NEWS CHANNEL NEBRASKA IS TELEVISING KEARNEY AT MILLARD SOUTH ON FRIDAY NIGHT.

KEARNEY, Neb. — In the new era of Class A super teams fueled by what some have dubbed as a high school transfer portal, Kearney High stands out as a throwback.

The Bearcats were the only team outside of the Omaha metro to make it past the first playoffs round. Neither of their first two playoff opponents had a single player who started on both offense and defense. Kearney has five two-way starters. According to the NSAA, Kearney High has 653 boys enrolled in grades 9-11. Millard South has 1003 and Omaha Westside has 802.

Still, the old school Bearcats among the four teams remaining in the playoffs and believe they can steal a win at Millard South and earn a spot at Memorial Stadium.

“We got a big chip on our shoulder coming in. I think… we just gotta play like we got nothing to lose," QB Griffin Novacek said. "They’re the number one team, nobody really expects us to win or compete with them, but you just gotta play free and have that underdog mentality.”

“We have a little bit of the underdog mentality," head coach Brandon Cool said. "We want to play better than we did last time. We feel like we’ve got a lot of momentum on our sidelines.”

There’s reason that some are skeptical of the Bearcats. Kearney’s lone defeat was a 52-3 bludgeoning at Millard South in week three. But that version of Kearney High didn’t have the confidence of an eight-game win streak.

“I think we kind of just got down on ourselves and could have really stuck together better," senior Luke Brachle said. "We kind of just quit a little bit and we should have kept playing, giving 100 percent but we really didn’t.”

The Bearcats aren’t looking back at the early-season loss. They’re more focused now on their two comfortable playoff victories over Millard West and Bellevue West won on the strength of their large and talented senior class.

“This group loves playing football," Cool said. "Anytime you’ve got a group that enjoys the aspect of football: film, weight room, conditioning, practices games. It’s a pretty special group from that perspective.”

The underdog Bearcats take on Millard South tonight at 7:00. News Channel Nebraska is there to broadcast the game. In the Kearney area you can watch on Spectrum channel 99, Allo channel 181 and DISH channel 30.