12-0 vs. 12-0, and it’s the matchup that football aficionados throughout the Times News area cannot be sad to see.

Northwestern Lehigh, the No. 2 team in the state in 3A, will take on the No. 3 team in the state in Notre Dame Green Pond Friday night at 7:05 p.m. at Catasauqua for the District 11 3A gold.

In last week’s semifinals, the Tigers handled North Schuylkill for a 49-21 win, while the Crusaders defeated Tamaqua 59-16.

Northwestern Lehigh is undefeated heading into the District 11 3A title game for the third consecutive season - and it’s on a historic 28 game winning streak - as the Tigers are looking to win their fourth straight district championship. The Crusaders are looking for their first district title since the 2016 season.

This undefeated matchup has all the makings of becoming an offensive shootout, pitting two high octane offenses against one another. Northwestern is averaging 46.7 points per game and 438.5 yards per game, while the Crusaders are scoring 48.6 points per game and tallying 413.5 yards per contest.

Elite quarterback play will be on full display in this game as well, with two veteran senior signal callers leading their respective teams in the Tigers Shane Leh and Notre Dame’s Matt Bodnar. Leh is committed to play at FCS Division 1 school Marist, and Bodnar is committed to Division 3 football power Mount Union.

Leh has been the starter at the helm for Northwestern for the past three seasons, and has once again put together an efficient and productive year. Leh has thrown for 2,016 yards with 23 touchdowns and only three interceptions. He has also been able to take off in the run game with his elusiveness when called upon, rushing for 221 yards and three touchdowns. In his three years as a starter, the Tigers are an impressive 43-1, and Leh has been as good as it gets at taking care of the football. Winning the turnover battle often means winning the game, and so far in his career, Leh has thrown for 70 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

“Shane has been absolutely tremendous for us. He has 40-some starts for us and every year when the playoffs start to roll around, it seems like he’s always playing his best football,” said Northwestern head coach Josh Snyder. “He really has an excellent understanding of the game. He is always coming over to the sideline and telling us what he sees and what he thinks is open. He has complete command of the offense out there. We also have a great relationship, and I’m just super proud of him for everything he’s been able to accomplish for us.”

The Notre Dame passing attack is one of the best in the state in class 3A and is led by Bodnar, who has also had a terrific career for the Crusaders. Bodnar is second in Notre Dame history to Cole DeFranco in career passing yards and passing touchdowns. On the season, Bodnar has thrown for 2,835 yards and 37 touchdowns.

“Their passing attack definitely presents a challenge. The spread attack that Coach (Phil) Stambaugh runs is not like anything we see during the course of the season,” said Snyder. “They have a really good quick passing game, and they’re always going to take what the defense gives you. They’re obviously very well coached, and they have a talented quarterback and a bunch of talented receivers. For us, we can’t be predictable. We need to bring pressure, and do a good job disguising things and create some confusion for them.”

Teams that are vying for championships almost always have a host of playmakers with versatile attributes. For the Tigers, this might be their most dangerous offense under Snyder. The Northwestern offense boasts numerous weapons that Leh can turn to in any scenario. Northwestern has a 1,000-yard rusher (Braxton Lakatosh), 775-yard rusher (Chase Sukanick), and four players with over 300 yards receiving on the season, led by Brady Zimmerman’s 710 yards and eight receiving scores.

Notre Dame also presents that exact same problem for its opponents. The Crusaders have four players with 350-plus rushing yards, and three with 550-plus receiving yards. Jonathan Striba has been Notre Dame’s standout offensive player, as he has tallied 766 receiving yards, 403 rushing yards, and 15 total touchdowns.

“Defensively, we have to do our best to be one step ahead of them. They’re so good at what they do and how they transition from all the things that they do. Whether that’s running the ball, throwing it, the wildcat stuff, all of the different packages that they run,” said Stambaugh. “They’re just very multi-faceted, and they have made it a point to throw the ball some more, but still we know that to have any success against them we’re going to have to limit their run game, because that is what they always want to establish first and foremost.”

Speaking of defense, both the Tigers and Crusaders have been impressive on that side of the ball, too.

Northwestern has been known for its dominant defense during the Snyder era, and this season has been no different. The Tigers are giving up just 13.3 points per game and 182.7 total yards per game, and they have been especially good against the pass, allowing only 75 yards per contest and seven passing touchdowns, while forcing nine interceptions. Senior Middle linebacker Shane Hulmes leads the Tigers’ defense with 122 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, five sacks, four forced fumbles, and one interception.

The Notre Dame defense is giving up nine points per game with four shutouts on the season, albeit against a much weaker schedule than Northwestern. Senior linebacker Garret Grants leads the Crusaders’ defense with 67 tackles, 15 tackles for loss and six sacks.

“They like to run what is a 4-2-5 hybrid defensive model. They like to bring pressure, and then they’re talented and skilled on the back end. They’re all about putting offenses in situations that they don’t like to be in,” said Snyder. “For us, we’re always going to line up and take what the defense gives us. We’re going to look to always challenge the defense vertically and horizontally and get the ball to one of our playmakers. We have four different guys with over 10 touchdowns, so as a play caller it makes it a lot easier to scheme up a play. It’s not like we have to just get one guy open, we can run the play and get it to the open guy, which really keeps defenses off balance. And this has to be the best offense we have ever had as far as possession to touchdown ratio goes. We’re just always going to look to feed the guy who is hot.”