It was the middle of August when Astoria football coach Howard Rub said of his team, “It’s real important for this group to still be playing in mid- and late-November. And once you’re playing that long, you want to roll the dice and see how far you can go.”

The Fishermen have already accomplished the mid-November thing – they’re looking at playing in late-November and early December.

In developments that just about no one expected, the Fishermen stormed through the regular season virtually untouched and are now ranked among the state’s top three 4A teams in almost every poll you can find.

And since Rub made those statements in August, his team has yet to taste defeat.

Astoria is 10-0 as it heads into Friday’s second-round state playoff game with La Salle (7 p.m., 1230 ESPN Radio) at John Warren Field.

The Fishermen are heavy favorites to advance over the Falcons, who finished the regular season 6-4 and are coming off a 12-7 loss to Class 3A Santiam Christian almost two weeks ago.

It will be the second meeting of the season between La Salle and Astoria, and the second on Astoria’s home field.

The Last MeetingIn a nonleague contest the second week of the regular season, Astoria topped La Salle 20-12. The Fishermen were still splitting time at quarterback with Nathan Stinnett and Jordan Poyer, who was named this week as the Cowapa League’s co-Offensive Player of the Year.

Both Stinnett and Poyer had touchdowns in the win, with Poyer scoring on a 27-yard run in the third quarter to finish with 122 yards rushing on 10 attempts.

La Salle’s Chris Nagel scored twice in a losing cause, but the Falcons missed both point-after conversions and were shut out in the second and third quarters.

“It felt like we had pretty good control,” Rub said. “Defensively we played much better than the previous week (a 28-27 win over Molalla). We reacted a lot faster and did a better job tackling.

“We kept the ball moving offensively, and it’s always a good deal to have two guys over 100 yards,” as Andy Murray added 110 yards rushing.

La Salle Players to WatchThe Falcons are not short on talent. Skill players include Nagel, quarterback Vince Hicks, along with Duncan Mitchell and Cam Keeney.

Polls, rankings and ratingsIn a series of rankings on the Web site Oregonprepsports.net, the Fishermen are ranked No. 1 in three of five different Class 4A polls and No. 2 in a fourth. La Salle is ranked anywhere from seventh to 15th.

The latest Associated Press poll has Astoria ranked third (with one first-place vote) behind Sisters and Siuslaw. La Salle did not receive any votes and was not ranked.

What the fans are sayingPredictions are normally split down the middle, but the Fishermen seem to be the prohibitive favorite heading into Friday’s game.

A sampling of predicted scores from the OregonLive.com 4A football forum:

Astoria 35, La Salle 13

Astoria 38, La Salle 6

Astoria 40, La Salle 10

Astoria 13, La Salle 0

Astoria 21, La Salle 7

Astoria 34, La Salle 10

Astoria 28, La Salle 13

Astoria 42, La Salle 0

Common Opponents(Molalla, Yamhill-Carlton, Gladstone)

Astoria defeated Molalla 28-27; Molalla defeated La Salle 36-19

Astoria defeated Yamhill-Carlton 48-27; Yamhill-Carlton defeated La Salle 47-18

Astoria defeated Gladstone 50-27; La Salle defeated Gladstone 31-21

The ResultsLa Salle (6-4, 5-1 Capital)

9/1 at Blanchet W, 20-0

9/8 at Astoria L, 12-20

9/15 at Yamhill-Carlton L, 18-47

9/22 Molalla L, 19-36

9/29 at Cascade W, 36-22

10/6 Stayton W, 28-0

10/12 at Gladstone W, 31-21

10/20 Estacada W, 34-14

10/27 at North Marion W, 40-14

11/3 Santiam Christian L, 7-12

Astoria (10-0, 5-0 Cowapa)

9/1 Molalla W, 28-27

9/8 La Salle W, 20-12

9/15 Gladstone W, 50-27

9/22 at Philomath W, 28-0

9/29 Yreka (at Autzen) W, 26-24

9/6 Seaside W, 21-19

9/12 Banks W, 49-12

9/20 at Scappoose W, 34-21

9/27 Yamhill-Carlton W, 48-27

11/3 at Tillamook W, 20-0

Quotable: From the Clackamas Review, La Salle co-captain Mark Meek talked about the Falcons’ playoff chances: “I think as long as we come out and play to the best of our ability, we’ll be fine. When you get to the playoffs everyone’s 0-0.”

All-LeaguersAstoria came up big in the all-league selections, released earlier this week.

While Poyer was the co-Offensive Player of the Year (with Yamhill’s Zach Anderson), other Astoria first-teamers included offensive linemen Thomas Christensen and Ben Mattingly, running back Andy Murray, wide receiver Adam Koehnke, kicker Tony Robinson, defensive lineman Jake Banta, linebackers Brook Smith and Nathan Stinnett and defensive backs Brent Culver and Nick Alfonse.

Seaside’s Dan Copenhaver was named Defensive Player of the Year. See Scoreboard for complete all-league first team.