The history alone is daunting.

East Grand Rapids is synonymous with state football excellence. It's alumni dot the rosters of Big 10 schools. The Pioneers have not only won 18 straight games, they've won 18 straight playoff games as well, sweeping to three straight state titles. They've claimed five state championships since 2002, plus another two in the 1990s, titles in 1983 and 1976 and a pre-tournament championship in 1955..

The good news for the Ogemaw Heights Falcons: they don't have to play the Pioneer teams of yore.

This year's squad provides challenges enough.

"They are absolutely loaded," said Ogemaw coach Andrew Pratley. "Their program is where it is for a reason. I don't mean any disrespect whatsoever to Mt. Pleasant, but this is a completely different standard of football."

Among the Pioneers' 2009 victims: Orchard Lake St. Mary's, which faces DeWitt Saturday in the other Division 3 semifinal. EGR beat St. Mary's 21-7. The Pioneers also beat Division 2 semifinalist Lowell 27-6 and have outscored their three playoff opponents 121-21.

"They're so good at every position, but we can't really worry about who is on the other side of the ball," Pratley said. "We need to concentrate on executing what we do and continue to do it better than we have the week before."

The Pioneers have at least one Division 1 signee on their roster -- 6-8 tight end / linebacker Collin Voss. Voss actually turned down a couple of D-1 football scholarship offers, deciding instead to play basketball at Central Michigan University, the site of Saturday's game. Voss has been a dominant force on both sides of the ball.

EGR's defensive secondary has proven to be air-tight. Kirk Spencer, A.J. McEwen, Dion Jobe and Josh Drummond, along with Voss's dominating presence, make it imperative the Falcons stay out of obvious passing situations.

Many of those same players provide much of the Pioneers' offensive firepower. Spencer is an 1800-yard running back, averaging nearly nine yards a carry. For those looking for a comparison, Spencer stacks up well against Ovid-Elsie's Chris Robinson, whose dominating performance ended Standish-Sterling's tournament run last year in a state semifinal game.

"Robinson was a little more shifty than Spencer," Pratley said. "Spencer is probably a bit stronger, more of a power back. And if he's not running over you he's burning by you. He's very impressive."

Drummond, the team's fullback, makes defending the run doubly hard, reportedly taking more pride in providing devastating blocks to spring Spencer free than he does in scoring touchdowns himself.

Quarterback Ryan Elble has completed 63 percent of his passes for more than 900 yards, which is impressive considering how quickly the Pioneers have had most of their games in hand. McEwen is the top receiver and has gotten looks from a number of MAC schools.

And that doesn't even cover the Pioneers' line play, which has been impressive on both sides of the ball.

"From what we've seen, there's no real weaknesses, no obvious point of attack," Pratley said. "But as we've told the kids, If you want to be the best, if you want to be a state champion, in this division you have to go through East Grand Rapids at some point.

"We're excited to be where we're at, we're excited to play them and we're excited to get our shot."