FAIRMONT — Deja’ vu.

Fairmont head football coach Mat Mahoney’s Class AAA No. 5-ranked Cardinals waited patiently for six days to find out which regular-season opponent they would host in Saturday’s 3 p.m. Section 3 semifinal at Mahoney Field.

Ironically, Fairmont (7-1), which merited a first-round bye via its No. 1 seed, earned a rematch in the playoffs with the No. 5-seeded Sibley East Wolverines (3-6). Sibley East eliminated No. 4-seeded Tri-City United, 27-0, during Tuesday night’s sectional quarterfinal in Montgomery.

“From a game-planning perspective and having only three days to prepare for your next opponent, there’s a distinct advantage to knowing the other team’s personnel in advance,” said Mahoney, whose team shut out TCU 41-0 during Week 4 and bested Sibley East 42-8 during Week 8. “We’ll look at film, see what we did well and build on that, while also looking to fix or improve what we didn’t.

“At this stage in the game, not much has changed for either team since we played a week ago.”

Fairmont’s 4-3 defensive alignment created a 3-to-1 positive ratio in the turnover department, with middle linebacker Josh Heinze scooping up a Sibley East fumble, while Zach Jorgensen and Zach Soelter each intercepted passes by Wolverine quarterback Caleb Dose during the Oct. 16 regular-season finale in Arlington.

“Once he’s able to get out of the pocket, he (Dose) was able to extend some plays for them the last time we played,” said Mahoney. “Obviously, we’ll also have to be aware of (running back) Lincoln Carpenter, who ran for 55 yards against us.”

The 5-foot-6, 155-pound Carpenter amassed a game-best 167 yards on 32 totes and accounted for all of Sibley East’s four TDs in Tuesday night’s sectional shutout triumph over TCU.

While Fairmont’s defense limited Sibley East to only 98 yards of total offense, including 54 on the ground, last Wednesday night, Jorgensen completed 10 of 15 passes for 161 yards and two TDs before Cardinals’ reserve quarterback Jack Hested fired a 13-yard scoring strike for good measure. Hested also proved a perfect 6-for-6 in PAT kicks in Arlington.

So, with a possible fifth consecutive rematch against the Class AAA No. 2-ranked and No. 2-seeded Jackson County Central Huskies in the sectional championship on the horizon, how do the Cardinals maintain their focus on the Wolverines?

“It starts in practice from our entire coaching staff to all of our players,” said Mahoney. “We need to stay focused on each step of our playoff run as we approach it and not look past it.

“We’ll fine-tune every little detail, implement our game plan and let the chips fall where they might.”

In the other half of the Section 3 bracket, Jackson County Central (8-0) plays host to No. 3-seeded Luverne (7-2) at 3 p.m. Saturday in Jackson. Luverne posted a 14-0 shutout over No. 6-seeded Worthington in Tuesday night’s quarterfinal.

The Section 3AAA championship is scheduled for a 1 p.m. kickoff Saturday, Nov. 2, on the turf in Janesville. Fairmont is the two-time defending champion.