Brandon King realizes that hardly anyone across the state — outside of Bowdon, that is — thinks his team has even the slightest chance of moving on in the Class A state playoffs beyond Friday night.

The Bowdon High School senior lineman/linebacker fully understands that his Red Devils will be huge underdogs when they line up against top-ranked and unbeaten Wesleyan at 7:30 Friday night in Norcross for the second-round showdown against the defending state champions.

So the way he looks at it, that’s all the extra motivation needed to get fired up for an opportunity to pull the major upset.

“Yeah, it does. It does. I mean, nothing’s impossible. I think we can pull this one out,” King said.

“I mean, we ain’t scared of nobody. I just think we’re ready to go. We made it past the first round, unlike the past few years. We’re in the second round now. I think we’re a little more excited about that. Everybody’s not ready to give up and go home.”

Likewise, Red Devil senior running back Eric Slaughter said there will be no backing down from Bowdon.

“We’re practicing real hard for them, and I think we can get them,” Slaughter said. “We’ve got to play with passion and play with them.”

The Wolves (11-0) have strolled through the season untested to this point, powered by a defense that has yielded just 38 points the entire year — an average of 3.5 points per game — while the offense has been steam-rolling folks led by junior running back Kyle Karempelis and senior quarterback Conor Welton.

Karempelis, who rushed for 2,388 yards as a sophomore, became Wesleyan’s all-time leading rusher in last week’s 45-13 first-round rout of Whitefield Academy, collecting 146 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries. For the season, Karempelis has 1,350 yards and 23 touchdowns despite not playing much — if any — during the second half of most contests.

Welton, meanwhile, has completed 92-of-130 attempts for 1,288 yards through the air with 23 touchdowns and just three interceptions.

Wesleyan coach Franklin Pridgen said his talented tandem simply do their part in the Wolves’ offensive system.

“We don’t ask them to do things where we don’t think they can be successful,” Pridgen said. “We’ve got a great line of scrimmage in front of them and great receivers to complement the passing game. They’re both just very smart, savvy players. They make very few mistakes. You combine that with their physical ability, they’re real good players.”

Bowdon coach Dwight Hochstetler said the Wolves will bring the total package at his defense, which will be a tremendous challenge on that side of the ball.

“They do everything well. They don’t really have a weakness,” Hochstetler said. “Offensively, they can run or throw the football. They get in formations and try to put you in a bind and find where you’re weak at and attack that area.”

Wesleyan owns wins over such playoff teams as Darlington (35-0), Holy Innocents’ (28-2), Social Circle (52-6), Athens Academy (31-0) and Commerce (28-3) during the regular season.

Hochstetler said the Wolves, winners of 23 straight dating back to 2008, are head and shoulders above the rest of Class A right now, but the Red Devil coach doesn’t think they’re unbeatable.

“They’re probably the most dominant team in Class A right now. They’re so much higher above everybody else,” Hochstetler said. “There’s four or five schools left that’s got a shot at winning state, and they’re one of them. I feel like we’re one of them, too.”

Hochstetler noted how Wesleyan’s defense is also strong in all areas, beginning with a good front seven, a tremendous linebacker core and a secondary he said tackles better than anybody he’s seen in a long time.

The Red Devils will have to be able to control the football and sustain some long drives on Friday.

“Not a lot of teams have done that against them this year,” Hochstetler said. “Their defense hasn’t gave up too many points, so it’s going to be a challenge.”

On the flip side, Pridgen isn’t taking the Red Devils (10-1) lightly, either, saying Bowdon’s speed in the backfield stands out the most on film.

“Well, they’re extremely well-coached and they’re very fast,” Pridgen said. “We really are impressed with their speed and their backfield. They seem to have a real understanding of what they’re doing, which is a credit to coach Hochstetler.”

Sophomore sensations Maricio Askew and Wesley Stephens have led the way in the Bowdon backfield, while seniors Cory Higginbotham and Slaughter, along with junior Paul Hammonds, can also take it to the house.

Senior quarterback Avery Cheeks is coming off his best outing of the season passing-wise, as he lit up Washington-Wilkes for 214 passing yards and three touchdowns. Cheeks completed all six passes he attempted in the 49-35 shootout.

Along with the strong offensive showing, Hochstetler said he liked the poise from his team in the win over the Tigers.

“I think our kids have done everything we’ve asked them to do this year. Improve each week, we’ve done that,” Hochstetler said. “We didn’t panic last week against Washington-Wilkes.”

Pridgen thought the Red Devils reminded him a lot of Commerce, the No. 2 seed out of Region 8-A.

“They’re real scrappy and physical,” Pridgen said. “It’s a great challenge for us.”

Pridgen described his team as being real physical and well-disciplined, too, noting how his players enjoy playing together every Friday night.

But Hochstetler said while the Wolves have beaten some strong teams this year, he thinks his squad can give them a run for their money.

“I don’t think Wesleyan has seen an offense like we’ve got,” Hochstetler said. “They haven’t seen a true Wing-T. They played Darlington earlier in the year, but Darlington was in a shotgun before they went back to their Wing-T base.

“I like our chances. We’ll go up there and play hard and leave it all out on the field. That’s what we expect our kids to do, and we’ll do that. If we get some breaks and not give them any breaks, I like our chances.”

Wesleyan’s 28-3 victory over Commerce on Oct. 16 is the closest game the Wolves have been in this season, something that could play into things if the Red Devils can keep it close into the late stages on Friday night.

The Wolves expect things to get more competitive, naturally, the deeper they get into the playoffs, but Hochstetler thinks his team has what it takes to do just that on Friday.

“We know we’ve got our hands full playing the No. 1 team in the state,” Hochstetler said. “There’s an old saying that goes, ‘To be the top dog, you’ve got to beat the top dog.’ So we’re looking forward to playing them.”

And in order to pull off the upset on Friday night, the Red Devils definitely will have to bring their ‘A’ game. And maybe even then some.

“We can’t afford any mistakes. No turnovers,” Hochstetler said. “Our kicking game, we can’t make any mistakes in our kicking game. Defensively, we have to eliminate the big plays. We consider this a big ball game, so the team that eliminates the big plays will have a chance to win.”