The second half of the high school football season begins this week.

In previous years, teams that had gotten off to slow starts would be virtually eliminated from District 11 playoff contention at this point.Not any more.One obvious impact of the PIAA's expansion from four to six classes in football this season is that none of the nine Times News area football teams and very few District 11 teams in general are currently playoff longshots. As a matter of fact, if the playoffs started today, eight of the nine area teams would qualify for the district playoffs. That includes four teams who currently have losing records - Marian (2-3), Northern Lehigh (2-3), Palmerton (2-3) and Panther Valley (1-4).The additional classes and the fact that both Class 3A and 6A will get eight playoff berths means that 32 of the district's 46 teams qualify, a whopping 70 percent. By contrast, a year ago, 18 of the 46 teams (39 percent) made the D-11 playoffs.Five of the six District 11 classes would have teams with losing records in the playoffs if they started today. The only exception is the loaded Class 4A field where four berths are available and six teams have winning records.Whether additional teams qualfying for the district playoffs is good or bad is a matter of debate, But one thing is certain, it will make the final five weeks of the regular season more interesting for a lot of teams.One of those teams is Panther Valley.The Panthers are in Class 2A where four of the six teams will make the playoffs. Despite winning just one of their first five games, they are right in the thick of the playoff hunt."We talked to our kids at the beginning of the year about the new classes and new playoff format," said Panther Valley head coach Matt Davis. "We haven't talked about it since because since the season began our focus has been on just trying to improve week-to-week and not looking too far ahead."That said, I'm sure our players see the rankings and know where we are. That has to provide extra motivation when they see that if the playoffs started today we would be in them."The added district playoff spots aren't the only change for Schuylkill League teams this season. A new two-division setup means the Panthers will kick off division play this week against rival Marian.Panther Valley has played five non-league games to open the season - all against teams with larger enrollments. The Panthers faced a pair of 4A schools in Columbia Montour Vo-Tech and Hamburg and 3A teams in Lehighton, Jim Thorpe and Tamaqua. From here on out, the Panthers will face only Class 1A and 2A teams."We had hoped to come into division play with two or three wins under our belts, but obviously that's not the case," said Davis. "But playing some of those bigger schools should have us battle-tested entering division play."Our kids are working hard and we are excited to be playing Marian this week. We are 0-0 in division play so this is like the start of a second season for us."While all coaches expect their teams to play hard and compete no matter their record and whether they are competing for a postseason berth or not, the added excitement of still controlling your own destiny in the final weeks of the season is something that will make motivating teams a lot easier."No extra motivation is needed for Marian-week," said Davis. "But we definitely have the league race and district playoff posibilities in our back pocket to use down the line."As a coach, you're always looking for added ways to fire up your team and contending for a title or playing for a playoff spot is definitely a great souce of added motivation."************JT'S UNANSWERED POINTS ... Jim Thorpe recorded its second straight shutout last Friday with a 54-0 rout of Shenandoah Valley.Combined with the final 20 points the Olympians scored against Panther Valley during Week 3, and the 35-0 blanking they handed Minersville the week after that, Mark Rosenberger's team has now put up 109 unanswered points.The last time a Thorpe squad had a run of at least 100 points without its opponent scoring was 12 years ago. During the Olympians' undefeated regular season of 2004, they had an amazing stretch of 207 unanswered points, which stretched from Sept. 20 until Oct. 22.************RAIDERS KEEP STRING ALIVE ... Tamaqua managed just one touchdown during a loss to Blue Mountain last Friday, but that one score was enough to keep a Raider streak alive.Tamaqua has now gone 62 consecutive games without being shut out, which is currently the longest streak in the Times News area. The last time the Blue Raiders failed to score a point in a game was Oct. 8, 2010 when they dropped a 49-0 decision to North Schuylkill.The one score against the Eagles isn't something new during the streak. During the 62 games, there have been 13 times that Tamaqua kept the string alive by scoring just one touchdown.************NL'S SEILER A TRIPLE THREAT ... Northern Lehigh's Mason Seiler had quite a game Saturday in the Bulldogs' win over Wilson.The junior caught a touchdown pass from Tekoah Guedes, ran for a score, and also threw a TD pass to Austin Hemingway.The last time Nolehi had a player pull off that hat trick was Oct. 1, 2010. During a victory against Salisbury, Jake Kern ran for a 36-yard touchdown, caught a scoring strike from Dylan Hofmann, and tossed a TD pass to Caleb Johnson.Also, Seiler's touchdown catch went for 84 yards. Over the past 25 years, that ranks as the second longest TD pass at Northern Lehigh. The only one longer was an 85-yarder from Hofmann to Johnson on Nov. 12, 2011 at North Schuylkill.************CUNNINGHAM CATCHES ... Northwestern's Trevor Cunningham had another outstanding game Saturday before having to leave with an injury.According to Times News statistics, the senior receiver had five catches for 167 yards and two touchdowns in the Tigers' loss to Pen Argyl.Earlier this season, Cunningham had 183 yards receiving in a game against Palmerton and 150 yards versus Palisades.The last time a Times News player had three games of 150-or-more yards receiving was 16 years ago. Jim Thorpe's Don Evans also had three games of 150-or-more yards. He had 153 on Sept. 8, 2000, 250 on Sept. 23, 2000 and 168 on Nov. 3, 2000.