Physicality and controlling the line of scrimmage.

Those two facets of the game of football are key to any successful team or game plan, and are especially important any time a team faces off with the always physical North Schuylkill Spartans.

The Spartans have been dominant for the better part of a decade playing that exact style of football, and look to continue that trend this season as they’re off to a 2-0 start, and ranked No. 1 in the state in class 3A.

North Schuylkill has wins over Mount Carmel and Blue Mountain so far this season.

Fortunately, for Jim Thorpe, the Olympians like to play that grueling style as well, and are coming off a week where both their defensive and offensive fronts were able to control the line of scrimmage against an explosive Palmerton offense and a solid Bombers’ defense.

It will be an ultimate battle in the trenches this week to see who can get off to a good start in the Colonial-Schuylkill Red Division as the Olympians head to Fountain Springs to take on the Spartans in the Times News Game of the Week.

After a rough outing against Blue Mountain that saw the Olympians drop a 30-20 contest in Week 1 against the Eagles in which it gave up an uncharacteristic 171 yards rushing, Thorpe’s offensive and defensive fronts certainly bounced back against the Bombers. Returning some players from injury, the “Red Swarm” defense especially impressed, holding dynamic dual threat quarterback Matt Machalik to just over 200 yards of total offense, which was over 100 yards less than his total offensive yardage in Week 1 against Lehighton.

The Olympians defense will need to be just as stubborn this week against the Spartans offense, which boasts a talented quarterback in Jake Hall, and a running back/fullback tandem in Zach and Jaxson Chowansky. Zach Chowansky (113 yards) helped lead a North Schuylkill rushing attack that rushed for 227 yards against Blue Mountain a week ago. However, Hall left last week’s game with an injury, and Jaxson missed the game due to injury as well, with both of their statuses unknown heading into the matchup with the Olympians.

“It was great to see us get back to playing a physical brand of football up front. We were able to control the line of scrimmage for the majority of the game last week, and we also played disciplined for the majority of the game as well,” said Jim Thorpe head coach Mark Rosenberger. “We’re going to need to build off the momentum we gained last week, and be ready to play that style once again this week, as it is always our goal to win the battle up front. It’s also key for us to limit their big plays. They have several game-breaking players, so we must make them earn every yard they get.”

Thorpe was also able to get its run game going against the Bombers, with sophomore running back Sal Capria, who ran for 118 yards on 23 carries, 17 yards more than the Olympians were able to muster in Week 1 against Blue Mountain.

It won’t be easy, however, to chew up rushing yards against a stout North Schuylkill defensive front that gave up just 66 yards (1.8 rushing yards per play) against the Eagles.

“Establishing the run game is always a big part of what we do, but we always want to be balanced and be successful in the passing game as well,” said Rosenberger. “We also need to do a better job of taking care of the football. If we’re able to play physical up front, take care of the football and finish off our offensive drives when we have scoring opportunities, we should be in a good place during the game on Friday night.”