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Steamboat Springs — When Delta High School's football coach Kirk McLaughlin talked about his worries for tonight's game at Steamboat Springs, he had a hard time getting to one player before backtracking to another.

McLaughlin, in his second year as Delta's coach, knows Steamboat has many playmakers.

He singled out Alex Wood and Austin Hinder, who connected four times for 134 yards and two touchdowns last week in Laramie, Wyo. But he continued to rattle off names until every Sailor skill player had been mentioned.

"We need to somehow contain that offense," said McLaughlin, whose team beat Gunnison, 25-20, last week. "We have to keep them from getting too many big plays. We know they'll have big plays, but it's a matter of limiting them."

There's no doubt Steamboat's offense can be potent. McLaughlin can just look at last year's contest, when the Sailors ran the ball for 276 yards in a 37-6 rout.

But still, McLaughlin's confident.

Delta's win against Gunnison mirrored Steamboat's against Laramie. The Panthers won, but the score wasn't as close as it indicated. McLaughlin said many drives were thwarted by penalties and turnovers. He attributed it to first-game jitters and said Delta's only going to get better.

That point makes Steamboat Springs High School coach Aaron Finch nervous. He knows his offense is high-powered and didn't play to its abilities last week, but the coach is more concerned about a pesky Delta team.

"Delta has been an interesting team the last two seasons," Finch said. "The last two years they've played some very good teams tough and lost to some teams where you expected them to win. But I think they're on the cusp of being a playoff team."

Both coaches agreed that turnovers would be the biggest factor in the game - bottom line, the team that takes care of the ball probably will win.