After having a week off from football, Jason Roeder is happy to have his team back on the field.

On the other side of town, Joe Henrich is eager to put the regular season chapter behind his Bethlehem Catholic program heading into the postseason.

Both schools enter District 11 play this weekend under different circumstances, but both come in with the same goals of competing for district gold.

After having their city rivalry game against Liberty postponed last week because a member of the Hurricane staff tested positive for COVID, the third-seeded Pates (3-1) are looking forward to getting back on the field Friday night when they host sixth-seeded Pocono Mountain West (3-2).

“Like everything else this year, it’s certainly been different not being able to play Liberty,” Roeder said. “We got the kids some extra rest and focused on fundamentals. We gave them off last Thursday and Friday, but I was at the field [BASD] Saturday morning for a middle school game and it would have been a perfect afternoon for it.”

Roeder still hopes that both schools will be able to play this season once their postseason schedule ends, but until then the focus is on districts, as Freedom should be a heavy favorite heading into a contest against a Panthers team that has lost by a combined 91 points in their two defeats to East Stroudsburg South and Stroudsburg.

“They’re aggressive on defense and give you a bunch of different looks on that side of the ball,” said Roeder. “I’m just glad to be preparing for a game and having the kids back on the field. We’re excited to be playing at home this week.”

For the Golden Hawks, it’s about picking up pieces after a 45-3 blowout loss at Central Catholic last week. Becahi has lost its last two games to Freedom and the Vikings by an 80-3 margin, something that Henrich will look to fix as they play in a 12 p.m. four-five matchup against Blue Mountain Saturday afternoon at Northwestern.

With quarterback Jared Richardson sidelined for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury, sophomore Luke Thomas will carry the reigns for an offense that has struggled to finish drives with points.

“It comes down to a combination of a lot of things that have occurred the past couple of weeks and they all become excuses,” Henrich said. “It comes down to believing, committing and executing. It’s not for lack of talent and it’s just a massive growth process for us right now.”

Becahi (3-3) was supposed to play Saucon Valley this weekend, but the Panthers dropped out of the tournament because of recurring cases of COVID within the high school. That puts them against Blue Mountain (4-4), a team that started out 1-3 but won three of their last four games to end the season.

As they typically do, Blue Mountain likes to run the ball, as they rushed 41 times for 189 yards in last week’s 27-13 loss to Pottsville.

The Hawks gave up 236 yards to Central’s running game last week and while focusing on slowing down the rushing attack on the defensive side will be key, scoring touchdowns for Becahi will be paramount if it wants to move on.

“We’re having a lot of self-inflicted wounds at times with the offense,” Henrich said. “I know that we’ll continue as a staff to get this offense going, but we’re going through some adversity right now and we all need to regroup and make a commitment to each other that we’re going to work hard and try to get this going back in the right direction.”