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NEWPORT — Jake Rogers knows his team might be flying somewhat under the radar this season. If anyone knows from experience what such a team can do, though, it’s the Nokomis football coach.

Seven years ago, Rogers guided the Warriors to the Class C state title, the only Gold Ball in program history. At 4-4 entering the playoffs, that team had garnered little attention — a good parallel to this Nokomis squad, which hasn’t gotten the coverage of the Greelys, Hermons, Leavitts or Gardiners of the Class C world.

“Until you’re the team that beats those teams, you’re not going to be the team that gets those headlines,” Rogers said. “It’s nice to get recognition, but at the end of the day, we’re the No. 6 seed because, even though we’ve beaten some good teams, we haven’t beaten those upper-echelon teams.”

Sure, given the current state of Class C, it’s easy to see why Nokomis might be overlooked. Yet the Warriors don’t necessarily mind, and at 5-3, a team that’s held its own this season hopes it can put together a playoff run, starting with Friday’s quarterfinal at No. 3 Hermon.

The season certainly didn’t start out well for Nokomis, which opened with a 32-12 loss at Wells. Mistakes piled up for Nokomis in that game, and a ground attack that chewed up 348 yards allowed Wells to pull away in the second half.

Since then, Nokomis is 5-2, with the two defeats coming against teams with only one loss combined, Greely (8-0) and Hermon (7-1). Nokomis led Greely most of game before the Rangers rallied to steal a 20-14 win, and the loss to Hermon was by a touchdown (27-20).

“I think they overlooked us, and we caught them off-guard, especially Greely,” said Nokomis senior Seth Bowden. “I think we’ve thought since preseason coming in (that we’d be a challenger), but I don’t think the league knew it.”

Bowden is a big reason why the Warriors are dangerous. He’s been one of the state’s top running backs, rushing for 1,138 yards and 15 touchdowns on 152 carries. He’s scored at least one touchdown in every game.

The Warriors’ ground game is bolstered by junior Stephone Ross (123 carries, 735 yards, 10 touchdowns). Even if opponents know to expect the run from an offense that’s thrown just 25 passes all season, the duo of Bowden and Ross still seems to find success.

“I think what’s special about this team is that (opponents) know which way it’s going, but even if they do know which way it’s going, they can’t stop it,” Ross said. “(Seth and I) pick on each other, and that pushes us both to be better. … The way we block for each other is a big part of it.”

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For Rogers, though, the backbone of any team is defense, as was the case during the 2018 title run, when Nokomis allowed 24 total points across four playoff games. Rogers was less than pleased with this defense’s performance in wins over Oceanside (43-36 in Week 5) and Old Town (42-28 in Week 6).

Yet everything seemed to click in the Warriors’ most recent game, a 36-8 triumph over Medomak Valley to end the regular season. Nokomis completely shut down a rushing attack led by one of the state’s top backs, Jaydiin Ruiz, and held the visiting Panthers to 82 yards on the ground.

“Our reads were clean, and we were flying to the ball,” Rogers said. “I don’t know if it was the wounds last year from the playoff game or what, but something flipped, and they got really dialed in. We didn’t even talk about (the 36-6 playoff loss last year), but they were on the list of teams we hadn’t beat since ’18.”

Another on that list is Hermon, which has won five straight games against Nokomis since the Warriors upset the Hawks in the 2018 Class C North final. A win over No. 3 Hermon on Friday would earn Nokomis a semifinal date with No. 2 Leavitt (6-2) or No. 7 Foxcroft Academy (6-3).

It’s an opportunity for a team that’s been competitive all year long to make a statement. The Warriors haven’t been far from beating a Hawks team whose past two wins in the matchup have come by a combined nine points. Those close games, as well as the close loss against Greely, give Nokomis confidence.

“We should have won that,” Nokomis sophomore Kobey Almeida, the team’s leading tackler with 57, said of the Greely game. “I hope teams try to overlook us and think we’re an easy target so we can ball out on them.”