Lee: Northeast A football heats up

It’s human nature to look ahead.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a teenager new to the neighborhood or a senior citizen who has been around the block.

In that regard, the Freeman, Colville, Lakeside and Deer Park football teams have arrived safely at a critical juncture in their seasons.

The real heavy lifting begins Friday when the foursome, undefeated and tied atop the Northeast A League standings, begins to sort out which teams earn state playoff berths.

Three berths are up for grabs. One good team will see its season end early.

The NEA is the toughest 1A league in the state this fall. Three teams are ranked in the Associated Press and coaches’ polls – defending state champ Freeman, Colville and Lakeside.

Coming into the season, many thought the league title showdown would be Friday when Freeman treks to Colville.

They met in a season-opening game a year ago in which Freeman held off Colville 14-7.

There were plenty of reasons to believe the Freeman-Colville matchup would decide the league title. The Scotties returned the nucleus off a team that went 14-0. Colville, a state qualifier in its last season in 2A a year ago, returned all but three starters off a team that finished 7-4.

Lakeside coach Brian Dunn would love to be in Colville on Friday. But he has some matters to attend when his Eagles visit Deer Park.

“This week is pretty crucial to everybody,” Dunn said. “You lose, you lose control, essentially.”

Dunn’s Eagles are leading 1A teams statewide in scoring, averaging 54.6 points per game.

“I’m not sure we’ve been tested yet,” Dunn said. “Four of our games ended with running time. We’ll find out who the heck we are (Friday).”

Freeman has allowed the fewest points (14) and Colville has given up just 45.

Offense will likely be at a premium between those two Friday.

“Ever since we played Freeman in the first game last year and our kids saw what they went on to do, our kids have been pointing toward this game,” Colville coach Randy Cornwell said.

So is Freeman better this year?

“Even the kids have asked me that,” Cornwell said. “I don’t know if you can answer that in a yes or no. They’re just different. The quarterback (Preston Hoppman) is improved. He was good last year and even better this year. (Markus) Goldbach is by far the best back we’ve faced this year and might be the best we face all year. Their line has plenty of strength to it. They have plenty of weapons.”

After singing Freeman’s praises, I asked Cornwell the same thing about his team.

“We like our kids a lot,” Cornwell said.

Freeman coach Jim Wood knows Colville will have all sorts of motivation. Beyond the fact that the Scotties are the defending state champ, Freeman is ranked No. 1 in both polls and has won 19 straight dating to the end of the 2012 season.

“We have a bull’s-eye on the front and the back,” Wood said. “It comes with the territory. We can’t play our ‘B’ game. We’ve got to play our ‘A’ game. We can’t do what the Seahawks did (Monday).”

Deer Park coach Keith Stamps said Freeman and Colville are for real.

“When you look at the body of work so far, those two teams have played the most complete games,” Stamps said. “Us and Lakeside still have question marks. We’ve played well at times and they’ve played well at times. We played tough nonleague games. We wanted to challenge our team early. Coming down the home stretch, hopefully that pays off.”