VILLA GROVE — After one week of Vermilion Valley and Little Okaw Valley Conference teams clashing in a conference rivalry war, the VVC has so far held its ground winning five of the eight contests.

The Schlarman Hilltoppers picked up their first win of the season over Martinsville, Oakwood/Armstrong-Potomac defeated Tri-County, Georgetown-Ridge Farm got its first win under new head coach Josh Cavanaugh, Bismarck-Henning started its bid for back-to-back playoff appearances with a win over Cerro Gordo, and Westville knocked off Arcola.

Even with the losses, the VVC outscored the LOVC by an average score of 26.6 to 13.8.

But VVC perennial power Salt Fork had its hands full with the Villa Grove Blue Devils, a team many are expecting to finish at the top of this year’s LOVC standings.

Villa Grove frustrated the Storm with a balanced aerial and ground attack. And with expectations also set high for Bismarck-Henning, Friday’s matchup between both Blue Devils squads could prove pivotal in setting the tone for the 2010 campaign.

“They’re very good,” Bismarck-Henning coach Mark Dodd said of Villa Grove. “They have really good talent. They have great size, they have great speed, and they’re coached very well. We are looking at it as, this is one of the toughest games of the season, potentially, and I think everyone pretty much picked them to win their conference. We’re picked to be in the upper part of ours. I don’t know what that means, but we’re poised for a real war.”

Villa Grove fullback Jess Shrum was sent up the middle 25 times against Salt Fork for 127 yards and two touchdowns. Despite Villa Grove’s balanced attack behind the arm of quarterback Eric Douglas, Bismarck-Henning anticipates the game being dictated by the play of its line.

“When you play a dive option, power team like they are, you really win or lose it between the tackles,” Dodd said. “If (Shrum) carries the ball 30 times against us, we’re probably not going to be doing well. Our task is to try to make them do something they’re not as comfortable doing. Whether that can be done, I don’t know. Our front four played extremely well overall in the first game, and we need to do that again.”

Taking over for Bismarck-Henning at quarterback this season is Krystian Ingram who threw for 181 yards and a touchdown in the team’s win over Cerro Gordo, including a 56-yard scoring strike to Adam Baker.

Ingram admits that though living up to the leadership of last year’s signal caller, Michael Grant, might be tough, he is up for the challenge. But with his first varsity start at the position under his belt, he is just looking forward to doing whatever is possible to help the Blue Devils win games and reach the playoffs. That starts with Friday’s test against Villa Grove.

“We watched the film on Monday,” Ingram said. “They run a lot of option. It will be hard to handle.

“It’s real important (to play well against Villa Grove). We need to do good.”

This will be the third meeting in as many years between the two teams with Bismarck-Henning and Villa Grove splitting the two contests. Last season, Bismarck-Henning defeated Villa Grove 32-29 en route to a 6-5 overall finish and its first postseason appearance since 2006.

While a win on Friday would do great things for Bismarck-Henning, Dodd is trying to not put too much pressure on his team.

“You know, 2-0 would be really nice,” Dodd said. “I think that would maybe send a message. But if we lost the game, it’s not the end of the world either. Obviously it’s a non-conference game. Everything counts for playoffs. We don’t want to put too much emphasis on it and make it like if we don’t win it’s the end of the world, but we want to make sure that we are teaching progress all the time.

“Two good teams are going to be playing Friday night, so it might boil down to one or two plays. It’s not going to mean we’re great if we win or we’re terrible if we lose. We’re going to try to not get too high and not get too low, and just go out there and play our best.”

Rounding out the VVC and LOVC schedule on Friday will be Schlarman hosting Arcola in an attempt to pick up its second win of the season for the first time since 2004, Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman taking on East Central, Milford facing Arthur Lovington, and Westville taking on Martinsville.

Salt Fork will be on the road against Cerro Gordo, as will Hoopeston Area (against Tri-County) and Oakwood/Armstrong-Potomac (facing South Piatt at Bement). All games are scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m.