MILBANK – Two down, one to go.

The Milbank Area Bulldogs continued their Cinderella run in the Class 11A football playoffs last week knocking off third-seeded Vermillion. That came on the heels of a win over second-seeded Canton.

Now, Milbank Area faces top-seeded Madison in the 11A championship at 1 this afternoon at the DakotaDome in Vermillion.

Milbank Area set the tone early in its victory last Friday.

“First of all, we recovered a fumble right away off the opening kickoff and were able to convert on a fourth and long, and punched it in for a touchdown and got a two-point conversion,” said Milbank Area coach Brian Allmendinger. “We got quite a bit of momentum off of that and took it from there.”

Milbank Area has yet to give up a point in the playoffs and has blanked its last three foes.

Allmendinger is not taking credit for that, though.

“Our guys watch a lot of film. Our coaches had a good defensive game plan. (The players) were just prepared for them and they were able to execute,” Allmendinger said of the team’s most recent shutout. “Our defensive coaches spend a lot of time with them watching film in the morning before school starts and having a solid game plan, and I just try to stay out of their way.”

Milbank Area (8-3) now faces Madison (11-0) in the championship. The Bulldogs from Madison won a regular season matchup against Milbank Area 9-0 during the regular season. It proved to be Madison’s closest game of the year.

“You look at a Madison team that is undefeated, but we played with them right down to the wire,” Allmendinger said. “The guys won’t be intimidated.”

They also won’t be star struck by playing in the Dome, site of last week’s win over Vermillion.

“It was nice to win the game and then to come back,” Allmendinger said. “The atmosphere is lot different, but now our guys are used to that. They know what to expect. They’re not going to be all wide-eyed when they walk in there.”

Allmendinger said the keys to the game will be doing the fundamentals, executing in all three phases of the game and limiting penalties. There is also one other important area.

“This one is going to be a big one for limiting turnovers, trying to force turnovers, but not have any ourselves,” Allmendinger said.

Milbank Area will once again wear the underdog label, but the fact remains that it will be playing for a state title this afternoon.

“That’s all we could ask for and that’s all we’ve been asking for since we played Madison last time,” Allmendinger said. “We got an opportunity to play for a state championship. That’s a pretty special feeling. The job is obviously not done, but it feels good.”