At times, Washington & Jefferson coach Mike Sirianni wonders if the film he's watching on Mary Hardin-Baylor's football team is being played at a high speed.

"That's how fast they are," he said. "We don't see anybody around here that are this fast."

W&J (10-1), the Presidents' Athletic Conference champion and winner of 10 in a row, will get an up-close look at that speed when it plays Mary Hardin-Baylor (9-2) in the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs today at 1 p.m. in Betton, Texas, located between Waco and Austin.

W&J has been run off the field in its past three playoff games against teams from Texas. Mary Hardin-Baylor defeated W&J, 52-16, in the 2004 quarterfinals; Trinity defeated W&J, 45-10, in the second round in 2002; Hardin-Simmons defeated W&J, 51-3, in the second round in 1999.

"The Texas teams all are fast," Sirianni said. "You can't simulate that kind of speed in practice. You can't tell your kids to run faster."

Mary Hardin-Baylor, the champion of the America Southwest Conference, advanced with a 33-21 victory against Hardin-Simmons. W&J defeated Christopher Newport, 27-23, in the opening round.

The teams played one common opponent: Christopher Newport defeated Mary Hardin-Baylor, 15-10, in early September.

"We have a chance," Sirianni said. "But we're going to have to play our best game of the year. They're an option team and their speed concerns us, but it's their defensive speed that will cause our kids the most problems."

Mary Hardin-Baylor's rushing defense limits opponents to a yard per carry. W&J's offense relies on the running game, led by Ryan Mendel (1,389 yards, 5.0 average, 19 TDs), a senior from Brentwood High School.

"We've had a running game, that's the reason Bobby [Swallow] has been so successful passing," Sirianni said of Swallow, a sophomore who has completed 70.9 percent of his passes for 1,792 yards and 19 touchdowns. "We're going to try to run."

Mary Hardin-Baylor is primarily a running team, averaging 223 yards per game with Jarvis Thrasher (912 yards, 12 TDs) and Freddie Rollins (791 yards, 13 TDs) the main threats.

"Mary Hardin-Baylor definitely has more talent than us," Sirianni said. "The odds are stacked against us."

NCAA Division III playoffs

Carnegie Mellon (11-0) at Wesley, Del. (11-0), noon, Saturday -- CMU won a playoff game for the first time since 1979 with a 21-0 victory against Millsaps last Saturday. In that game, Robert Gimson rushed for 142 yards, including a 17-yard touchdown, and Travis Sivek ran for 108 yards and touchdowns of 3 and 5 yards. Sivek (1,280 yards) and Gimson (1,004 yards) give the Tartans two 1,000-yard rushers in the same season for the first time.

CMU's defense, which allows 7.5 points per game, will be tested by Wesley's offense, which averages nearly 40 points.

Wesley rallied from a 13-0 deficit to defeat Dickinson, 49-21, in the first round of the playoffs as Chris Warrick passed for 246 yards and four touchdowns to Michael Clark, who had nine catches for 158 yards.

Warrick, who completed 60 percent of his passes for 2,178 yards and 20 touchdowns, is the Atlantic Central Football Conference offensive player of the year for the second consecutive season. Wesley lineman Bryan Robinson is defensive player of the year and freshman tailback Aaron Jackson (872 yards rushing, 5 TDs) is rookie of the year.

Wesley and CMU have met twice, with Wesley winning, 47-28, in 2003 and CMU winning, 24-10, in 2004.

NCAA Division I-AA playoffs

James Madison (9-2) at Youngstown State (9-2), 7:30 p.m., Saturday -- Youngstown State, the Gateway Football Conference champion, is in the playoffs for the first time since 2000 and the first since Jon Heacock became the head coach in 2001. Heacock was an assistant from 1990-96 under Jim Tressel, whose Youngstown teams won national championships in 1991, '93, '94 and '97 and were runners-up in '92 and '99.

Tressel currently is the coach of the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.

Youngstown State is seeded No. 4 in the 16-team field. James Madison, the Atlantic 10 Conference champion, is unseeded.

The game will feature Youngstown's running game that averages 240.6 yards per game against a James Madison defense that allows 84 yards on the ground per game. Youngstown State's Marcus Mason, who averages 166 yards rushing per game, has missed two games this season with an ankle injury but is expected to be available.