WESTMINSTER — Even though he has just one game under his belt as a head coach, Jay Brannon knows when his teams are ready for battle after all the years he has spent on the sidelines as an assistant.

And before the West-Oak High School football team took the field before walloping Landrum on the road last Friday by a final score of 37-21 to open up his career with the Warriors, Brannon’s instincts served him well after getting a look at his team before the game.

“You can look at your kids right before kickoff and tell if they're ready to play,” he said. “I liked the look in their eyes last week.”

Now after whipping up on the Class A Landrum squad, the Warriors will strap on the pads and prepare for more of a heavyweight fight when they host Pendleton on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in Westminster.

Pendleton and West-Oak are the two area teams that probably share the most in common, as they both run a double-wing offense with a heavy emphasis on the running game, while also priding themselves on tenacious defensive play.

And after the lightweight bout against Landrum to open the season, the Warriors will have a good chance this week to see exactly where they stack up against solid competition like Pendleton.

“They're about as a good of a AA school as there's been in the state over the last six or seven years, so this we'll be a good test to see where we're at and how far we've progressed,” Brannon said.

With the similarities the schools share, there are also of course plenty of differences between the Bulldogs and Warriors.

Strictly speaking, on the field, the Bulldogs will send more receivers out wide on offense, and will give the West-Oak defense multiple looks. Meanwhile, the Warriors will keep more of a constant formation on offense, using a variety of different looks out of that base formation.

But the most common thread, which West-Oak would really like to have the edge in, is toughness.

“I don't want to say they're where we want to be, because we do things differently, but the intensity their guys play with and how hard they play, there's a lot to admire there,” Brannon said.

And if the Warriors can match the toughness Pendleton has shown in recent years, Brannon will be feeling good, as the game against the Bulldogs will be the first in a three-game home stand that includes Walhalla and Liberty over the next two weeks.

“If we do (match Pendleton’s intensity), we're going to have a shot,” Brannon said. “If we don't, then we're going to have to go back to work.”

And without much doubt, Brannon will have a good feel as to whether or not his Warriors bring that intensity to the field in his home debut at West-Oak.

With any luck, Brannon hopes that intensity will have carried over from the Landrum game and into Westminster.

“Hopefully we'll have that same look Friday night,” Brannon said.