City's William F. "Bill" Peden Field.

Siuslaw is 6-2 and rated No. 15 by the Oregon School Activities Association, Junction City 4-4 and rated No. 20.

"They're better than we are," Dodson said. "But they give us a chance (to win) because of what they do."

What the Tigers do is power down the field, challenging their opponents' appetite for smash-mouth football.

"You're going to win a lot of football games with average and lower than average people," Dodson said. "If you have good talent, you're going to be awesome."

The Tigers have been employing the ground-chewing double wing the past two seasons under coach Richard Milne.

Milne won a league title with it in 2014 and finished in a second-place tie in the Sky-Em League with Cottage Grove and Sweet Home this season. The Tigers won a coin flip for the league's No. 2 seed in the state playoffs, thus the home game on Friday.

Directing the Junction City offense is 5-foot-7, 145-pound quarterback Jesse McClintock, who started last season as a freshman. The Tigers had 14 seniors make major contributions to the 2014 league title.

McClintock hides behind 6-foot, 295-pound junior center Jake Reyes, and hands the ball off repeatedly to 6-foot, 175-pound senior running back Zach Rogers for big gains.

"No. 13's (Rogers) is a stud, and 25 (tight end Angel Disla) and 7 (running back Conner Ramseyer) are good," Dodson said.

But they run an offense that invites old-school football, at which Dodson excels.

"They're not running their athletes in space, which makes them easier to tackle," Dodson said. "People say you have to change everything up to prepare for it, and you really don't.

"What we teach is fundamental, and what we see in this offense is that it's a very fundamental offense. You have to play a very fundamental defensive game."

Basically, the Tigers' offensive mantra is their 11 is tougher than your 11.

"It's not much fun to hit the guy in front of you 112 times in a game, but that's what you've got to do," Dodson said. "The nice thing is, is that it's only one or two skills. You don't have to review three or four.

"We have to just go back and review how do we get off the football, how we get off the line, where to strike, how to strike. It's a very hard, physical game."

The Vikings will enter the game basically healthy, which is a good thing for a roster of only a couple dozen players. The Tigers, on the other hand, will have nearly twice as many players suited up.

"Their athletes are much better than ours, bigger, faster, so we're not evenly matched," Dodson said. "It's like playing at North Bend, it's playing Marshfield.

"We have got to beat a good team on the road. It is what it is."

Yet he expects the Vikings to somehow get it done, rallying to the challenge like they did last Friday when trailing late in the game at Brookings-Harbor.

"Our kids willed themselves to get it done, and they're well commended for that," Dodson said. "It's easy to go down there and not to perform well.

"Our kids are awesome kids, and they're going to do everything I ask them to do, and play as hard as they can."

NOTES: The Vikings are 18-14 in state playoff games under Dodson ... According to OSAA records, the first state playoff game Siuslaw played was in 1963, and it was against Junction City. Siuslaw won, 13-0. ... Junction City is 1-3 at home this season, while Siuslaw is 3-1 on the road . ... Siuslaw and Junction City, which at one time were in the same league, last met in 2011 in a nonleague game at Junction City. The Vikings won 39-7. ... In 2006, the season Siuslaw won the state title, the Vikings opened the season with a 42-6 victory over Junction City. ... On offense, the Tigers break down their 40-player roster as 13 offensive linemen, 13 running backs, nine tight ends, four quarterbacks and a kicker ... Senior quarterback Preston Mitchell has completed 79 of 140 passes for 831 yards passing and rushed 105 times for 702 yards in eight games this season, based on official statistics compiled by Jo De and Bob Hylton. ... Senior running back Kenneth Thrall has 119 rushes for 692 yards while converting 30 of 31 extra-point attempts. ... Senior wide receiver Scott Gordon has 56 receptions for 601 yards.