ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — A clash of playing styles is likely when Randolph and Franklinville/Ellicottville meet again to decide the Section 6 Class D football championship on Friday.

Unbeaten Randolph (9-0) relies almost exclusively on the run — like many powerhouse Cardinal teams have — while F/E embraced a pass-happy offense with a new starting quarterback this fall.

The Titans will look to defend their 2020 (spring 2021) sectional title, while Randolph is seeking its first championship since 2014, the last of three consecutive state championship seasons.

The Cardinals have run for 2,784 yards this year to just 185 passing yards, producing more than 93% of their total yardage on the ground. More than half of those yards belong to junior workhorse Xander Hind, who enters Friday with 1,603 yards and 22 touchdowns. As impressive as those numbers are, he still has some ground to make up for his stated goal of topping former Randolph star Chris Doubek’s Western New York record season of 2,536 yards in 2013. That would require some monster performances in a deep run into the state playoffs, just like Doubek’s team went on eight years ago.

After going 2-4 with a young team last spring, Randolph returned a ton of experienced players with lofty goals.

“We’re taking it a lot more seriously (this year),” Hind said. “Coach (Brent Brown) sat us down before the first passing league game and he asked us what our goals are this year and we told him we want a state championship, so he’s trying to make sure that happens and we’re just all working hard at practice trying to get it done.”

Junior tight end/linebacker Jaiden Huntington credited the team’s leadership for changing the “atmosphere” in practice.

“It’s so much different, the atmosphere is different, it’s like everyone wants to be there,” he said. “Last spring, we were just there to be there, now we’re at practice to do something. We’re getting better every day. It’s a whole different atmosphere.”

Of the Cardinals’ goals, Huntington noted, “We wanted to go undefeated and not look back, go game-by-game and go as far as possible.”

In Week 2, Randolph won a 36-26 home game over F/E. The Cardinals led 14-0 after the first quarter but trailed 20-14 at halftime before ultimately pushing past the Titans. The disparity in passing to running was evident: F/E had minus-2 rushing yards and 183 passing, while Randolph galloped to 390 rushing (330 by Hind) to 28 passing.

“It’s probably going to be a similar game, I would think; we’re a running team, their quarterback (Lucas Marsh) has thrown 23 touchdowns,” Brown said. “We’ve got to get after him for sure, we’ve got to be able to cover, we’ve worked on that stuff all year long. Our run defense has been pretty good, it’s been our pass defense that has been our issue. So we’ve got some things in to try to deal with that.

“(Marsh is) pretty good and they’ve got a couple of real good kids that can catch the ball. So it will be us trying to stop their pass game and them trying to stop our run game and that’s pretty much what the first game was too. It should be a good game.”

Marsh, a senior, was the varsity backup QB while playing wide receiver last year with former Big 30 Player of the Year Logan Frank under center. But Marsh has filled the QB role well with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 23-6 and 1,254 yards on 56% passing. He also leads F/E in rushing with 269 yards and three TDs.

Logan Grinols leads F/E receivers with 574 yards and 10 TD catches.

“Me and Lucas have always been close since we were really young. We’ve always played catch with the ball in the backyard and everything,” Grinols said. “He usually knows if he really needs somebody to throw it to, I’ll be there for him.”

Grinols knows he just needs to find a way to get open as Marsh scrambles to buy time.

“He’s pretty good at avoiding contact and getting out,” Grinols said, “so mainly what you’ve got to do is keep running around because he’s running around.”

To beat Randolph this time, Marsh suggested, F/E will need more balance.

“We’ve got to run block better, establish the run game and I think if we can (do that) we’ll be good,” Marsh said. “And I think if we can pass the ball like we did last time I think we’ll be in great shape. We’ve also got to stop the run, we’ve got to keep Hind in check, and (Luke) Pagett.”

The other challenge will be to meet Randolph’s physicality.

“They come out and they smack you in the mouth right at the start,” Marsh said. “They’re coming out, they’re going to hit you. We’ve got to be ready for that. We’ve got to meet them with force, gotta meet ‘em there.”

F/E coach Jason Marsh said the plan to avenge that Week 2 loss starts with run defense.

“We’ve got to be better than that. If we stand a chance of winning this game, we’ve got to be better in the run game,” he said. “Offensively we’ve got to find a way to score points. Last week we could only put up six (at Clymer/Sherman/Panama) and hopefully we rebound this week and put a few more points on the board.

“We’ve got to play more physical and we’ve got to win battles in our gaps, maintain our gaps … because they’re a team that they’re not going to miss assignments. They’re so fundamentally sound in what they do, they’re not going to miss assignments so we can’t miss assignments either.

“Definitely when we get there we’ve got to be more physical, get a lot of bodies around the football.”