South Warren quarterback Gavin Spurrier throws a pass during Friday’s game against Greenwood at South Warren.

Eight games into the season, Bowling Green coach Kevin Wallace still doesn’t know how good of a football team he has.

Sure, the Purples are 6-2 and winners of five straight, but nothing has really challenged them since a Sept. 2 home loss to Class 6A St. Xavier.

That all changes when No. 2 Bowling Green (6-2) hosts No. 4 South Warren (7-1) for the Class 5A, District 2 championship at 7 p.m. Friday at El Donaldson Stadium.

Wallace may not know right now, but he’ll have a much better idea after playing a tough Spartans football team for the first time.

“I don’t know who we are or how good we are,” Wallace said. “I’ve had a lot of folks tell me we’ve really improved. I’m not sure that’s true. There’s been no gauge to find out if we’ve improved because we haven’t seen a PRP or St. X. We’re going to see something similar.”

Bowling Green hasn’t beaten a team with a winning record this year. Those teams are a combined 10-38, with Warren Central and Barren County still winless. St. X and Pleasure Ridge Park, the only two to beat Bowling Green, combine for a 13-3 record and are both in the top six in the 6A Associated Press poll.

The Purples have had a running clock in their last four games and are coming off a bye week.

“During those weeks, it’s hard to prep for them and we made it more about getting better as a team than actually prepping for those teams,” senior Nash Hightower said.

Wallace’s only references for how his team will match up against South Warren are the two losses to St. X and PRP, even if they were well over a month ago.

South Warren, which is 68-19 in its seventh year of varsity football, is two years removed from a Class 4A state championship. For a Bowling Green program that has won five of the last six state championships – and the expectations haven’t wavered this year – not knowing how good the team is with two weeks left in the regular season is uncharted territory for Wallace.

“The two best teams we’ve played, we lost to,” Wallace said. “So it’s not about South Warren. Who are we? Do we have a legitimate chance to win a state championship? If we do, these are the kinds of games we have to win.”

South Warren flexed its strength two weeks ago by hanging tough with 6A Ravenwood from Brentwood, Tenn. The Spartans had the game tied in the fourth quarter before a turnover and blocked punt turned into a 14-point loss.

St. X and PRP revealed that size and pressure can throw Bowling Green’s offense off balance. Junior defensive tackle and Notre Dame commit Jacob Lacey could give the Purples’ offensive line problems all night.

“From a physical standpoint, South Warren isn’t PRP or St. X,” Wallace said. “From a coaching standpoint, obviously they really are with how hard they play and how they play. They’ve got a lot of guys that can run and a lot of guys that can play hard, and that’s going to cause us as much problems as what a St. X would with the massive size they have.

“The thing about the PRP and St. X games, I don’t feel like we played well in either game, but when the fourth quarter started in both games, we had a puncher’s chance. We didn’t make the plays to allow us to win against great teams. That’s a concern for me. Are we not going to make those plays again now that we’re playing someone of that caliber?”

The Spartans are in a much different world. Playing at Ravenwood indicated how good they can be if they don’t shoot themselves in the foot, coach Brandon Smith said.

Smith said offenses between Ravenwood and Bowling Green are pretty similar. Having that be the last thing South Warren saw on a football field before a bye week was beneficial.

“I definitely think that was positive for us,” Smith said. “You can sit around and talk about it to your kids till you’re blue in the face, but until they get out there and see that and play at the speed first-hand, experience makes all the difference in the world. That was a hostile environment in an away game kind of like we’re going into.

“They’re very similar in styles and Ravenwood has a lot of really good players and Bowling Green has a lot of really good players. It was good to see that and get ready for that level.”

South Warren’s special teams woes against Ravenwood raise red flags going against the Purples. A few bad punts gave Ravenwood great field position. Bowling Green has one of the most, if not the most, dynamic return duos in the state between Ziyon Kenner and Vito Tisdale, who have combined for eight touchdowns on punt and kick returns.

“Their punt return team might be the best punt return team I’ve ever seen,” Smith said. “When they want to block it, they block it. When they want to return it, they return it. I’ve never really seen anything like it.”

Smith knows as much pressure as South Warren’s front will have to apply with Lacey, the Purples are still good at getting the ball to playmakers pretty quickly. Junior quarterback Beau Buchanan has completed 68 percent of his passes for 1,324 yards and 14 touchdowns without an interception.

On the other side, Gavin Spurrier pilots the South Warren offense with 1,495 passing yards and 17 touchdowns against five picks.{&end}