WARDEN - The Warden Cougars are ready to make noise in their second year as a member of the 1A South Central Athletic Conference after a disappointing 3-7 opening campaign in 2012.

Despite only three wins, Warden was able to sneak into the playoffs before losing to Zillah 38-7. Head Coach Erik Skone set the team's goals high this season with a league championship and a state championship at the top of the list.

"We want to shoot for the highest level, we want to shoot for a state championship definitely," Skone said. "That's the ultimate goal."

The Cougars have their work cut out for them as their league has some of the best competition in the state.

"This happens to be one of the toughest leagues there is probably between Connell and Royal year in and year out," Skone said. "I think we've finally stepped up as far as competition-wise. This is the first year that I think we'll be able to compete with those guys."

The Connell Eagles and Royal Knights have been the class of the South Central Athletic Conference playing in the state championship game 10 out of the last 11 years. Royal captured the state title in 2004, 2005 and 2007 and this past season fell to Montesano in the championship game 28-43.

The Cougars struggled to begin the 2012 season losing four straight games to Okanogan, Lind-Ritzville/Sprague, Royal and River View before grabbing their first win against Wahluke 13-11.

"We started off slow and then once we got to the second half of league then we ended up making the playoffs," Skone said. "That's our goal is we want to make the playoffs year in and year out."

For Warden to have a chance at improving this season the offense must find the end zone. Last year the highest scoring output from the Cougars was only 15 points against Kiona-Benton. The Cougars were also held under 10 points in four games.

Skone explained the team struggled in the red zone and the offensive line had trouble protecting the quarterback and ball carriers.

"We really struggled to put points on the board," Skone said. "We moved the ball fairly decent, but once we got into the red zone we didn't do very good at it. Up front we were weak. We struggled up front blocking where this year we seem to be quite a bit better.

Skone is optimistic about his team's chances and points out that the Cougars' seven losses all came to playoff caliber teams and they were able to play the 2012 1B state champion Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos close in a 14-21 defeat.

"When you sit back and look at it the seven teams we lost to were all playoff caliber teams or won state," he said. "It wasn't an easy league by any means."

The Cougars will miss the anchor of their defense last season Adam Hansen. Hansen was a first team all-league linebacker in 2012 who is now at University of Montana-Western.

"He was really a good asset for us," Skone said. "I think we're probably smaller then we've ever been, but we're quicker."

Senior Osvaldo Alba looks to have a large impact as he gets a chance to start at quarterback for the entire season after taking over about halfway through 2012.

"He's actually worked pretty hard over the offseason," Skone said. "He's gotten pretty good at throwing the ball so that's going to help him quite a bit."

Warden opens league play against Okanogan 7 p.m. Friday at home.