Local collage football teams set for playoffs

An opening season loss to rival Wilkes didn't deter King's college from their ultimate goal. 9 straight wins later the Monarchs are MAC champs and last night at the school found out they will host a first round NCAA tournament game this Saturday for the first time since 2002.

Mike Cebrosky, King's College coach says, "Two things came to mind with the number one was, you know, relief. We found out where we're at. We're home. It's great. Great to be home in the playoffs. And then the other thing is, I was very stoked for our players. You saw focus come back in. They realize we're sending the page when regular season starts posting. So it was just relief. "

Ide asks, How are you guys playing right now?

Zach Barber, King's college Senior added, "You think we've been getting better all season, especially on defense, especially on offense for us. Like every game we're getting better and we're ready. "

Ide asks, " The fact that you are playing at home , how is that an advantage ?

Barbers answers , " We love it. We love going on the road, but nothing better than being at home. "

King's will get a familiar foe in the first round when Ursinus, an at large bid, is the opponent. The Monarchs lost to the Bears two seasons ago in a post season bowl game.

Michael DiGregorio, King's college senior(Old Forge) says, " after that loss to Ursinus in that bowl game, I still have the sour taste for a lot of our guys. I mean, especially for those seniors that we let down, we feel off because that was a home game again. And you know, it gave us some more motivation going next year. And I feel like that's one of the reasons why, you know, we came down and we beat Wilkes our last season. So you know, we're extremely motivated and we're just ready to get after it. "

Susquehanna will have to wait a week before they host Hobart on November 30th. The River Hawks are making their third straight appearance in the playoffs. The nation's 6th ranked team finished the season 9 and 1 and Landmark champs.

Tom Perkovich, Susquehanna Coach says, " You know, they've just come to work every day and they've taken coaching and, you know, we've had some real conversations after certain points of the season where maybe we didn't play as well as we liked or, you know, we're in or, doing the things exactly the way we wanted them. And they responded. I think that's the number one thing. "

Susquehanna lost it's first round game last season at home by one point. This years team paced by quarterback Josh Ehrlich knows what has to be done int he post season to advance.

Perkovich says, " Experience in the postseason is a big one. I think that, you know, or another year older, right. And, you know, we've got we have, a handful of fifth year guys back and a lot of guys that played on the team a year ago, you know, we didn't lose, we lost some key pieces, but we didn't lose a ton of them. And so I think that just the experience of it and then, you know, I think we've our quarterback's playing, a lot better than he was at this time a year ago. You know, I mean, his improvement is unbelievable. "

While King's will open here at home Saturday and Susquehanna a week later East Stroudsburg University will have to travel in the first round of the division 2 playoffs. The Warriors will take on California of Pennsylvania this weekend.