Mark Morris spent the week preparing itself for a high-stakes game of keepaway. In theory, the best way to contain Ellensburg and quarterback Ethan Sterkel is to keep the ball out of his hands — or put him on the turf. No one has done it yet.

“We’d like to keep their offense off the field as much as we can,” said MM coach Shawn Perkins, who leads his squad into Lampson Stadium in Kennewick on Friday for a 7 p.m. state quarterfinal showdown against the state’s top-ranked Class 2A team. “We’d like to kind of do what we did last week, which is run the ball and control the clock.”

Sustained, time-consuming touchdown drives will be essential if the seventh-ranked Monarchs (10-1) hope to upset Ellensburg (11-0) and advance to the semifinals for just the second time in school history. Equally important will be putting pressure on Sterkel, whose passing numbers border on the absurd.

The outcome Friday should boil down to which team imposes its style on the other.

“I think its a big matchup, and the thing I’m most anxious to see is, will it be low-scoring or high-scoring?” said 13-year Ellensburg head coach Randy Affholter. “Will it be a track meet or a grinder?”

It’s no mystery which tempo Affholter prefers.

“I would hope that it would become a track meet,” he said. “We have to have the ball in our hands, and they are a ball-control team. Can we be physical enough up front to stop their running game? Can we control 66 (senior Jake Welch) and 55 (senior Taylor Beck)? Mark Morris plays hard and gets after it. It will be interesting to see what’s going to happen.”

Mark Morris will have its hands full with Sterkel, who has emerged as the leading contender for all-state Player of the Year honors.

“He’s a pretty good player,” Perkins said of Sterkel. “He has a great arm, sees the field well and understands the concept of that offense. The No. 1 thing we have to do on defense is get pressure. We know that their receiving corps is really good as well, and we have to stay on receivers. He (Sterkel) can really scramble and his receivers know how to find open space.”

During the Bulldogs’ undefeated romp through the historically excellent Central Washington Athletic 2A Conference, Sterkel has been unstoppable. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound gunslinger has completed 210-of-268 passes (78 percent) for 3,338 yards and 34 touchdowns, with just four interceptions.

“He’s just an athlete,” said Affholter. “He plays all three sports. He was the leading scorer on the basketball team last year, he’s a three-year starter in baseball and he’s just been through a lot of wars. When you are a three-sport athlete, you understand competition. He’s also just a great kid, a super young man.”

Sterkel is the engine to the Bulldogs’ spread offense, but there are play=makers aplenty on the roster. None are more prolific wideout Kramer Ferrell, Sterkel’s cousin. Ferrell and tight end Blaze Affholter were both first-team all-league honorees, and Sterkel was the offensive MVP.

“We’re more of a USC spread than an Oregon spread,” Coach Affholter said. “We run our core plays out of multiple sets. We’re like Mark Morris, who gives you a lot of looks and runs what they run out of a variety of sets. We’re not a mirror image, but we have a mirror strategy. We try to catch you out of alignment, catch you in mismatches.”

Ellensburg can — and has — run the ball efficiently, most notably in a Week 10 win over sixth-ranked Othello.

“You can’t load up in one area, and that makes ‘em tough to defend,” Perkins said. “We’ve faced that type of attack three weeks in a row. I think our guys are ready for the challenge.”

Ellensburg is bracing for the inevitable onslaught of the Monarchs’ relentless running attack, and will draw on its experience against CWAC opponents that run the Wing-T, or variations thereof, or run option.

“They just do a great job running the football, keeping you off balance, keeping you guessing,” said Affholter. “We have to do a great job technically. We can’t get hung up on doing someone else’s assignments on defense. Everyone has to do his own assignment.”

Ellensburg passed its first playoff test by holding off Clarkston 45-35 last Friday. The Bulldogs had not allowed more than 14 points in a contest prior to that game, which saw Clarkston running back Colby Hansen rack up 196 yards and four touchdowns on 26 carries.

“It wouldn’t matter to me if we had stuffed Clarkston,” Affholter said. “I’d still be worried about Mark Morris.”

Neither coach puts much stock in state rankings.

Perkins has preached a bunker mentality at practice this week, and stressed to his team the need to stay focused on things it can control.

Affholter said that while it was “an honor to be considered No. 1 by the newspapers,” it’s not something the team discusses.

“Our main focus is to give it our best shot, play 48 minutes and see what happens,” he said.

“We have to take care of ourselves and make things happen and we’ll be fine,” added Perkins. “I think our kids are playing with more and more confidence each week. You can see it in their eyes and their actions. They aren’t cocky. They’re just playing with more confidence.”

Notes: The ticket gates at Lampson will open one hour before kickoff. MM fans should use the visitor’s gate (opposite from the press-box side). … Ellensburg is in the quarterfinals for the fourth time in school history and the first time since 2002. The Bulldogs’ last win beyond the first round of the state playoffs came in 1973, when they ran the table and won the Class 3A state title. … The Monarchs’ 35-21 victory over Interlake last Saturday was the program’s first state win since 1987. … MM lost in the quarterfinals in ‘87 and ’83. … MM’s only quarterfinal victory came in 1979. … Lampson Stadium was originally known as “The Lion’s Den.”

On the radio:

The Monarchs' quarterfinal game against Ellensburg will air on KEDO-1400, with a pregame show beginning at 6:45 p.m.