BEREA — When Madison Southern opened district play last year against Southwestern, not much went right on the offensive side of the ball.

Top running back Damien Harris rushed once for minus eight yards before leaving the game with an injury, and the Eagles amassed just 120 yards of offense (60 on the ground, 60 through the air) falling to the Warriors 21-0.

This season, the Eagles are putting up monstrous offensive numbers and have been playing solid on the defensive side of the ball.

The Eagles hope that leads to another win tonight when they open district play at Southwestern.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Southern (2-2) scored 10 touchdowns last week, blasting Powell County 71-21.

“We’ve clicked here and there, but we haven’t put it all together the whole game and clicked all night, and tonight was the night,” Southern coach Jon Clark said after last week’s win.

Harris scored a school-record tying seven touchdowns against Powell County, rushing 14 times for 209 yards and five touchdowns and hauling in two receptions for 86 yards and two touchdowns.

Harris’ big night came one week after the Eagles lost a heartbreaker in overtime.

“Coach’s main message after the tough loss was to remember the feeling, so we transferred that feeling into this game to make sure we didn’t feel that way this week,” Harris said after the Powell County game. “We’re going to try to continue doing that the rest of the season.”

Through four games, the Eagles have scored 166 points (41.5 per game) and have gained 1,578 yards (394.5) and rushed for 1,199 yards (299.8).

Harris has rushed 47 times for 666 yards (14.2 yards per carry) and has also scored 13 rushing touchdowns.

Coty Russell has rushed 35 times for 225 yards (6.4 yards per carry), Buddy Harrison 23 times for 146 yards (6.3), Wes Proctor 11 times for 133 yards (12.1) and Adam Simpson 15 times for 103 yards (6.9).

“We feel like we have two backfields that can run the ball well the entire game,” Clark said. “We’ll have fresh legs in every fourth quarter. It’s going to be tough to stop that crew.”

Simpson is 23-for-46 passing for 346 yards and three touchdowns. Harris has three receptions for 93 yards and two touchdowns.

John Williams has been the biggest target, catching 10 passes for 87 yards. Tight end Spencer Stone has six receptions for 71 yards.

Last year against Southwestern, the Eagles allowed 373 yards, 301 of those coming on the ground.

Through four games, Southern has only allowed 379 rushing yards and 901 total (225.3 per game).

Since giving up 48 points in the season-opening loss to Bourbon County, Southern has only allowed 43 points (14.3 per game) in its last three games.

Eight of those points came in overtime.

Southwestern (2-2) is only scoring 15.3 points per game this season and is allowing 30 points per game.

In their two losses the Warriors only scored nine points.

The Warriors have been led on the ground by Logan Campisano, who has rushed 83 times for 471 yards and five touchdowns.

Austin Smiddy (153 yards) and Jordan Maggard (153) also rush the ball for the Warriors.

Smiddy is 11-for-32 passing for 182 yards and two touchdowns.

Southwestern’s strength has been its rushing defense.

The Warriors have only allowed 520 rushing yards (130 per game) this season and have only given up 1,142 yards (285.5) overall.

Somerset took advantage of three fumble recoveries and held the Warriors to 134 yards of offense during a 48-2 victory. Danville held Southwestern to 208 yards of offense.

The Eagles have forced six turnovers, getting interceptions by Williams, Harrison and Matt Howard and fumble recoveries by Howard, Tyler Hagan and William Dean.

The 71 points Southern scored last week was its most points in at least 14 years.

“This is what we want going into district,” Proctor said of last week’s big game. “We want people to respect us and to know we’re a threat.”