Mifflin County (4-4) at State College (6-2)

Time: 7 p.m.

Coaches: SC— Al Wolski, ninth season; MC—George Miskinis, first season

Last meeting: First meeting

Key players: SC— Dan Fry DB/WR; MC— Heath Hidlay, QB/RB

The skinny: State College enters the week on a three-game winning streak and has outscored its last two opponents 56-7.

Coach Al Wolski is pleased with his team’s momentum because he knows how important it is to peak at the right time. “We’ve been fortunate enough to be able to do that in the past,” Wolski said. “We get better as the year goes on... hopefully we can continue that in the last two ball games.”

Tonight they'll face Mifflin County (4-4) for the first time ever, but it might not be the last time this season. “There’s a good chance we could play Mifflin County again in the playoffs,” Wolski said.

A potential first-round playoff meeting won't change Wolski's game plan. He wants to clean up some of the mistakes from last week’s sluggish victory against a winless Carlisle team. The Little Lions didn’t score their first touchdown on Carlisle until just before the half, but used a 21-point third quarter to cruise to a 35-0 victory.

Wolski said it would be difficult to beat Mifflin County with another lackluster performance. “They’re big, they’re strong and they’re a good football team,” Wolski said ogf the Husklies. “You know up front they’re gigantic…they’re bigger than us.”

Mifflin County pulled off a comeback last week after George Miskinis inserted Heath Hidlay at quarterback to spark a struggling offense. Hidlay threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to John Michael Maclay with 48 seconds left to cap a 15-12 victory over Central Dauphin East.

Mifflin County joined the Mid-Penn Conference this season.

“It’s the beginning of what I think’s gonna be a really nice rivalry,” Wolski said. “They’re the closest school to us and they’re a C;ass AAAA school that we still play. I think its gonna be a great game for both schools and both communities. And you know this is the first one so we tell our kids that they get to play in the first game of what’s gonna be a really nice rivalry.”

Philipsburg-Osceola (0-8) at Clearfield (8-0)

Time: 7 p.m.

Coaches: P-O— Jeff Vroman, 11th season; C—Tim Janocko, 28th season

Last meeting: Philipsburg-Osceola 40; Clearfield 33, last season

Key players: P-O—Skyler Shuey, RB QB; C—Christian Lezzer, QB

The skinny: It’s been a long season for the Philipsburg-Osceola, which has been outscored 354-68. It doesn’t figure to get any easier this week when the Mounties travel to undefeated Clearfield.

Christian Lezzer, Clearfield’s junior quarterback and outstanding all-around athlete, dominated last week in the Bison’s 49-8 throttling of Bald Eagle Area. Lezzer rushed for 108 yards on just nine carries, including two scores, and threw for 195 yards and a touchdown.

“You’re not just gonna shut them down,” Mounties coach Jeff Vroman said of the Bison. “But we've got toa be able to contain the quarterback ... can’t let him get outside of us. We have to force them to drive the ball on us-…force them into some third and long situations…get them in those situations where we know they have to throw the football a little bit.”

Last season, the Mounties jumped on the Bison early, scoring the game’s first touchdown on an interception return by Mike Marcinko en route to a 40-33 victory.

But last year’s performance seems little comfort to Vroman.

“This has been (the) worst year in 23 years,” said Vroman. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Turnovers have plagued the Mounties all season. Last week they turned it over seven times to a previously winless Huntingdon team. The Mounties lost 34-13.

“We just cough the ball up in all situations,” Vroman said. “Whether it be in the return game, whether it be an interception, whether it be on a quarterback, center exchange…and we don’t have that in practice…but yet in crucial situations in football games it has.”

Vroman said he’s been preaching to his team about the importance of ball protection since the season began and that there is an easy, yet elusive solution.

“That’s just concentration — we have to concentrate and we have to be mentally tough and that right now is what we’re focusing on,” Vroman said. “We have to have those couple things come together in order for us to be successful.”