When the Roughies take the field for their annual showdown against Northampton Thanksgiving morning, it might to safe to say that it will be a different team that took the field several weeks ago.

Back then, the Roughies had an influx of several new and first-year players in starting spots, as their starting lineup was riddled with injuries.

Now, the Roughies will field a lineup in which they began the season having many starters returning from injuries in time for their 92nd annual meeting with the Konkrete Kids.

After snapping an eight-game losing streak against Northampton with a win in the 2012 season, Catasauqua recorded their third consecutive triumph in the series with a 43-28 victory last year. Overall, Northampton leads the series, 54-35-2.

The Roughies will enter the game with an overall 3-7 record, while Northampton will bring an overall 2-9 mark.

Catty first -year coach Phil Dorn stated that his team has utilized the time to break down various aspects of their game.

"Our practices have been going really well," said Dorn. "With the layoff in between our last game and this one, we have had the chance to get most of our kids back. We were without 15 kids, six starters were out both on the offensive and defensive side.

"We took the time to work on different things and different types of game situations that we expect to see. This also gave our younger kids the chance to get some valuable playing time.

"Right now, we have a lot of expectations and we're excited to play."

With Northampton playing in the East Penn Conference, Dorn believed it's hard to get a good read on his opponent.

The K-Kids, under new coach Mark Scisly, opened the year with an impressive 40-6 win over William Allen, but they then dropped nine straight games - all to league opponents - before they defeated Owen J. Roberts, 13-7, on Nov. 7.

"They are hard to gauge," noted Dorn. "You can't judge them strictly by their record because they play in another conference with bigger schools. They do play in a very good conference and had a real challenge every week.

"But they will be big up front and have nice size. They will run a version of the Wing-T. Defensively, they play a lot of man coverage and they will have some athletes on that side of the ball, too. "

On the other hand, Catty pieced together a modest two-game winning streak with wins over Wilson and Northern Lehigh at midseason before they finished with a four-game losing streak.

Despite his team's late-season woes - mainly because of inexperience due to injuries - Dorn is anxious to take the field.

"We have had a couple of good weeks of practice," added Dorn. "Our kids are fired up and they're focused. We're looking to end the season on a high note and then build from there."