Marian and Williams Valley were both playing football this time last year. Williams Valley was seeded first in the District 11 Class A field, but fell to Schuylkill Haven in the championship game.

The Colts had to settle for the Eastern Conference playoffs, but ended up earning the title with convincing victories over Muncy and Mahanoy Area.Fast forward one year and these two teams are clashing as second and third seeds in the Class A bracket.Last year during the Colts' Eastern Conference run, quarterback K.J. Snerr was unavailable and freshman Ethan Kuczynski was called upon to make his first career start. Kuczynski stepped in and lit up Muncy for four touchdowns and gained a wealth of experience throughout the playoffs.Kuczynski had a successful season as a sophomore signal caller this year and Snerr had a phenomenal 2014 at the tailback position, racking up 1,190 yards on the ground. Marian head coach Stan Dakosty hopes his young playmakers can build off of their experiences and recent success."You have to remind yourself sometimes that he's only a sophomore," said Dakosty of his quarterback. "He's been successful since his first snap last year. The Eastern Conference championship was big for us. His success allowed us to move K.J. back to tailback and he's been tremendous this season at the position."These two teams met in week one of the 2014 season when Marian was victorious, 18-7. The Colts dominated most of the game on paper, but Dakosty noted that this was well over two months ago when much was different."So much has happened since then," said Dakosty. "It gives you an idea, but this is a one-game season now. It puts things into a totally different perspective. It's a totally different atmosphere now. It's either win and move on, or lose and go home."After winning three games in a row to move into the playoff hunt, Williams Valley came up short in a shootout last week against Juniata, 38-31. Look for 1,000 yard rusher Nick Rodichok to be the focal point of the Vikings' offense.On the other hand, Dakosty's squad was blanked by Lehighton in the first week of October but has avereraged 32 points per game over the course of its four-game win streak since then."Last week Tamaqua controlled the clock, but we were able to score four times in just 34 snaps offensively," said the Marian coach. "Ethan threw well, K.J. ran well, and our defense bent but didn't break. Everyone does what they do best when you get to this point of the year. We had some of our best practices of the year this week. Our kids are excited, feeling good, and are ready to play."