When Northwestern and Palmerton faced off last September, it really wasn’t a fair fight.

The fleet of the Blue Bombers had been decimated by injury, as coach Chris Walkowiak was down to just 14 healthy players.

Northwestern rolled to a 42-7 win over the Bombers, who would continue to battle through the rest of the season and finish with a 3-7 record.

Walkowiak was able to start this season with 10 more players than he started last season with and so far, Palmerton has been able to avoid anything more than just the usual bumps and bruises that go with a high school football season.

“Those were difficult times to go through, but I have to say that our team battled the whole way, and we even came close to knocking off Northern Lehigh in the final game of the season,” Walkowiak explained. “The reality of it though is that we’re a better team this year because of everything that we had to go through last season, because guys got more experience than they might have gotten.”

After reviewing films of Palmerton this season, Northwestern head coach Josh Snyder sees what Walkowiak is talking about when it comes to last year having a silver lining.

The two coaches became friends a few years back when Walkowiak accepted a spot on Snyder’s staff for the McDonald’s All-Star Classic, and the two were both very complimentary of each other’s teams.

“They had so many issues last season and struggled to keep guys on the field, but they hung in there,” recounted Snyder. “I’m happy for them that they’ve been able to get their numbers up this season. They have things turned around, and have some depth this season, so they’ll be much tougher.”

Snyder sees several areas where the Bombers will present some issues for his team when they meet on Friday.

In the films they’ve watched, Snyder has seen a much-improved defensive line that features Owen Buck at defensive end, whom Walkowiak calls “one of the best in the league.”

Palmerton also features quarterback Cole Serfass, who has a propensity to tuck the ball under his arm and take off.

For his part, Walkowiak calls Serfass a “mirror image” of Northwestern’s Justin Holmes.

Just as Northwestern’s option scheme could give Palmerton problems, the Blue Bombers’ spread offense could test the Tigers defense.

“It’s a very different offense from what we usually face in this league,” admitted Snyder. “They’ve got some talented kids with a lot of potential, and we have to stick to doing the things that we do well and limit their opportunities.”

Northwestern (1-0 Colonial, 2-1 overall) is showing improvement week after week, and played its best all-around game last week against Wilson in a 42-16 win that showed the defense to be much more in sync than it was at the start of the season.

Taylor Wikert was moved from cornerback to safety this season, and added his fourth interception of the year in last week’s win. Michael Rader also stepped into a starting role on defense and made three solo tackles while assisting on 10 others in the game.

Snyder also credited Reed Conrey and Owen Coffield with stepping up their games defensively.

Walkowiak is also concerned about trying to slow the Tigers’ offense, which is averaging almost 30 points per game this season.

With Holmes feeling more and more comfortable with the option offense and having a number of weapons, Walkowiak knows his team will have to be focused to stop Northwestern.

As Snyder noted, the Tigers have four players - Cade Christopher, Nick Henry, Justin Holmes and Justin Rodda - who have scored four touchdowns in the Tigers three games.

“Of course, Holmes is very good, but then they also have Henry and Rodda, and then they also throw Christopher at you, and it’s a lot to handle,” said Walkowiak. “I’ve told our guys that when you play a team that runs an offense as well as they do, it’s all about alignment and assignment.”

This year’s battle is on a more even footing, with both teams coming in healthy and ready to play.

Both teams have offenses that can cause their opponents to make a mistake that leads to big plays, and both have solid defenses that are young enough to make some mistakes, yet still good enough to slow down their opponent’s offense.