Hunter Wilson/Daily News Warren Central wingback Eric Brown (right) runs during practice this week at Warren Central HIgh School. The second-seeded Dragons host Madisonville-North Hopkins tonight in the opening round of the Class 5A state playoffs.

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Football is a game tailor-made for metaphors. So Warren Central coach Mike Rogers had one for his team this week.

“I told our kids, ‘I guess in a sense our season’s kinda like Snow White,’ ” said the first-year Warren Central coach, taking a break Thursday from painting the lines of the field at Dragon Stadium for tonight’s contest.

“You read a great book, it’s very predictable that the prince is gonna ride up on the white horse, kiss Snow White and everything’s gonna be OK. The problem we’re in is Snow White’s laid out and we can see the prince, but he’s not here yet and we wanna make sure he doesn’t turn into the wicked witch.”

It’s been a fairy tale-type year for the second-seeded Dragons (7-3), who will host their first home playoff game since 2007 at 7:30 p.m. tonight against Madisonville-North Hopkins in the Class 5A playoffs.

After back-to-back wins over rivals Bowling Green and Greenwood to end the campaign, playoff fever has gripped campus.

“The pats on the back are nice and the kids have handled it better than any team I’ve had,” Rogers said. “Warren Central has a very proud tradition and only had a couple bad seasons (recently) by Warren Central standards.”

Two of Warren Central’s three losses this year came by a combined 22 points. Looking back, Rogers hopes those defeats did his team some good.

“Sometimes you learn more from your losses and I think we learned more from the Fort Campbell game (a 49-7 loss on Sept. 25) than any other game we’ve played,” Rogers said. “We’ve just learned how to compete at a high level. You try not to lose district games and you try not to lose any, but if you can gain some experience from it and get better for the playoffs - that’s what you care about. We’ll find out this week if those lessons are well-learned or not.”

The Maroons (5-5) finished third in District 1 of Class 5A. Madisonville-North Hopkins has lost its five games by an average of 10 points while winning by 25 in five victories.

Running back Tray Carr and Denzel Johnson have rushed for a combined 946 yards and nine touchdowns. Carr, the starting QB, has also thrown for 1,074 yards and 10 scores.

“They’re very similar to us,” Rogers said. “Probably have a little more speed than us, are very athletic, but not huge. They’ve got a pretty proud tradition down there, too. They expect to win playoff games. Their season hasn’t gone exactly the way coach (Will) Weaver planned, but it’s a new season now and I’m sure they’re gonna come down here with a huge fight in mind and try to spoil the party.”

The winner of tonight’s contest will travel to Christian County or host Barren County on Nov. 13.

“We’ve had our best week of practice and I really expect us to play well,” Rogers added. “Whether it’s good enough to beat Madisonville - we’ll find out (tonight) about 9. We’ve prepared really well, I know that.”