The Whitehall soccer teams will take on familiar opponents Wednesday night, after Press deadlines, when the District 11 playoffs get underway.

Both the Zephyr boys and girls will travel to Northampton in back-to-back contests.

While the boys didn’t play the Kids this season thanks to COVID-19 and restructured divisions. head coach Chris Bastidas is hoping his familiarity will be an advantage. Bastidas’ brother Adam coached the Kids in the past while Chris is a middle school gym teacher at Northampton.

“They are a great group of guys,” Bastidas said about the Northampton boys. “We know what they do rather well. They are a good, talented team with no weak spots.”

Fortunately for the Zephs, they have their own group of players who have now made the playoffs for the first time in back-to-back seasons as the program continues to thrive with Bastidas at the helm.

Senior Jake Gier is the team’s leading scorer. Bastidas said he’s scored some big-time goals as of late. Elie Khalil, a junior, wins the ball and counter attacks well, according to Bastidas. Carlos Mendez is a new player to the team this year and is just a junior. Bastidas calls him creative on the ball and tenacious on defense.

Nate Walker is coming off a major injury and has really stepped up. He’s another senior. Bastidas said both keepers have stepped up this year as well, they are junior Elijah Siler and Cole Guerney.

The winner of this game gets top-seeded Emmaus, on Halloween afternoon at 1 p.m. at Emmaus. No matter what happens, it’s been a different season, one perhaps no one thought would reach this point.

“It’s been a strange season,” Bastidas said. “Our preseason was a month long because of COVID, then we missed games because of schools closing.

“We crammed 11 games in three weeks. We didn’t know what to work on. We worked through a lot of things. Once we got on the field, we played well.”