Coming off a pair of statement wins inside the Mid Penn Colonial Division, the Shippensburg football team now turns its attention to a bigger picture.

The District 3 Class 5A playoffs.

With two games left on their schedule, the Greyhounds sit at 7-1 (4-1 Mid Penn Colonial Division) as they head on the road for their final two games, starting with Red Land on Friday at 7. The Hounds currently sit fifth in the district playoff rankings.

“This is a prototypical trap game,” Ship coach Eric Foust said. “Coming off a couple of big wins with a big rival in Big Spring next week. We’ve talked all week about not letting off the gas and not losing our vision.”

The vision for the last couple weeks for the Hounds has been a physical brand of football, or “smash mouth football,” as Foust calls it.

Ship bullied its way to a 7-0 win over Northern York last week, led by Adam Houser and Jacob Loy. Houser had 22 carries for 102 yards, pushing his total to 193 carries and 1,404 yards on the year, good for an average of 7.24 yards per carry.

Loy notched his first 100-yard performance of the season and has been a welcome addition to a Greyhound offense that lost Alex Sharrow to a season-ending injury.

“Over the last couple of weeks, Jake has been a big part of fitting and creating the mold that we’ve become,” Foust said. “We’ve gotten physical on offense and really formed an identity.”

Red Land (1-7) is coming off a 76-10 loss to Susquehanna Township last week and hasn’t won since week 2. The Patriots haven’t scored more than 13 points in a game this season.

Said Foust, “They have some nice players. Their quarterback is a lefty, and we haven’t seen that yet. Michael Daylor has kind of emerged for them as their lead back, and he’s played well. We have to come ready to play.”

Shippensburg’s final two games are against teams with losing records, and a pair of wins could keep them near the top of the standings.