Braedon Tovey began the season as a question mark for the Cedar Rapids Washington football team, but he's developed into an exclamation point instead.

Make that several exclamation points!!!

Tovey wasn't supposed to the starting quarterback this year. That was A.J. Puk's job, but Puk quit after practice began in August to focus on baseball.

Tovey was going to be a wide receiver and defensive back this year. There were plans to use him as a part-time quarterback on option plays, but Puk was supposed to be the main man.

Puk quit, Tovey took over and the Warriors are on a roll. "It's all worked out so far," he said.

August is a long time ago. Washington has reached the quarterfinals of the Class 4A playoffs and will host No. 6 Cedar Falls Friday at 7 p.m. at Kingston Stadium.

Tovey is a major reason the Warriors have managed to pull off a string of major upsets, including three victories over top-10 teams.

Twice this season, Tovey has thrown a touchdown pass in the final 10 seconds to defeat the No. 2 team and snap an opponent's long winning streak, and both times he did it on the road.

Not once. Twice.

The first time, Tovey threw a 5-yard TD pass to Ryan Cain with 10 seconds left to give Washington a 27-24 victory over Iowa City High at Bates Field Sept. 30, snapping the Little Hawks' 33-game winning streak in Mississippi Valley Conference games.

The second time, Tovey fired a 3-yard TD pass to Flynn Heald with nine seconds left to give the Warriors a 28-26 victory over Linn-Mar in the second round of the playoffs at Linn-Mar Stadium last Monday, handing the Lions their only loss of the season.

Two TD passes, both in the final seconds, both on the road, both against second-ranked teams, and both upsets snapped the opponent's lengthy winning streak.

"It's fun to win that close, but we'd like to make it a little less stressful for everyone, including myself," Tovey confessed on Wednesday.

Somehow, he's able to stay calm in extremely stressful situations and make the play.

"I just don't think or hear anything," he claimed. "I don't hear any of the fans or anything. It's me, the linemen and my receivers.

"And I tell everyone in the huddle that we know we can do this, we've worked hard for this, I believe in every single one of you. And we're able to go and we're able to execute."

Now comes Cedar Falls in the playoffs Friday night. The Tigers are ranked "only" sixth in the state, but will be another formidable foe for the Warriors.

Ironically, Washington (8-3) has suffered all three of its losses at Kingston. All of its big wins - against Iowa City High, Linn-Mar and then-No. 9 Iowa City West - were on the road.

The Warriors lost back-to-back games at Kingston Stadium to Kennedy and Dubuque Wahlert in September. They were a .500 club at that point and spinning their wheels.

"After we started 2-and-2 we had to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, 'We're better than this, we've worked too hard,' and we've won six of our last seven," Tovey said. "It's been a lot of fun.

"I love every single one of these guys. We've all worked as hard as we can to get here and we're not ready for it to end yet. We still want to have some fun."

Tovey has completed 103 of 206 passes for 50 percent. He's thrown 13 touchdown passes, but suffered 12 interceptions. None of those numbers are exceptional, but when the game is on the line, he's been very, very good.

Now comes Cedar Falls and tailback Barkley Hill, an Iowa State recruit who has scampered for an eye-popping 2,196 yards and 35 touchdowns this season in 10 games. That's an average of 219.6 yards and 3.5 touchdowns every single game.

Cedar Falls was ranked No. 1 in the state until it suffered a 21-10 loss to Iowa City West in the ninth and final game of the regular season.

"At the beginning of the year the coaches in this league, to a man, felt Cedar Falls was going to be the premier team. We'll find out," Washington Coach Tony Lombardi said. "We beat the other three, and I don't mean that in an arrogant way. We played Linn-Mar, City High and Iowa City West, all of whom are awesome, and we beat them all. So if we beat this team, we're pretty good. I'm not sure we're that good, but we'll find out."

Cedar Falls quarterback Ike Boettger has missed the last two games with an injury, with Grant Grainger taking his place. Boettger is a 66.2 percent passer and Grainger hits 53.5 percent, but their main job is giving the ball to Hill.

James Harrington, the fastest man at the state track meet last spring, is another threat for Cedar Falls as a receiver and kick returner. He's caught eight TD passes and will run track in college, having committed to Alabama.

Tovey likes the idea of playing Cedar Falls in the fresh air, instead of in the UNI-Dome where the Tigers play their home games.

"They haven't had to deal too much with the weather and we've played every game outside," he said. "We can play in the cold, wind, rain, whatever happens.

"It's going to be a little different for them, but they're not going to just give up. They're a great team and they're going to fight to the very end. It could be another game like a City High or Linn-Mar game."

In other words, Tovey might have to throw another touchdown pass in the final seconds to win it.

"He's done it multiple times this year," Lombardi said. "Right now he believes it and our team believes it. So now this week we have to make Cedar Falls believe it."