Chemistry can bring an offensive line together.

But sometimes getting in each other's face can help just as much.

Case in point - senior center James Hunt and senior right tackle Trevor Woodall, two leaders on the playoff-bound Lake City High football team.

Normally, Hunt is the vocal leader, and Woodall leads by example.

But then came a practice during the Timberwolves' bye week earlier this season.

"It was just a really tough day in practice, and we both just got emotionally drained, started yelling at each other," Hunt recalled. "That was the first time I ever got a rise out of him. He started yelling at me back. I was shocked, and I respected him a lot more after that."

Said Woodall: "We were pushing the sled, and I went three times in a row and he didn't see me go three times in a row, and he yelled at me because he thought I didn't go, and I'm like, no ..."

Hunt: "He pretty much told me how it was, and then we kinda pushed each other and it got broken up, and we were fine after it."

Woodall: "The practice got a lot more intense after that."

Hey, whatever works.

Lake City (5-3-1), in the state playoffs for the 16th straight season, travels to Eagle (8-2) on Friday night in a first-round playoff game.

Hunt (5-foot-9, 222 pounds) has started at center since the beginning of his junior year.

"James Hunt is really our emotional leader," Lake City coach Van Troxel said. "He's the most fired-up guy that we have. He's the one that, every

day in practice, he practices extremely hard, very vocal, just one of those guys that has the energy, and it's really kind of fun because it comes from a different type of leader. He's the guy ... doing all the grunt work, and he s the leader of the group."

Woodall (6-2, 227) started at right guard as a junior, as well as the first seven games of this season. He was moved to right tackle, starting with the Coeur d'Alene game two weeks ago, to take advantage of his athleticism when the Timberwolves run plays to the outside.

"Trevor's the quiet leader," Troxel said. "Trevor's one of the best workers in the weight room that we have. Right now, he's one of the best football players we have."

Hunt and Woodall have played together since fifth grade in Junior Tackle, and both will be making their 20th varsity start on Friday. Both have been key to the running game this year for Lake City, which has leaned heavily on the run this season.

Hunt says he wasn't quite as vocal last year - he would only yell at the juniors, he said. This year, if someone's not working hard in practice, he'll get on them, no matter who they are.

"I just had to get after the team because no one was going to step up and be the vocal leader," Hunt said. "It was something that I decided I was going to do, to help out the team."

Troxel said Hunt is probably one of the toughest guys on the offensive unit, noting on Lake City's really good football teams, its centers have been tough, hard-nosed guys.

"It always seems like when he says stuff at practice, people listen," Woodall said of Hunt.

Hunt grew up playing mostly on defense - linebacker or defensive line - and switched to center in high school, he says, because that's where the team needed him. He still plays some at nose tackle now, and Woodall says Hunt sometimes tries to talk the coaches into letting him play linebacker.

Hunt is also captain of the Lake City golf team - golf being an unusual second sport for a football player, especially one who motivates by yelling. It's not like you can get yourself worked into a frenzy for golf, getting so fired up you want to hammer the golf ball 100 miles down the fairway. It doesn't work that way.

"I take golf more as the mental part of football," said Hunt, who wants to become a police officer. "Half of football is mental, you have to be mentally strong. And golf, it's all mental.

"I get really ticked off sometimes in golf tournaments," he added. "So I try to play within myself. I say to myself, 'don't do anything stupid.'"

Woodall, a lineman pretty much his whole life, said the hardest part about moving to tackle was changing from a 3-point stance, where his hand is in the ground, to a 2-point stance where the lineman is more upright.

"I kind of like tackle better, because it uses more of your athletic ability," he said.

He also helped last year as Hunt was making the adjustment to center. Normally the center makes the calls for the offensive line.

"Last year, he (Woodall) made all of my calls," Hunt said. "It was my first year as center. He is kind of the brainiac of the line. Last year I would ask him what I was supposed to do."

Woodall is somewhat of a brainiac in the classroom as well, sporting a 3.8 GPA and belonging to the National Honor Society. He'd like to play football in college, and the schools who have expressed interest in him range from Washington State to NAIA Southern Oregon. Last year he took an unofficial visit to Idaho State.

Woodall wants to be an athletic trainer someday. These days, in his spare time, he likes to join the family and go four-wheeling - often to the Oregon Dunes, at Winchester Bay on the central Oregon Coast.

Sometimes Troxel will check his email and find photos sent to him by the Woodalls from one of their four-wheelin' excursions.

Why go four-wheelin' so far from home?

"There's nothing like that around here," Woodall said. "Sand dunes, hill climbs ... it's definitely fun. And you can actually ride on the beach."

Figures. When Woodall and Hunt are not playing football, one of them loves playing in the sand. The other tries to avoid the sand.