Of the four large-school semifinalists, Dimond is the only one with a losing record. But the 4-5 Lynx have forgotten the regular season and are relishing their role as underdogs.
The fifth of five seeds from the Cook Inlet Conference, Dimond dismantled the Railbelt Conference's top seed with a 38-17 win at Colony last weekend -- a victory that lifted team spirits enough to block out bad weather during practices this week.
"We're happy to be out here in the rain and the nastiness, because we're still playing football," said Dimond coach Chris Borst said. "They're excited about the opportunity to go out and play against a team that maybe a lot of people don't think they have the ability to beat and are really hoping to prove them wrong."
When Dimond takes on Service on Saturday, the key to victory will be limiting big plays by the Service offense, avoiding turnovers and taking advantage of any Service mistakes, Borst said.
Dimond's three regular-season wins came against Chugiak, Bartlett and East, but in Week 6 the Lynx nearly took down West. The Eagles had to scored 10 points in the final three minutes to snatch a 17-14 win.
-- Jeremy Peters