At the beginning of the high school football season, this week's meeting between Southern Lehigh and Northwestern was one to circle. Both teams were picked to be among the elite in the Colonial League and neither has disappointed. Northwestern comes into the game with a perfect 6-0 record, while the Spartans are 5-1, with the only blemish being a 30-22 loss to Saucon Valley in week three.

Saucon Valley is the same team that provided the first big test of the season for the Tigers when they came into The Jungle in week five as the only other undefeated team in the league. Northwestern easily knocked off the Panthers to remain undefeated, but it can be argued that Southern Lehigh has become an even tougher team than Saucon Valley was when they challenged Northwestern.Stopping Southern Lehigh is much like trying to stop Northwestern, because they're a team that does everything well. Its offense has scored just six points less than Northwestern's, but have actually outgained them in total yards. Defensively, Southern Lehigh hasn't been as dominant as Northwestern, but they've allowed just 97 points in six games, which is an impressive number, but falls short of the 44 points that Northwestern has given up on the season."Our two teams are pretty evenly matched. We're going to have to take care of the football on offense and work to get some takeaways on defense and certainly, we have to limit the big plays," said Northwestern coach Josh Snyder. "It comes down to just not making mistakes and playing strong fundamental football. If we do that, I think we'll be all right."Southern Lehigh's biggest offensive weapon is quarterback Travis Edmond, who has thrown for 1,175 yards and rushed for another 299 yards. Ironically, Edmond and Northwestern quarterback Frank Dangello both accomplished the same feat last week when they each threw for four touchdowns in their team's wins. The big night from Edmond helped lead the Spartans to a 68-21 win over Palmerton, pushing Southern Lehigh's record to 5-1."They've got a very dynamic offense and they're difficult to scheme against. We may have played teams that can do one particular thing better, but they've got the whole package," admitted Snyder. "Edmond can hurt you with his arm and legs. He's a three-year starter, he doesn't get rattled and he really has the ability to stretch the field."Unlike Edmond, who doled out touchdown passes to two different receivers last week, Dangello stuck with Cam Richardson for all four touchdown passes, establishing both a school record for TD passes thrown and TD passes caught, respectively. That's not to say that Dangello doesn't have other weapons. Taylor Breininger has caught ten passes this season for over 100 yards and the Tigers are working him into the passing game when the opportunities present themselves. Of course, there's always the ground game that is the dominion of junior Harry Hall, who has a total of 887 yards and eight rushing touchdowns on the season. Hall's performance last week pushed his career total to 2,478 yards, putting him third all-time in school history. Just coach Snyder and his brother Brett are ahead of Hall.In analyzing the Spartans' defense, Snyder sees a lot of traditional things to deal with, but also sees a team that does a lot of things well and could provide some issues for teams who don't have the high-powered offense that Northwestern has."It's basically a traditional four-three defense, but they're very active and use a lot of exotic blitzes. They're also good at disguising things and showing things late, so it's tough to pick them up," Snyder noted. "Our offense is strong and we can present problems for teams in a couple different ways and we may need to be creative and keep them off balance, but we've got guys who can do that and we can spread things around."