It’s showdown week in the Southwest Ohio Conference and the Talawanda football team is hoping to have a say in the outcome, at least among teams fighting for third place.

The league championship is between two teams tied at the top and playing each other tonight. Mount Healthy and Northwest are both 5-1 in the SWOC and 8-1 overall. They play each other tonight at Mount Healthy for the first SWOC championship.

Edgewood, Ross and Harrison are all 4-2 in the league and tied for third. Harrison is at Edgewood tonight and the loser will fall out of the tie.

Talawanda (1-5, 1-8 overall) hosts Ross in an area rivalry as the Braves look for their second win of the year. Ross is 5-4 overall.

Little Miami (0-6 in the league) plays at Wilmington (1-5).

The Braves fell 40-14 at home last Friday to Wilmington as the Hurricanes played a solid game and used some trick plays to score in every quarter.

“They outhit us the entire game on both sides of the ball,” Talawanda coach J.D. Vonderheide said. “They were more physical than us from start to finish. They had a good plan to stop us on offense. They did a good job of containing Maurice (Thomas). They came ready to hit and we didn’t.”

Vonderheide said last week that Wilmington’s 0-5 SWOC record was deceptive because they had played well against the top teams in the league and they showed that against Talawanda in their first league win to go 1-5 in the SWOC and 4-5 overall.

“In some areas of our team we were not ready to play,” Vonderheide said. “They are big up front and we really struggled with their front four. We had a hard time running the ball. They won it more than we lost it.”

Thomas, who leads the league in rushing yards with 1,204, had only 58 against Wilmington and 46 of those were in the second half. He did have a touchdown last Friday, but that came on a 77-yard kickoff return late in the first quarter.

It was his third kickoff return for a touchdown this season and he has 15 rushing scores for a total of 18 and 108 points scored. A mark of the team’s improvement over last year, even with an 1-8 record is that Thomas has outscored last year’s team, which only had 79 total points for the season and 12 touchdowns.

Tonight’s test will be a stern one.

The Rams started the season 2-4 but have since won three straight SWOC games and enter tonight’s game with an eye toward sharing second place in the league.

“They started slow but they are playing really good ball right now,” Vonderheide said. “They beat Edgewood by three scores and they beat Harrison (27-0). (Coach) Brian Butts has done a great job with that program.”

He said Ross does not use many tricks but has a solid offense.

“They are very good at what they do,” Vonderheide said. “Their quarterback Blake Ballard is a leader. When he is out, they are a much different football team. He does not throw a ton. Andrew Dunn, their tailback, runs a lot. They have a bunch of guys with yards. No one has a whole lot of yards. They run hard. They are very sound in what they do offensively.”

He said Ross has a solid defense led by senior tackle Frank Heimkreiter, a player the Talawanda coach called a “difference maker.”

“He is a physical blocker who does not jump out at you statistically,” Vonderheide said.

For the Braves, this is a game in which a win would signal a turnaround and give them something good to remember until next August.

“Ross needs to be a big game for us,” Vonderheide said. “This is a big game for our seniors. We are 1-8. Our progress might not show right now but this group of seniors stuck it out in the transition and the groundwork has been laid.”

Tonight’s kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the new Talawanda turf football field.