Most of the current group of high school football players weren’t born yet when Saturday afternoon home football games in the Times News area were a weekly occurrence.

This week’s Overtime column will take a look back to when Friday night football became the norm for all of our area programs; we’ll also look at the handful of District 11 schools who still play on Saturday afternoon; and we’ll talk to a couple of area coaches with Saturday afternoon games this week and how that might impact their normal game-week routines.

Meanwhile, the facts and figures portion of this week’s Overtime will look at how a couple of area teams are making a habit of fast starts to the season; we will talk about a touchdown hat trick; and we’ll look at a quarterback who has been a touchdown-tossing-machine in consecutive weeks.

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Saturday afternoon games at Northwestern, Marian and Jim Thorpe were a longtime tradition ever since the inception of football at those schools.

But after decades of playing day games, things eventually changed.

Northwestern was the first to install lights and move games to Friday night. The Tigers made the switch in 1995, and their inaugural season under the lights proved to be a memorable one.

It can be argued that the ‘95 season was the most successful in the school’s impressive football history, as Northwestern won Colonial League and District 11 championships, and qualified for the PIAA State playoffs.

Six years later, Marian and Jim Thorpe made the switch as well. The Colts and Olympians both began playing night football in 2001.

Although traditionalists at all three schools likely lamented the changes, the temptation of Friday Night Lights and the atmosphere that it brings was too great to ignore.

But, it just isn’t in the Times News area that Saturday afternoon football has become almost obsolete There are currently 46 schools playing football in District 11 and of those, there are only three that don’t have lights and still play all their home games on Saturday afternoon.

That group includes Pen Argyl and Wilson of the Colonial League, along with Eastern Pennsylvania Conference member Pocono Mountain West.

This week, a pair of area teams will get a chance to experience a rare Saturday afternoon game as Northwestern visits Wilson, and Northern Lehigh travels to Pen Argyl. Both games have 1:30 p.m. kickoffs.

“I think football coaches are definitely creatures of habit,” said Northwestern coach Josh Snyder. ”We like to keep the same schedules, the same routines ... but this week we will definitely be out of our routine.”

Snyder doesn’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, however.

“Sometimes, a little change from the norm can be good. Hopefully, our kids will handle it well and be excited about the different atmosphere and the different schedule that it necessitates.”

Northern Lehigh coach Joe Tout said playing a Saturday game won’t upset his team’s rhythm because the early-season schedule hasn’t let the Bulldogs settle into one yet.

“This is our fourth game and it’s our fourth different game-week scenario,” Tout said. “The opening week we played on a Friday, but we weren’t in school yet so we didn’t have that normal school day leading into the game. Then we played a Thursday game, so that’s a different routine. Last week was our first normal Friday game when the kids had school the day of the game. Now, this week we have the Saturday game.

“So we’re kind of used to our routine being different each week.”

Both coaches said that they don’t expect playing a day later and in the afternoon instead of at night will negatively impact their teams.

“I told our kids to make sure they get a good night’s sleep, and are up and moving around early Saturday morning,” said Snyder. “I think our booster club is doing a breakfast for them, so it will be a team function to start the day, which is nice.

“Personally, I’m looking forward to playing Saturday, and I think our kids are too.”

Tout added, “It’s actually nice in that it gives us an extra day to prepare. The downside of that is we’re obviously going to get one less day next week.

“We don’t play very many Saturday games, but it’s nothing that I look at as an advantage or disadvantage.”

With both teams entertaining postseason aspirations, this week’s games could even provide a benefit down the road,

“Our goal is to be playing postseason football, and if we achieve that, you never know what you’re schedule is going to look like,” said Snyder. “You might play Friday night, you might play Saturday night or you might play Saturday afternoon. So having experienced a Saturday game might be a benefit if we’re in that situation.”

Snyder experienced that firsthand when he played at Northwestern.

“My freshman year was the last year of afternoon football here,” he recalled. “I was a sophomore on the 1995 team when we were playing under the lights for the first time.

“But after playing night games all season, our district championship game with Catasauqua was on a Saturday afternoon. So you never know.”

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STARTING 3-0 — AGAIN ... Jim Thorpe and Tamaqua both improved to 3-0 after convincing wins last Friday. This marked the third year in a row that both the Olympians and Blue Raiders opened their seasons with three straight victories.

For Jim Thorpe, this is its third streak of at least three consecutive 3-0 starts. They had a five-year stretch of 3-0 starts from 2003-2007, and also posted three straight 3-0 starts from 1965-1967.

Meanwhile, Tamaqua hasn’t been 3-0 for three straight seasons since 1914-1916.

Other Times News area teams to start 3-0 for at least three consecutive years (since 1978) include Lehighton (2000-2002 and 1982-1984), Northern Lehigh (2010-2012 and 2003-2005), Marian (1998-2000), Palmerton (1992-1995) and Northwestern (1985-1988).

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MOYER’S HAT TRICK ... Northern Lehigh’s Zach Moyer did nearly everything he could to lead his team to victory last Friday, but the Bulldogs still dropped their contest to Bangor.

Moyer ran for a touchdown, threw for a touchdown, and returned an interception for a touchdown.

Over the last 25 years, only three other players from the Times News area have accomplished that same feat. Lehighton Tyler Cann did it Sept. 11, 2015 at Minersville, while the other two times were by Jim Thorpe players. They were Craig Zurn (Oct. 20, 2006 at Schuylkill Haven) and Jason Figura (Oct. 17, 2003 versus Schuylkill Haven).

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BOLLINGER SHINES ... Northwestern’s Deven Bollinger had another big game in the Tigers’ victory over Palisades last Friday.

Bollinger threw for four touchdowns in the decisive 35-7 win. The week before, he tossed five scoring passes.

The Northwestern quarterback is just one of four area players (since 1996) to have back-to-back games of at least four TD passes. The other three are former Pleasant Valley signal callers. They include Brandon Keyes (weeks 7 and 8 of the 2016 season), Brandon Leap (weeks 3 and 4 of the 2012 season) and Derrick Walling (weeks 5 and 6 of the 2010 season).

Bollinger, who also accomplished the feat a year ago, is the only one to do it more than once.

Friday also marked the ninth time that the senior had at least four TD passes in a game during his career. The next closest to him (since 1996) is Jim Thorpe’s Corey Cinicola with five.

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PUNT RETURN FOR SCORE ... Jim Thorpe’s CJ Selby returned a punt for a touchdown last Friday against Panther Valley. It was the first punt return for a score by an area player this season.

How common are punt returns for a touchdown?

Over the past 20 seasons, Times News area teams have only run back 66 punts for touchdowns, an average of just 3.3 per year. To put it a different way, area teams average roughly one punt return every three years. That being said, there is a wide gap between the most returns and the least. Northern Lehigh has brought back 19 returns for scores in that time span, while Panther Valley has just one. Selby’s was the Olympians’ eighth since 1999.