By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

QUINTER ­-- During the summer, Quinter head football coach Greg Woolf and his assistants understood how strong the Bulldog team was. Quinter returned all-state center Zach Nemechek, leading rusher Jordon Hargitt, senior wideout Matt Bird and a host of other talented players off a 10-1 team. However, Woolf felt the team needed reinforcement on fundamentals.

"This is a very talented football team," Woolf said. "There are great athletes. The fear was they would just try to rely strictly on athleticism and not do the things that you have to do to be a good football player."

Quinter worked continuously on base blocking, limiting mistakes and footwork drills. Woolf filled a football up with water and had the backs run with it, a tool that's helped limit fumbles. Repeated cone drills made the team better laterally, especially Hargitt and senior quarterback Brady Reed. The team hit the Bruiser, a 200-pound tackling dummy, daily to work on tackling form. In addition, Woolf wanted his team to keep "humble."

The fundamental work has produced a Quinter team that has won seven straight games, all but one by 25 points.

"That's because of their work," Woolf said.

The Bulldogs, 9-1 and ranked No. 5 in the statewide media poll, will host 8-2 Macksville, ranked in the top eight, on Saturday in the second round of the Eight-Man, Division I state playoffs. Kickoff is 3 p.m.

"Coach Woolf had talked about, 'all right guys, you look at over the past years. It's not about who can do the fancy plays,'' Hargitt, a senior, said. "He goes, 'The ones that make it far into state are the ones that do their assignments every time."

Last season, Quinter led after the first half, but Macksville controlled the clock after intermission and won 46-22.

"I think we just started playing not to lose instead of playing to win," Hargitt said. "There is a huge difference in that in the fact we just start freaking out and thinking, 'okay, this could be the end if we don't stop this right here.' It was big play, big play, big play and we looked at each other like we didn't know what to do. Nobody has been doing this on us all year."

This season, a more experienced Quinter team has worked through a litany of struggles, including Woolf discovering he had cancer. Woolf announced the sickness to the team in Week 2 and goes in for treatment every three weeks.

Assistant coach Brian Roesch has taken over interim head coaching duties and Woolf has still helped coach.

"Throughout this whole year, we have come together as a unit, even stronger," Hargitt said. "And has made us a great team."

"We are one big giant family," junior safety Joe Simon said.

Hargitt, who rushed for 1,000 yards last season, is the area's leading rusher with 1,621 yards on 207 carries -and just one fumble - behind a strong offensive line.

"I love just getting up behind those guys and just reading off and feeling of where they are going and then I can just fly to my spot," Hargitt said. "It really feels great knowing they are ahead of me."

"We have got linemen that are getting off the ball and excited to knock people down," Roesch said.

Reed has over 900 total yards, while Bird has scored 12 touchdowns on 47 touches behind a strong offensive line.

"He has got speed, but he can leap, too," Reed said of Bird. "When you get that ball up there, he just goes up and gets it. It's nice that I can just throw it in the area and he can go get it."

Nemechek has picked up six sacks, while senior Skyler Wittman has five interceptions and Simon has a team-high 90 tackles. Wittman decided not to play football in 2008, while Simon is a first-year starter, who, helped by assistant coach Jeff Ruckman, now loves football.

"One practice, he told me, just hit Thatcher (Deaton) as hard as you can," Simon said. "Every play. ... I had never liked hitting, but every play I went as hard as I could and hit. Ever since then, I just decided 'why not?' I'm going to hit, it's going to hurt, but I get back up and do another play."

Hargitt, who focused on 2,000 yards throughout last season, has kept a clearer focus this fall. He doesn't look at numbers and doesn't know how many yards he picked up until the coaches tell him the following Monday.

"I think I got a little too selfish with that and I came into this season knowing that I couldn't do that," he said. "This season has been all about the team. It's been really cool. Last year, when we get done with a game, I was always wondering how many yards I had, what were my stats."

Simon, the Monster back in the defense, had just 18 tackles in 2008.

This season, he has five double-digit tackle games, including 13 apiece in district games versus Kensington-Thunder Ridge and Hill City.

"I didn't really like the sport too much in my freshman and sophomore year," Simon said. "Coming into my junior year, I am going to try my hardest to get a starting position on the defense since I thought Brady was going to be the quarterback."

Reed, a first-year starter at quarterback, has passed for 479 yards, rushed for 472 and picked up 26 total scores. Helped by the summer workouts, Woolf labels Reed "a really good open field runner."

In addition, Reed has improved on option reads and making the pitch, another small detail the coaching staff has emphasized.

"You got to have your timing down right," Reed said.