Thursday’s Section VI Class A football final will be between a pair of squads who are pretty familiar with each other.

Top-seeded West Seneca West (9-0) will be squaring off with crosstown rival West Seneca East (8-1) at New Era Field for the crown. The two teams faced off just three weeks ago with the Indians coming away with the 30-16 victory.

West won the Section VI title just last season on their way to the state championship. East is looking for their first Section VI championship since 1981. Both sides know how unique bringing this rivalry to the title game is.

“I’m looking forward to just seeing the whole town of West Seneca coming together,” said senior West running back John Speyer. “Seeing everyone from East and West, because (this has) never happened before at the Ralph.”

The close proximity of the two schools means that the players on both squads know each other well. Indians head coach Mike Vastola said that many of his players played Pop Warner with players from East.

“There's that familiarity with your opponent,” said Vastola. “They've got a great picture of us and we've got a great picture of them and it's going to come down to who moves who and who can make the tackle and who can make the play.”

For the Trojans, Thursday’s matchup could take the proverbial monkey off their backs. East’s long title drought is on the minds of Trojans coaches and players, all of whom are determined to make this year’s squad the team to break it.

“We've had division championships, we've kind of, as a program, done all of those things and this is the one thing that's eluded us,” said head coach Jim Maurino. “We feel like, it's a good time, why not now, let's go do it now.”

East and West will go at it at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at New Era Field. Complete coverage of the game can found on Spectrum News.