The high school football postseason gets into full swing starting this weekend as the Waverly Wolverines play in a sectional final in New York and five Pennsylvania teams begin their pursuit of a District 4 title.

In the Class AA playoffs the Athens Wildcats are the No. 2 seed and they will host No. 7 Wellsboro at 7 p.m. Saturday.

While the two teams played earlier in the year with Athens coming out on top, Wildcats coach Jack Young expects a strong test this time around.

"We put the pressure on them the first game and came up with a lot of big plays," Young said. "We think they will come a little better prepared this time around and we think they are going to be a little better team now."

Young knows the Green Hornets bring a strong offensive line and they have a running game that features Patrick Driebelbies and his 959 yards and Jake Coolidge and his 578 yards.

"We expect as physical of a football game as we have played all year," Young said. "Their offense will come right at you and grind it out. Besides that, they have a pretty good defensive football team. We have to come prepared for the physical part of the game on Saturday night."

Athens will counter with a balanced offense that features Garrett Morgan with his 1,008 yards on the ground and a passing game where Shane Raupers has thrown for 1,008 yards and Jarred Gambrell has hauled in 30 catches for 546 yards and Josh Clark has 16 catches for 205 yards.

While Wellsboro has run the ball well this year, Green Hornets quarterback Cameron Jones is second in the region with 1,233 yards through the air this year and Coolidge has hauled in 21 passes for 325 yards, while Stevan Mengee has 15 catches for 288 yards and Garrett Stager ledas the attack with 458 yards on 19 catches.

"One of the things we talk about just about every week, especially when you play a team like this, is you can’t allow them to lure us to sleep with the run game and then go up top with their pass game," Young said. "We don’t want to allow any of those big plays. We have to be prepared for them to put the ball up top; we have to take care of all of the little things."

With the regular season over both teams know that any loss can mean the end of the season this time of year.

"Absolutely, the kids know what is on the line," Young said. "Right now we are just playing for survival. There is no looking ahead, there is about 61 AA teams left in the state and we will just try and put our best efforts forth each week and see what happens.

"We can’t wait to see what happens in the rest of the state. We can’t look ahead; we have a very worthy opponent this week. We can’t worry that they are seeded seventh and we are seeded second. We have to come ready to play."

The Towanda Black Knights are seeded sixth in Class AA and they will travel to Montoursville at 7 p.m. Saturday to take on third-seeded Montoursville.

"Obviously they are a good team, they wouldn’t be in the playoffs if they weren’t a good team," Towanda coach Craig Dawsey said. "They are big, they are physical, they run the ball well. If you can’t stop the run, they are just going to keep doing that against you. It’s going to be a real challenge."

The Black Knights have gotten a strong year on the ground from Travis Chesla, who has gained 1,201 yards, while quarterback Dakota Roof has run for 821 yards and thrown for 1,007 yards on the year.

Nate Bennett has been the top receiver for the Black Knights with 27 catches for 517 yards on the year.

Last week the Black Knights struggled early before coming alive late in a win at Wyalusing, and Dawsey knows one of the keys will be getting off to a fast start and not making many mistakes.

"You have to have everything on track early, you have to play inspired football; all three phases of your game have to be clicking," he said. "In big games you have to cut down on the penalties. You have to take care of your kicking game. You have to take care of your defense. That’s what these games come down to. We have to take care of the ball. When you don’t take care of the ball in the playoff situation, that’s going to sting you."

With the playoffs starting Dawsey expects his team to be ready to play.

"This is the playoffs, if you are not ready to play in this game, then you don’t belong there," he said. "I think they will be ready to play. I hope they are excited. For some of them it may be the last time they will play football in an organized fashion, if that’s not motivation enough I don’t know what is."

The Troy Trojans are the No. 8 seed in Class AA and they will travel to Mt. Carmel to take on the district’s top seed.

The Trojans are led by the rushing attack of Chance Wright, who leads the region with 1,318 yards on the ground this year, and the passing of Vance Spencer, who has thrown for 652 yards this year.

"They are real excited about playing in this game," Troy coach Kevin Schucker said. "It’s going to be a great experience for them. To go down there and play in that atmosphere they are going to play in. It’s going to be something they will never forget."

Schucker knows that Mt. Carmel is going to be a big challenge for his team.

"They know what is in front of them, they have seen film on them and they have watched them," Schucker said. "They are good, there’s no doubt about that. Five of these kids started when they were freshmen up here against Towanda four years ago. I just tell the kids to go have fun, this is what they have wanted."

Mt. Carmel has a strong passing game led by quarterback Marcus Wasilewski, who has completed 99-of-165 passes for 1,474 yards and 18 touchdowns against five picks. Justin Pellowski leads their backs with 80 carries for 705 yards and seven scores, and Julius Demetrius has 111 carries for 680 yards and 12 carries.

Matt Moroz leads Mt. Carmel’s receivers with 30 catches for 517 yards and four scores, and Pellowski has 17 grabs for 321 yards and five scores.

"The kids have seen teams throw before, they know what to expect, but I don’t think they have seen anybody that has thrown the ball quite like he has," Schucker said. "We are going to have to be a lot quicker, we are going to have to recognize things a lot quicker. We are going to need a pass rush, we can’t give him time to throw the ball."

After missing last week’s game after being ejected from the contest against Muncy, Spencer is back at quarterback and having their senior back under center and a strong running game should help the Trojans offense.

"Our running game has really come together the last five or six weeks," Schucker said. "We have to be able to run the ball offensively, the offensive line has been playing well and they have to keep that up. Chance has stepped up and Courtney Bennett has stepped up running the ball. We’ve got to execute, we have to get the fullback involved in the running game.

"Vance will help us tremendously; he gives us experience throwing the ball. Having Vance back on defense will also help tremendously. They responded real well when Vance wasn’t there, trying to win for him and get him one more game, and Vance has that now."

In Class A the Canton Warriors are the No. 1 seed and they have a 1 p.m. game at home against Line Mountain on Saturday.

"A lot of teams in the state of Pennsylvania would like to still be playing like we are," Canton coach Miller Moyer Jr. said. "It’s big being at home, the old saying ‘there’s no place like home,’ that relates to football as well."

The Warriors have seen Line Mountain in scrimmages in the past and two years ago they dropped a game at Line Mountain in districts so they have an idea of what to expect Saturday.

"They are still doing the things they did in the years we scrimmaged them and in the year we played them," Moyer said. "They run the ball well and they play very sound defense."

While Line Mountain’s quarterback Ryan Klinger is just 30-for-100 for 422 yards with three scores and six picks on the year, Moyer said he expects Line Mountain can throw the ball.

"They have thrown the ball more the last three games that we have seen them on film," he said. "They are working more toward balance."

That balance is something the Warriors have been seeking all year. Reese Holmes leads the region with 1,817 yards through the air and Tyrell Wheeler has 27 catches for 499 yards, while Billy Sourbeer has 26 grabs for 448 yards and Justin Brown has 26 catches and Korey Peterson has 14 grabs for 406 yards.

On the ground Wheeler has gained 763 yards, including 108 in a win over Troy last week.

"You never want to be one-handed, you want people to respect both the run and the pass," Moyer said. "Last week the final drive was really something, 14 plays that doesn’t happen that often."

Line Mountain will rely on the running of Chris Moore, with 80 carries for 705 yards and seven scores, and Klinger with 377 yards on 113 carries and nine touchdowns; so Moyer knows it’s important to get off to a fast start.

"We don’t want to fall behind, because if we do that we are going to see even more running than we probably will under normal circumstances," Moyer said. "The best scenario for us is to score early and maybe take them out of their gameplan."

In New York, the Waverly Wolverines take to Ty Cobb Field in Union-Endicott at 10 a.m. Saturday morning in a matchup with Windsor for the sectional title.

"We are excited. It’s a great opportunity to win a sectional championship for the first time ever," Waverly coach Jason Miller said. "We are playing a real good Windsor team that we beat this year. We know that we can beat them. We just can not overlook them and become overconfident. We have to just go out and play."

After taking out Chenango Forks, the sixth-ranked Class team in the state and last year’s state runner-up, last week, Miller knows it’s important to get focused again.

"That was such a high point, such an emotional game, I think many of us are still pinching ourselves," he said. "I think we’ve done a pretty good job in practice of moving on, but we still get reminded by many in the community about how big the win is. It was a big win, but it’s over, we’ve got a major task in front of us. We talked at the beginning of the year that our gaol was to win a sectional title; not to just beat Forks, but to win a sectional title.

"We feel like, and everybody I think does this, that you have to beat Forks to win it and at the very least we have now given ourselves an opportunity. I’m just really concerned with us being overconfident and we have no reason to be overconfident. We have improved. They have improved. It’s a new game."

Knowing that a loss could end the year provides plenty of motivation for the Wolverines.

"There’s plenty of motivation, the championship in-and-of itself is motivation," Miller said. "The seniors are aware that when they step on the field Saturday morning, that could be for the last time. The incentive is there; this is the ultimate motivation."