Get your popcorn ready.

There will be no shortage of starpower on the field when No. 2 Tamaqua hosts No. 3 Notre Dame Green Pond in a District 11 Class 3A semifinal showdown Friday night.

The Raiders have the second-best defense in the area in both points (6.0) and total yards (163.6) allowed per game.

But the Crusaders (9-1) counter with an offense that spits out video-game like numbers, averaging 42.8 points per contest. That attack is led by quarterback Cole DeFranco, who has completed 175-of-257 passes for 3,033 yards (303 yards per game) with 40 touchdowns and just three picks. DeFranco has also rushed for 375 yards and eight scores.

“The closest thing near it would probably be Lehighton,” Tamaqua head coach Sam Bonner said of the Notre Dame offense. “They throw the ball 25, 30 times a game. Now, Notre Dame will probably throw the ball 35 or 40 times a game. But Lehighton is probably the closest as far as formations, and as far as the way they play. But there’s no one in our league, and no one that we’ve played, that’s had that much success throwing the ball. They don’t just throw it once in a while; they throw for 3,000 yards a year.”

DeFranco knows how to spread the ball around, too, for a team that has not lost since a 42-41 overtime setback to Northwestern on opening night.

David Sanders Jr., listed at 6-4, 190, has 56 catches for 1,214 yards and 15 touchdowns. Isaiah Dejesus has hauled in 58 passes for 843 yards and eight scores, while Ethen Aquino has caught 17 passes for 408 yards and eight TDs. The Crusaders have seven players with at least two touchdown receptions.

On the ground, Christian Greggo has rushed for 727 yards on 94 carries and 10 touchdowns. The only other player on the ND roster with a rushing score is Derek Berlitz, who has one. Berlitz has carried the ball just four times for 20 yards.

“They cause some mismatches, and it’s not like they only have one receiver,” said Bonner. “You can say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to mark this guy, and put another guy on this guy.’ First off, the quarterback can run the ball ... No. 5 (Dejesus) and No. 6 (Greggo), both kids, they also run the ball, and they can catch the ball. You can’t just say we’re going to take one or two guys out of the game, because they have other guys that can burn you.”

Defensively, Philip Caiazzo leads the Colonial League champion Crusaders with 100 tackles (three sacks). Jake Gillen has 95 total tackles, including 13 for loss (three sacks), and Andy Matisz has tallied 90 total tackles. Jack O’Hagan has recorded 49 total tackles, 15 of which have gone for a loss. The senior leads the team with eight sacks.

The Raiders will try to exploit a Notre Dame defense that has allowed 22.4 points per game this season with an offense that can find the endzone on the ground and through the air.

“We’re hoping that we can move the ball on the ground, we’re hoping to keep their offense off the field,” said Bonner. “You say it, but sometimes it doesn’t take them long to score. We want to try to keep them off the field as much as possible. They’re an offense that you don’t want to give any breaks to. We got to make sure that we hold on to the football, and that we don’t give them any more shots than what they get. We want to make them earn it. We don’t want to give them short fields, and we want to make sure we don’t give up any special teams scores, and that we don’t make any mistakes.

“Penalties are big, too. The past week or two, penalties have killed us. We want to make sure that we can’t afford to have a touchdown taken off the board, or to give them a first down on a third or a fourth down.”

That attack has produced 39 points per game, and will be keyed by Tamaqua’s all-time leading rusher Nick Breiner, who is third in the area with 1,016 yards on the ground and 14 scores on 120 carries. Nate Boyle has rushed for 641 yards and 15 TDs on 71 carries, and caught 36 passes for 526 yards and three touchdowns. The junior is the area’s leading scorer with 19 touchdowns. Quarterback Brayden Knoblauch is third in the area with 1,209 yards passing, completing 88-of-142 attempts, throwing for 12 touchdowns with just three picks. Matt Kistler has caught 27 passes for 470 yards and seven TDs.

Tamaqua’s defense, led by the likes of Boyle, Breiner, Jake Barron, Matt Amodea, Bronson Strouse, Pierce Demetriades, Jared Reed, Johnny Franko, Cody Hamm and others, got its sixth shutout of the year in a 48-0 win over Marian in its regular season finale last Friday. In that game, Breiner, the Times News Player of the Week, ran for 195 yards and three scores.

After finishing the year with a share of the Schuylkill Football League title, the Raiders are hoping to check off another box with the first district playoff win in program history.

“It would be great,” said Breiner. “This is Coal Region football. We’re going to try to put it to them, really try to beat them up front, and really set the tone for the game, and just keep adding to our momentum.”

Lights, camera, action.