Tonight under the lights, in front of their home crowd, the defending North 1, Group 4 state sectional champions will be taking on last year’s North 1, Group 5 champ, Montclair, in what should be one of the greatest challenges to face the Indians this year. Game time is 6 p.m.

The road won’t get much easier, either, as next Friday PV hosts DePaul, rated No. 2 in North Jersey in The Bergen Record’s pre-season rankings. PV is ranked No. 5.

Montclair, was 12-0 a year ago and currently holds a 24-game win streak. Each team will display some new faces, as the teams look to reload after last year’s seniors departed. PV, which was 2-2 last year before reeling off eight straight wins to close out the season, returns key starters in junior quarterback Colin Dedrick, senior running back/linebacker Rocco Swatek, and senior tight end/defensive end Greg Collier. The Indians have also prevailed in 14 straight home contests.

The Bergen Record is picking PV to win, but Pascack Valley’s defense will have to perform like it did last year when the team had 17 INTs and seven forced fumbles in order to counter Montclair’s high powered offense, which averaged 437 yards per game last year. Of those yards, 388 were on the ground.

The Indians’ offense will have to help out their defense by posting similar numbers to last year’s season, when the team averaged 373 yards and almost 30 points per game, according to MaxPreps.com.

Can’t make it to the game? Follow us on twitter (@pvsmokesignal) for live updates, and we’ll recap the action to you with a game story here shortly after it ends tonight.