Are you ready for some football? Some real, championship, on-the-line football? That’s what the Northwestern Tigers are preparing for this week as they travel to Southern Lehigh to face the 6-0 Spartans. It starts a stretch of two weeks where the Colonial League championship could well be determined. After the trip down 309, the Tigers entertain Saucon Valley at Tiger Stadium next week in a rematch of last year’s District 11 semifinal game that ended in a tough loss for Northwestern.

The past couple weeks, Northwestern has had somewhat of a lull in their schedule. They downed Palisades and Wilson on the road, and then returned to Tiger Stadium to beat Bangor and Palmerton, winning their last three games by a combined score of 167-47.

“We take it one game at a time, and take advantage of every opportunity,” said Northwestern coach Josh Snyder. “When you’re at this point of the season - more than halfway through - you start to see what teams are made of, and who is in the upper echelon, and I think we’ve proven we belong there, and so have they with their undefeated record.”

The Spartans are one of just three undefeated teams in District 11, with Williams Valley (Class A) and Easton (Class 6A) being the others. Things have come somewhat easily for Southern Lehigh this season, with its closest contest coming last week at Northern Lehigh, when the Spartans won by “just” 13 points. They crushed Notre Dame Green Pond 62-27, and then came back the next week to beat Bangor 49-0. Over the past three weeks, they’ve downed Bangor, Palisades and Northern Lehigh by a combined score of 119-28.

“They’re strong at pretty much all points, and they don’t have many weaknesses,” Snyder said of Southern Lehigh. “Offensively speaking, they’re a ground-and-pound team, although they’ve thrown it a little more as of late to try to soften the defense, but they like to gain their yards on the ground. They have a couple of big, strong, physical linemen, and the Asher Smith kid is a really tough kid to bring down; he’s big and physical and has a good group of guys surrounding him.”

Smith, a senior, is a force both offensively and defensively. Last week against Northern Lehigh, he ran for over 100 yards and rumbled into the end zone three times. On defense, Smith pulled in two interceptions to help the Spartans hold off a challenge from the Bulldogs. Snyder is prepared for the challenge, and plans on giving Southern Lehigh some different looks in an attempt to keep them off pace.

“Defensively, we have a couple different personnel packages for them this week, and have a lot going on to try to confuse them and get a couple stops,” Snyder disclosed. “Offensively, we’ve got a couple wrinkles in this week to try to attack them. We see a couple things we may be able to take advantage of. We’ve made things pretty complicated this week, but yet have a lot of the basics to draw from. It’s the luxury of having a senior-oriented lineup.”

Southern Lehigh will play right into the Tigers’ hands if they look to keep the ball on the ground. Northwestern allows an average of just 2.8 yards per carry this season, and has given up just three rushing touchdowns. Through the air, the Tigers have allowed an average of 6.8 yards per pass, and at times, have been caught for big plays through the air.

While Northwestern generally balances its offensive attack, when the Tigers find something that works, they stick with it. Last week, quarterback Deven Bollinger threw for 277 yards against Palmerton. The week before against Bangor, it was the ground game that ruled, with both Bollinger and running back Nick Henry approaching 100 yards rushing as the Tigers ran for 237 total yards.

“If we knock them off, it will be an exciting race to the finish in the league, and both teams are cognizant of that. It’s going to be a war against them, and we’re ready for that and excited for it, really,” said Snyder. “We’ve seen a little more excitement in practice, and I think the players have stepped it up a little bit in practice to get ready for this one.”