The Pascack Valley Football Team will take on Westwood at Westwood High School tonight, Friday, September 5, for Valley’s second game of the season.

In Valley’s week 0 matchup at Union City, the Panthers defeated Union City 42-19. In Westwood’s week 0 matchup, the Cardinals defeated Lyndhurst, 34-14.

Last season, Pascack Valley defeated Westwood 21-7 at home.

Valley Football finished its season last year with an overall record of 10-2, including a league championship win and a state sectional championship win. While the team lost a good group of seniors, Valley returned tons of talent. The big name that returned is quarterback and linebacker Adam Shaw (Sr.). This is Shaw’s first year playing linebacker, and in his first start at linebacker, he tallied 15 tackles— a game high. He also had four touchdowns for Valley in the win. 

Last season, Westwood’s season ended with an 8-2 record, after falling short to Shabazz in the semifinals of the North Jersey, Section 1, Group 2 tournament. The big name for Westwood this season is senior running back and linebacker Steven Klein. Klein had 12 total tackles in Westwood’s first game of this season, along with four rushing touchdowns. 

Tonight’s matchup is going to be extremely interesting, as both sides have Division 1 Football commits playing on both sides of the ball— even more so, Power Four Division 1 commits. For Westwood, Klein is committed to Boston College, where he is expected to play linebacker. For Valley, Shaw is committed to Michigan State, after decommitting from Rutgers. Shaw is expected to play linebacker for the Spartans.

The game should be interesting and competitive, with both defenses looking to stop the strong opposition’s run-game and looking to create turnovers. The offense for both teams looks to rely on their running games, while implementing pass plays for big plays to break the game open.