On paper, this one appears to be a mismatch.

Come to think of it, even off paper it sounds like a windshield vs. mosquito proposition.

One team is 8-1. The other is 2-7.

One team is a league champion. The other finished in a tie for fourth in its conference and kept its season alive by winning a five-way tiebreaker that required a Harvard math degree to figure out.

But Mark Morris football coach Shawn Perkins says Saturday night’s Southwest 2A District crossover playoff between two-win River Ridge and his seventh-ranked Monarchs is anything but a mismatch.

In fact, he expects it to be “a real dogfight.”

“They (the Hawks) are a good ball club. I don’t think their record is indicative of everything that they’ve done or they’re capable of doing,” said Perkins, whose Monarchs wrapped up the Greater St. Helens 2A League title last week by beating R.A. Long 21-7 in the 63rd Civil War.

“They’ve been in a lot of games, but have fallen apart in the fourth quarter,” he added. “We’re going to have to play a solid football game to beat them.”

Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. at Longview Memorial Stadium. KEDO (1400) will broadcast the contest, starting with the pregame show at approximately 4:45 following the Washington State-Arizona game.

A victory pushes Mark Morris into the 2A state bracket for the third straight year. In 2007, the Monarchs defeated Aberdeen 22-13 to reach the first round of state, where they lost to Bellingham. A year ago, they defeated W.F. West 23-14 to earn a first-round state matchup at home against Blaine, but were blown out 49-25.

Yes, MM hopes the third time is the state charm. But to get that chance, it will have to knock off River Ridge and its plethora of playmakers.

“They have speed. They do a good job with what they do,” Perkins said of the Hawks, whose lone victories this season came against Elma (20-14) and Hoquiam (31-28), both in the Evergreen 2A Conference. “The (Marques) Ford kid, he’s a good athlete who likes to cut back on you. … I’d say they have a few more faster kids than we see down here (in the GSHL 2A).”

In River Ridge’s 28-13 loss to Evergreen runner-up Black Hills in early October, Ford went 78 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the game. Although the Hawks took a 13-0 first-quarter lead, Black Hills fought back to win the game.

Quarterback Adam Walker provides another solid scoring threat for River Ridge.

“They’ve done some good things, but haven’t been able to sustain them in some of the games they’ve lost,” Perkins said. “They’re going to load up on us. We better be ready.”

River Ridge was outscored 104-31 in losses to the Evergreen’s other three playoff teams this season (W.F. West, Black Hills and Tumwater).

Mark Morris, meanwhile, has allowed four touchdowns in its last seven games, and has done well defensively stopping big plays.

In the Civil War, the Lumberjacks broke off a 49-yard catch-and-run touchdown from William Yordy to J Nusbaum in the first quarter to take a 7-0 lead. But the Monarchs kept a leash on RAL the rest of the night.

“I thought we had a solid game plan, which was to control the ball on the ground offensively and limit their big-play guys as much as possible on defense,” the MM coach said. “It’ll be the same game plan (tonight).”

After a shaky start last week, the Monarchs settled down and channeled their energy into a pair of second-quarter touchdowns. Perkins hopes it doesn’t take his troops an entire quarter — or more — to get rolling Saturday.

“We don’t want to use up all of that playoff energy in the first half or the first quarter,” he said. “It’s good to have enthusiasm, but you don’t want to wear out before the game even starts.”

MM rushed for nearly 400 yards against the Jacks, and will likely use its customary six-back rotation of Braydon Poole, Nathan Wilson, Travis Kinder, Dan Feeney, Colt Carpenter and Jeremy Wolf to pound away at the Hawks’ defense.

Perkins said standout two-way lineman Jake Welch is nearly back to full strength after going down with a knee sprain on the third play of the Civil War. Welch, who made a verbal commitment this week to play at the Air Force Academy next fall, returned against the Jacks and helped MM to the win.

“Jake’s got his brace on and he’s ready to go,” Perkins said.