From 0-2 to the state tournament, that would be quite a trip for Rancocas Valley football.
But it would be only the second-best journey for the Red Devils.
The great thing wouldn't just be getting to the playoffs. It would be getting to the South Jersey playoffs.
Or coming home, as it were.
"For 50 years, up until the last two years, we were a South Jersey team," Rancocas Valley coach Dan Haussman said. "We've got so much respect for South Jersey teams. We'd love to get back in there again."
Rancocas Valley is a South Jersey team by geography and history and pretty much by any definition but the one concocted by the West Jersey Football League when the super conference was formed in 2010.
The high school is in Mount Holly. That's Burlington County. That's South Jersey.
And the Red Devils have a rich tradition that is woven into the fabric of South Jersey football, from star players such as Franco Harris and Irving Fryar - among many others - to a legendary former coach in Bill Gordon.
Why, Gordon's annual Thanksgiving Day clashes with Moorestown coach George Masters covered more than a quarter-century, featured great games and better sportsmanship, and are part of South Jersey football lore.
But now the Red Devils are shrouded in mist, at least from a South Jersey point of view. They've become a bit of a mystery team, since the WJFL alignment put them in the Capitol Division with four teams from Mercer County.
In fact, Rancocas Valley's first eight games are against Mercer County opponents. The Red Devils don't face a South Jersey team until the Thanksgiving game against Pemberton.
But that could change this year.
"That's been our goal from Day 1," Rancocas Valley quarterback Dylan Finelli said of qualifying for the playoffs.
Finelli thinks the Red Devils are locked in a bit of a no-man's land - Central Jersey teams think of them as a South Jersey team, and South Jersey teams tend to see them as part of the Central Jersey scene.
"Teams don't respect us," said Finelli, who has 10 touchdown passes. "But we see this [a playoff berth] as a chance to earn our respect."
The playoffs seemed far-fetched two weeks into the season, as Rancocas Valley was 0-2 and racked by injuries. In fact, Haussman said the team lost seven players in the first half of the season opener at West Windsor-Plainsboro South, a 47-27 loss.
"I've seen seasons where you don't have seven players go down," Haussman said.
