HS Football, Week 6 preview: Vikings, Hurricanes square off in Division II clash
Schuylkill Haven and Williams Valley line up for a play during Friday's District 11 Class AA championship game at Blue Mountain (Photo by Eli Doyle).
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN — Tonight’s a big night for Frank Gaffney.
In his first year as the head coach at Williams Valley, Gaffney will lead his Vikings into Schuylkill Haven’s Rotary Field for a Schuylkill League Division II showdown against the Hurricanes. (You can listen to the game live on T-102).
At the same time, the 2010 Blue Mountain graduate and collegiate standout at Stevens Tech and Lebanon Valley will be inducted into the Blue Mountain All-Sports Hall of Fame during a halftime ceremony a few miles down the road at the Eagles’ Nest.
Gaffney’s wife, Brittany, and their two sons, 6-year-old Weston and 4-year-old Wyler, will accept Frank’s Hall of Fame plaque for him at Blue Mountain.
“It’s super cool,” Gaffney said of being inducted into the Blue Mountain Hall of Fame. “Honestly, I never expected it to happen. Brittany and my two boys will be at the Blue Mountain game, going out and receiving that for me.”
On the field, Gaffney will return to the place he coached the past four years as Schuylkill Haven’s defensive coordinator. Gaffney started his coaching career as an assistant coach on Mike Farr’s staff for three seasons from 2015-2017 before leaving to become the head coach at Pine Grove.
During his four-year stint with the Cardinals, Gaffney and Farr squared off in a 2021 contest at Rotary Field, where the Hurricanes beat the Cards 14-7.
Now, after four seasons coaching with Farr, he’ll face him again from the opposite sideline in a clash of teams with 2-0 Schuylkill League Division II records.
“I have absolutely nothing but respect for the program and what it has done for me and my career,” Gaffney said about Schuylkill Haven and Farr. “Without Schuylkill Haven, I’m not where I’m at in my career as a coach.
“It’s going to be bittersweet for some moments. There’s a lot of friendly faces that I still talk to and hang out with. The initial aspect is definitely going to be a bittersweet moment for me. I spent a lot of time there. I invested my heart and energy into that program and everything I believed as a coach.
“It’s going to be cool. It’s going to be a great atmosphere. There’s no animosity with anything.”
Gaffney’s big night isn’t the only storyline surrounding tonight’s showdown.
For Schuylkill Haven, it marks the return of Farr to the sideline after a two-game suspension for violating the school district’s Code of Conduct in a Week 3 loss to Blue Mountain.
The Hurricanes won twice in his absence, blasting Mahanoy Area 43-16 and Nativity 63-7. Senior tailback Colton Reber dominated in both victories. He enters tonight’s game with 768 yards rushing and an area-best 15 total touchdowns.
Asked what impressed him about his team over the past two weeks, Farr replied: “The maturity of the team and its leaders is impressive. Defensively, they seem to be gelling together. The coaching staff did a great job keeping the players together.”
Another storyline is the ongoing rivalry between the two programs.
Tonight will mark the seventh time in three-plus seasons that the Vikings and Hurricanes have faced each other and 10th time since Williams Valley left the Tri-Valley League for the Schuylkill League in 2020.
Williams Valley has won six of those nine previous meetings, taking three straight from 2020-22 before the squads split the games over the past three seasons. Schuylkill Haven won all three regular-season contests — 24-21 in 2023, 38-30 in 2024, 43-29 in 2025 — while Williams Valley beat the Hurricanes the last three years in the District 11 Class AA championship game — 49-35 in 2023, 28-13 in 2024, 34-31 last year.
Schuylkill Haven leads the all-time series 12-8. Williams Valley has only ever won one time at Rotary Field, a 22-7 victory in 2020.
“It’s tough place to play, just like between the pines,” Gaffney said of Rotary Field. “It’s a great football environment, it’s a great football town. The energy … you can get caught up in the emotion.
“For us, we need to focus on the horns on the helmet. We have to keep getting better. We know what we have, we know what we’re efficient at. We have to utilize that.”
Farr took a similar approach with his Hurricanes.
“We have to play together,” he said. “Live through the highs and lows of the game. Execute in all three phases of the game and win the turnover battle.”
The Williams Valley-Schuylkill Haven showdown is one of five local games on the schedule tonight.
Week 6 began Thursday night, with Pottsville blanking Tamaqua 22-0 and Mahanoy Area running over Nativity 37-6. You can find those stories here:
Pottsville-Tamaqua: https://www.t102sportsnow.com/2026/10/01/hs-football-pottsville-rides-big-2nd-half-to-shutout-win-over-tamaqua/
Mahanoy Area-Nativity: https://www.t102sportsnow.com/2026/10/02/hs-football-golden-bears-ride-ground-game-past-green-wave/
