Even at the start of the high school season, a District 11 finals matchup between North Schuylkill and Northwestern Lehigh was considered to be a very real possibility.

Week-after-week during the regular season, the two schools did nothing to change that possibility, as both teams navigated challenging schedules to finish with 8-2 records.

North Schuylkill entered postseason play as the No. 1 ranked team in Class 3A and the Tigers were seeded No. 2.

After a pair of playoff wins by both teams, that preseason possibility has become a reality.

Friday night they will meet at Lehighton High School for the District 11 3A championship and a spot in the state tournament.

“As we met common opponents during the season, we got to see them a little,” said Northwestern coach Josh Snyder. “They’re solid, well coached and have big, physical lines on both sides of the ball.”

However, North Schuylkill’s size isn’t limited to just the guys on the line of scrimmage. They have skill players with good size and skills as well, and also feature one of the stronger QB-receiver combos around in junior quarterback Trevor Minalda and junior receiver Joey Flail.

Minalda has thrown for over 1,700 yards and has 25 touchdown passes. While he has a high number of interceptions (12), most of them came early in the season. Flail has set just about every school receiving record with over 800 yards receiving and 14 touchdowns to date. On the ground, Minalda leads the way with 1,300 yards rushing on the season.

The two teams have had a somewhat similar path to building their successful programs. They first met in the 2013 Eastern Conference championship game, and then a year later they played for a district championship.

Both have been postseason fixtures ever since. While the Spartans won that first meeting in the EC playoffs, Northwestern picked up its first district championship since 2002 with a win in 2014.

“We played some very good teams with size during the season, like Blue Mountain, Jim Thorpe and Northern Lehigh,” said Snyder. “Our line has been tested, and we have been able to run the ball all year. We also had a tough path in districts with Jim Thorpe, Notre Dame and now North Schuylkill, so we have definitely seen good teams along the way.”

In last week’s win over the Crusaders, both Cade Christopher and Dalton Clymer went over the 100-yard mark rushing. Christopher, the senior quarterback, ran for 177 yards while Clymer picked up an additional 123 yards out of the backfield. The Tigers have averaged 298 yards rushing per game on the season, with their defense giving up an average of 122 yards in each contest.

After an exciting, back-and-forth win over Notre Dame last week, the players are not satisfied with just reaching the finals. They want the blue ribbons with the shiny gold medal on the end to be placed around their necks Friday night.

“We were excited for the win last week, but we aren’t resting on making the championship,” said Snyder. “Our guys have practiced really well, and we all believe that we can get this done.”

One Northwestern player who won’t be able to be out on the field this week is Devon Hildebrand, whose season ended in last week’s game against Notre Dame when he went down with an injury. Hildebrand will be missed, especially on offense, but other players are waiting in the wings to take on his responsibilities as the team continues to move forward.

“Devon has had a good season for us and it’s unfortunate that we won’t have him, but good teams have to battle through injuries and just keep going,” said Snyder.

Northwestern and North Schuylkill had several common opponents this season. Both teams downed Blue Mountain, Pottsville, Tamaqua and Jim Thorpe (the Tigers win over Thorpe came in the quarterfinal round of the district playoffs).

There were also two teams that North Schuylkill and Northwestern had different results against.

The Spartans beat Northern Lehigh and lost to Notre Dame, while Tigers had the opposite results, losing to Northern Lehigh, but beating Notre Dame last week in the D-11 semifinals.