Since losing to Pen Argyl, the Northwestern Tigers have basically been playing playoff games each week. The loss to the Green Knights left the Tigers needing wins over both Bangor and undefeated Catasauqua to give them any shot at reaching the postseason and the team stepped up and won both games.

The points ranking system left Northwestern just short of making the district playoffs, but did put them into the Eastern Conference Class AA playoffs as the top seed, giving them home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

First up for Northwestern are the Trojans from Nanticoke Area High School. Nanticoke finished the season at 5-5 with a 29-26 win over Hanover Area last week, giving them their most wins since 2002 when they went 6-4. The win also gave the Trojans their first playoff appearance since 1999 when they went to the District 2 semifinals before losing to Dunmore 28-17.

Both teams rely first on the ground game and both have 1,000 yard rushers in sophomore Harry Hall for Northwestern and senior Pat Hempel for Nanticoke.

The big difference offensively is that Northwestern can throw the ball, with junior quarterback Frank Dangello setting a school record for career touchdowns. Nanticoke quarterback Joe Levandowski completed just 32 percent of his 113 passes this season for just 430 yards and five touchdowns.

Northwestern should be able to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, allowing them to mix the pass and run like they did last week against Catasauqua when they put together two long touchdown drives, including one that saw the Tigers hold the ball for the entire third quarter of the game.

Offensively, Northwestern should be able to break open a couple of big plays as well against a defense that has allowed 43 points per game this season and is susceptible to giving up big yards on one play. Last week against Hanover, Nanticoke gave up a 59-yard touchdown pass and a 75 yard run for a touchdown. With Hall and the passing combination of Frank Dangello to Cam Richardson, look for Northwestern to be able to pop at least one or two long plays.

The Tigers defense stumbled late in the game against Catasauqua, but the Rough Riders have a lot more offensive weapons than the Trojans.

"I can't tell you how proud I am of my players," said Tiger head coach Josh Snyder. "After going 3-7 last year, these guys worked hard and turned that record around to 7-3. Obviously, you want to play in districts, but these guys at least put us in contention and it was all through hard work."

If Northwestern wins Friday, they will host the winner of the North Penn at North Schuylkill game for the Eastern Conference championship.