Jeff Brosky knew there would be ups and downs this season for his football team. So after their scrimmage with Dieruff this preseason, the end result was one that had people around the Valley talking and not in a good way.

For all the expectations surrounding the K-Kids this season, their scrimmage against a perennially weak Huskies program raised eyebrows.

"They [Dieruff] really took it to us and punched us in the mouth," said Brosky. "I think our guys went into that scrimmage with too much confidence and thought they could just show up and play. Dieruff is an improved program this year with playmakers and they're going to win games.

"It was a good wake-up call for our guys to start the preseason that way because we overlooked them."

Things have changed since for Northampton, as they showed up with a better result in their final tune up against Pocono Mountain West last week, as they prepare to open the season at home Friday night against Stroudsburg.

And just as a reminder when we say home, all home games this season for the Kids will be played at Nazareth's Andrew S. Leh stadium because of the renovations going on at the football stadium.

With that said, the Kids are looking forward to proving their worth after some people across the area have already brushed them off because of a lone scrimmage.

"We got better from our scrimmages," said Brosky. "The kids have been focused and enthusiastic and they look forward to the challenge this year. "We had a whole different attitude in our second scrimmage and I think that's the team that's going to show up this weekend."

Stroudsburg lost a lot from last year's squad, including two Division-I linemen and their top running back and wide reciver from a year ago.

The Mounties also lost their head coach from the last two seasons. The one thing Stroudsburg does return is their starting quarterback, 6-foot-4, Mike Nikorak. The junior signal caller brings back experience for Stroudsburg, who need him in their transition campaign.

"They are a lot smaller in size this year than they were a year ago," Brosky said about Stroudsburg. "I think they only have two or three guys total over 6-foot-1. They do return some playmakers from what we've seen in the scrimmages and they only have three guys going both ways."

The keys for Northampton to register a second straight win over Stroudsburg include getting their running game going, something that they struggled with a year ago, as well as stopping the run, which was another problem last year.

"We want to take steps this year and move into the upper part of the LVC," Bosky said. "Eight of our 11 opponents we played last year qualified for postseason play and most of them were senior oriented teams. It's not like we were playing bad teams. I think we have one of those senior oriented teams this year."