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If the District 6 football playoffs started this weekend, Central Cambria would be visiting Central in the Class 3A semifinals, so consider Friday night's matchup at Roaring Spring Athletic Field a possible postseason preview.
"This is actually huge; the winner of this will probably get a home game with the No. 2 seed," Central coach Jerry Albright said. "We didn't make the playoffs last year, and we want to get in there and give ourselves the best chance possible to advance and that would be with a first-round home game with a shot to play in the district final on the line."
A year ago, neither Central Cambria or Central made the postseason, but they did meet in the regular season.
The Red Devils came away with a 32-22 win in which Ryan Chappell rushed for 169 yards and three touchdowns.
Chappell and his teammate Jack Dawson have been impressive in the run game again this year and drew a comparison from Albright to the stellar Bellwood-Antis duo of Alex McCartney and Chase Plummer.
"This is Bellwood part two, because they have two similar running backs to Bellwood," Albright said. "Sometimes Central Cambria will run right at you, sometimes they spread it out and find a hole, and we want them to dare them to throw the ball."
The Scarlet Dragons did that to the Blue Devils and got two interceptions returned for touchdowns that helped them pick up a victory.
But Central Cambria coach Wade Klezek said his team is ready for that type of approach.
"Mason Pittsinger has been running the ball very well at quarterback," Klezek said. "We haven't asked him to throw the ball too much, because we have been so successful running the football. But he has a cannon. He can beat you as well if you bring everyone up and dare us to throw."
Pittsinger did a little of that in last year's meeting, throwing for 104 yards and a touchdown on just 12 attempts.
Though Klezek has belief in his team's ability to throw the ball if needed, he acknowledged Central quarterback Jesse Muthler's skills.
"They throw the ball very well," Klezek said. "That jumps out on tape. Their quarterback is a very good athlete who puts some zip on the ball. He has weapons he can throw it to and some running backs that can catch the ball out of the backfield. They are a team you have to watch out for with their weapons."
Muthler passed for nearly 200 yards and completed 21 passes in last year's matchup, which was Central's only loss in its final four games to end the season.
Despite that, the Scarlet Dragons struggled through the air in last week's 21-7 win over Penns Valley.
"We thought we would be a lot more balanced," Albright said. "Our running game has been good, and we proved we can run when we struggle passing and win a game. Our offensive line has been doing a tremendous job with run blocking. They didn't do as well pass blocking, but we came up with a plan that worked well for us last year against Central Cambria."
In an attempt to help prepare Muthler for Friday's game, Central plans on putting some pressure on him throughout the week.
"We really get some good competition in practice, but we need to get him pressure in practice to simulate Friday nights better," Albright said. "He has a great strong arm, and if we can get him on track, our offense can be very potent."
Meanwhile, a Central Cambria offense that leaned heavily on Chappell last season, as he led the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference in rushing in the regular season, has become more versatile during the Red Devils' 6-1 start.
"Jack Dawson has been tremendous for us over the course of the last few weeks being that other runner that can run downhill, be physical and wear on you," Klezek said. "His emergence at linebacker has also been huge. Eric Jackson has been phenomenal at offensive tackle and defensive end. Hayden Gaunt has been phenomenal at offensive tackle and defensive tackle, and Ridge Kutchman has such good speed. He's a playmaker whenever he gets the ball in his hands and stretches the field if you put everyone in to stop Ryan and Jack."
With both teams at 6-1 and top-seeded Cambria Heights just ahead of them in power points and Penn Cambria at 5-2 just behind, the importance of Friday's game can't be understated. For the Red Devils, it might even be bigger than their Goal Post Trophy win over the Panthers in overtime earlier this year.
"That win was definitely a huge win," Klezek said. "But our goal at the beginning of the season and what we wanted wasn't just beating Penn Cambria. This group -- they want a district championship, and they want it bad. They want to get better every single day, and they have worked hard. They have been relentless from last year all the way through this year at getting better, trusting the process and working hard every single day. It was definitely validating beating them, but they weren't satisfied with that. They came right back to work and wanted to make sure that momentum launched them to another level."