The District 11 Class 3A playoffs will officially take place in three weeks with a four-team bracket to decide the 2019 champ.

But Week 9, for all intents and purposes, is the actual start of the District 11 3A postseason — with the winner of this week’s Jim Thorpe and Tamaqua matchup most likely in the 3A field. The loser, meanwhile, will be on the outside looking in. Tamaqua currently sits at No. 2 in the 3A ratings, while Jim Thorpe is presently out at No. 5.

With a District 11 3A playoff berth on the line, the battle between the Olympians (6-2, 1-2 Schuylkill League D1) and the Raiders (6-2, 2-2 Schuylkill League D1) has been chosen as the Times News Game of the Week.

If their history is any indication, this matchup figures to be a close one.

Over the past two seasons, with both playoff and Schuylkill League Division 1 championship (SL D1) implications on the line, both games have been decided by one score or less, and have come down to almost the last second.

In 2018, Thorpe was able to stop the Raiders inside the 10-yard-line in the waning seconds of the game to close out a 21-14 win, and in 2017, the Olympians were able to shock Tamaqua with a walk-off Hail Mary touchdown pass as time expired to earn a 30-26 victory.

“You never want to put so much stress and emphasis on a regular season game, but the fact of the matter is whoever wins this game is probably in the playoffs, and whoever doesn’t is out, there’s really no way around that,” said Tamaqua head coach Sam Bonner. “Both teams know this is going to be a hard-fought game. If you look at our last two regular season games, it’s really came down to the last play. We’ve been on the short end of that recently, but our kids are working hard, they’re focused, they know what’s on the line this week.”

This matchup bears a lot of similarities to last week’s Times News Game of the Week (Pottsville at Jim Thorpe) in that it pits a strong defense versus an explosive passing offense. The Olympians “Red Swarm” defense, for the second consecutive week, will face a potent passing attack — led by Tamaqua quarterback Brayden Knoblauch, wide receiver Matt Kistler and all-purpose running back Nate Boyle.

Knoblauch has been terrific this season, throwing for 1,350 yards and 14 touchdowns. His No. 1 target is Kistler, who has caught 32 balls for 632 yards and nine scores for an impressive 19.53 yards per reception. Boyle, who has rushed for 781 yards at over 10 yards per carry, has been a reliable target out of the backfield for the Raiders as well, catching 17 passes for 251 yards.

The Olympians defense will undoubtedly need to be better against the pass this week as they gave up over 300 yards to the Tide’s Damon Yost a week ago. The only good news there, is that Pottsville’s pass offense has pretty much done that to all the opposing defenses it has faced this season.

“Simply put, we can’t make the same mistakes we did last week, we need to communicate better in our coverages, and we also were a very poor tackling team last week as well,” said Thorpe mentor Mark Rosenberger. “We have to play more fundamental football and execute on our assignments. Getting pressure on the quarterback and keeping the quarterback from escaping the pocket is also key. We have to finish when we get to the quarterback.”

The recent games between these two perennial contenders in the Schuylkill League have not only been close, but they’ve been physical with both programs boasting some of the best defensive and offensive linemen in the league over the past few seasons. The matchup in the trenches will be critical to who comes out on top in this one.

Thorpe will try and continue its success in the rushing department against a tough Tamaqua defense. After being shut down in only one week of competition against the vaunted North Schuylkill defense, the Olympians have gutted all their other opponents’ defensive fronts to the tune of 228 yards rushing per game. Thorpe’s feature running back CJ Selby has rushed for 1,210 yards and 14 scores on the season and is just 21 yards shy of breaking the Olympians all-time rushing yards mark.

Tamaqua has had its ups and down against the run this season, giving up 149.5 rushing yards per game.

“I think CJ has done a much better job, especially recently of running successfully in tighter spaces,” said Rosenberger. “We’re always going to look to establish physicality up front, and all except for one game, we’ve been able to do that, and we’ve run the football well. We always want to be a balanced football team, but if something is working for us, we’re going to stick with it.”

In a rivalry game, especially an evenly-matched rivalry game, turnovers could go a long way into deciding the winner. The Olympians are an impressive plus-seven in that department, while Tamaqua is plus-three. However, Thorpe has had some trouble over the past few weeks in turning over the football — losing three fumbles at North Schuylkill in Week 6 and throwing three interceptions last week against Pottsville. Taking care of the football could be the deciding factor in this one.

“We’re just really looking forward to Friday night right now because of some number issues with our Week 10 opponent, this could be our last regular season game of the year, so we know what’s at stake,” said Bonner. “Taking care of the football and then forcing turnovers is going to be big. It will be a great atmosphere, a playoff-type atmosphere. We’re excited.”