When the Key West High football team arrives in Marathon this evening, the Conchs won't need to be reminded of last year's game against the Dolphins.

They still remember the crushing 21-14 loss and they surely still remember the Marathon ground game running roughshod at Tommy Roberts Memorial Stadium. Perhaps most of all, though, the team remembers the Dolphins celebrating on their field following the final whistle.

While the memories are still fresh, Conchs coach Jerry Hughes is confident they will remain just that -- memories. One of Key West's points of emphasis during practice this week has been to focus on the task at hand -- football -- and not any of the outside storylines surrounding the game.

"We told them that regardless of the outcome, we're going to leave that stadium with class," Hughes said of his players. "We're not going to put ourselves in a position to where this program gets criticized."

Much of the excitement surrounding the game has come due to Marathon's current two-game win streak, which has turned what was once an annual cupcake game into a full-blown rivalry. Prior to 2007, Key West had never lost to its closest Keys counterpart. The last two years, however, doused gasoline on a fire that apparently hadn't been stoked in a while.

"I guarantee that if they hadn't beaten Key West the last two years, there wouldn't be a rivalry like we have now," Hughes said. "That's what winning does. They turned that program around up there."

In order for the Conchs to get back on that winning side, Hughes said his players will need to take a business-like approach to their short trip up the Keys and keep their heads in the game. That will be especially important for the Conchs, who will enter what is surely going to be a circus-like atmosphere and the most hostile environment they face all season. Marathon, which has a pep rally planned before kickoff, is selling T-shirts as well as tickets to crush a "Conch Clunker," a donated car painted in Key West colors that students and fans can take turns whacking with a sledgehammer.

History will also not be on the side of the Conchs, who have yet to taste victory on Marathon's current home field. Key West, which is 0-2 on Marathon's campus, lost their first and only game to Coral Shores in 2002 at Marathon in a game that was relocated following a bomb scare on the Hurricanes' campus, and their only other game at Marathon was the 2007 loss to the Dolphins.

"The only thing we're concerned with is having more points on the board when the last second ticks off the clock," Hughes said. "All that other stuff is out of our control, but we can control what goes on during the game. That's the way we want to approach it."

Assistant Sports Editor Willis Jacobson's column appears exclusively each Friday in The Citizen. He can be reached at 305-292-7777, Ext. 223, or at wjacobson@keysnews.com.