It’s not the type of rumble like the Jets and the Sharks had in West Side Story, but it’s a rumble nonetheless.

It’s the Northwestern Tigers and the Northern Lehigh Bulldogs in Bo and Brett’s Mountain Road Rumble. The longtime rivalry has been transformed into a charity event that raises money and awareness for the Bo Tkach Under the Helmet Foundation and the Tackle ALS/Brett Snyder Medical Fund.

Bo Tkach was a Northern Lehigh quarterback, who dealt with depression and ultimately took his own life. Brett Snyder, the older brother of Northwestern coach Josh Snyder, was a star running back at Northwestern and Lehigh University. He has had his life disrupted by ALS.

The official series began in 2014 and features a trophy that spends the next year in the school of the team that wins the game. The rivalry didn’t need any sort of angle to make it more intense, but the event makes perfect sense and teaches a lot of life lessons to the players and fans alike.

“The two schools are pretty close to each other geographically and it’s always been a great rivalry, but the last few years, we’ve turned it into an event that hits close to home,” said Snyder. “Football and sports are great and help you to forget about things, but they’re also not the most important thing in the world and if you can raise awareness of some things and help some people out along the way, it’s great.”

The Tigers come in at 6-2 after a huge win over previously undefeated Saucon Valley last week.

The Bulldogs are still doing some rebuilding work and have a 4-4 record on the season. Neither team believes that there is any possibility that it will lose this game, because that’s how rivalries work. It doesn’t matter which team appears to be better, it just comes down to playing the game.

Looking back at last week, Snyder admitted that the win over the Panthers was huge, but stopped short of calling it one of the biggest of his coaching career.

“It’s not quite on the Mount Rushmore of wins, but it’s in the discussion,” said Snyder, who mentioned this season’s opening-night win over Notre Dame and a win a few years ago against a Catasauqua that had won 20 straight regular season games before Northwestern downed the Rough Riders 28-27 in Catty in week 10 of the regular season, as being the biggest wins of his coaching career.

The Tigers have mixed their running and passing games well thanks to the legs and arm of quarterback Deven Bollinger. The junior is fifth in the Colonial League in rushing with 720 yards and second in passing yardage with 1,133 yards on the season. He leads the league in touchdown passes with 18 and has 12 rushing touchdowns.

The Bulldogs rely heavily on their rushing game with Justin Paul leading the way with 746 total yards rushing and 11 touchdowns this season. Quarterback Gage Hunsicker will run the ball on occasion and has rushed for 161 yards on 37 carries this season. The passing game isn’t one that commands a lot of respect, with Hunsicker completing just 38-percent of his passes and has thrown just three touchdown passes.

“Their schemes are sound as far as what they do offensively,” said Snyder. “They’re definitely an improved team over last year and they’ve been dinged up from week-to-week, which has factored into some of their losses this season.They like the power running game and we’re good at stopping that, but they put a new wrinkle in from time-to-time, so we’ve got to be able to make changes on the fly.”

Speaking of being banged up, Northwestern had to rely on their depth to beat Saucon Valley last week because of a number of injuries. The good news is that Tyler Lobach and Connor Snyder will return to the lineup. The bad news is that Tyler Slifer (concussion) and Anthony Colucci (hamstring) are both scratches for this week against Northern Lehigh.