After a one-year delay, Wilson and Northwestern Lehigh will finally meet in a district playoff game.

The matchup between the Tigers (10-0) and Warriors in the District 11 semifinals was wiped out when Wilson was hit by a COVID outbreak a year ago, but the battle is on for this year’s semis.

When they met during the regular season, Justin Holmes may have seemed like a bit of a slacker based on his workload. He threw the ball just eight times and ran only 12 times, but he made the most of his opportunities, picking up 205 yards on the ground and another 64 through the air.

He also scored four touchdowns on the day, three of them coming on runs as the Tigers dominated the Warriors (7-3) 42-6 in Easton.

The defense will have to again work to contain quarterback Cayden Stem and the Warriors passing attack. The defensive line had a field day in the first meeting, sacking Stem five times and holding him to just 31 yards while completing just six of 18 passes.

“Our offensive and defensive lines both played really well in that game, and I think it was a big confidence boost for them, and that was when we really started to see them getting better and better,” said Northwestern coach Josh Snyder.

While he was slowed by the Northwestern defense in Week 6, Stem is dangerous and currently stands at 1,933 yards passing on the season. The senior QB has completed 57% of his passes, with Zack Gillen being his favorite receiver.

With Holmes providing a threat both as a rusher, and a passer and the emergence of Dalton Clymer to the Tigers ground game, look for Northwestern Lehigh to again coming in looking run first and pass second.

The good news for Snyder is that if he decides to change things up from their last meeting, he has weapons like Cade Christopher (594 yards, 10 TD) and Taylor Wikert (252 yards, 3 TD) to attack in the passing game.

If anything, the Northwestern defense has gotten stronger and tougher since early October when the two teams met in the regular season.

Without an explosive ground game, Wilson will have to depend on Stem and Gillen to find ways to connect through the air.

While Gillen may be Stem’s most used weapon, Simpson is a deep threat, averaging over 30 yards per catch on 21 catches, eight of them for touchdowns. Simpson is third on the team in all-purpose yards with 683.

Dunstan and Clymer both had a sack and assisted each other on another sack of Stem in the first meeting between the two teams. Dunstan also had three solo tackles and assisted on three others in the game.