Pusch Ridge and Northwest Christian playing for the D-IV title? Might be able to fathom it if both were still competing in Division V. But somehow these schools broke through to reach the title game in a division dominated most recently by White Mountain schools. Not to mention a division that added wo-time defending D-V champ Yuma Catholic, who moved up, and Lake Havasu, who dropped down from D-II.

Yet they are here. They don't care what division it is. It's for a trophy. No. 3 Pusch Ridge (12-1) and No. 8 Northwest Christian (11-2) collide for the crown Saturday Nov. 28 at 6 p.m. at Chaparral High School. The teams played every year between 2005 and 2010 wth NWC winning five of those six games. The schools haven't played since 2010.

Pusch Ridge has no championship history to its name yet. The Lions have won 12 straight games since a season-opening loss to D-V title participant Benson. They've knocked off Payson and two western Arizona teams -- River Valley and Lake Havasu-- the former last year's D-IV champ. All this from a team knocked out of last year's D-V playoffs in the quarterfinals.

On the flipside, Northwest Christian has championship hardware from 2010 and 2012 and finished runner-up in 2011. This season it defeated and dethroned arch-nemesis Yuma Catholic in the quarterfinals.  Yuma Catholic eliminated NWC from the playoffs in 2011 and 2014 and handed it one of its regular-season losses this year. NWC defeated Flowing Wells, Yuma Catholic and last year's D-IV runner-up, Snowflake, to make the final. The Crusaders entered the playoffs on a down note, losing their final two regular-season games to Yuma Catholic and Estrella Foothills.

Offensively, Pusch Ridge's production doesn't rely on one player. The Lions thrive on the running game with its season total at nearly 3,400 yards. The primary backs are two-way standout James Raica and Tamerat McLeod, who have teamed up for 1,946 yards and 27 rushing TDs. Dakota Haynes, the team's leading tackler, Mitch Maas and Edwin Lovett have totaled another 1,240 yards on the ground. Senior quarterback Cody Cropp, son of Lions' coach Troy Cropp, hasn't thrown often, but when he does it's for 20 yards a pop. His main targets are senior Ben Walker and Lovett.

Pusch Ridge coach Troy Cropp likes the perseverance his team has displayed at various times this season, particularly in postseason. The Lions trailed Flowing Wells by 10 before pulling away to win in a regular-season triumph, overcame 190 yards in penailties to beat River Valley and dodged four turnovers to beat Lake Havasu. Cropp said playing from behind or with that many mistakes won't work this week.

NWC has passes for more yards than it has run for, but in comparision to Pusch Ridge offers a more balanced attack. Quarterback DrewI Inness, son of coach Dave Innes, has enjoyed a terrific year passing. Drew Innes has thrown for 2,587 yards and 39 TDs. Four receivers have at least 20 catches with Ray Kindred (41 catches, 655 yards and 6 TDs) and Trace Maguire 31-551-9 the top targets. Tyler Kohner and Alec Ponce complement with 18 TDs between them. In NWC's three playoff games the stalwart has been Drew Inness. Innes has completed 39 of 65 passes for 524 yards and 10 TDs and no interceptions. 

The Crusaders ground game is much like Pusch Ridge's in terms of sharing the wealth. Travis Pollay leads the ground attack with 801 yards and seven TDs. Four other backs/receivers have combined for 807 yards (Tanner Vanhofwegen, Kindred, Maguire and Caleb Egherman). Vanhofwegen is often the short-yardage/goal line back with a team-high 14 TDs.