Here's why Friday's match-up between Maine-Endwell and Chenango Forks is exciting.  Both teams are defending state champions.  Both teams are undefeated.  Both teams have been the cream of the crop for Section IV Football for the last decade.  Both teams have two of the most passionate fan bases in the area.  The Maine-Endwell Spartans own the longest active win streak in the state at 43, nine wins away from the state record 14 from the state unbeaten streak; in Week One of this year they broke the Section IV win streak record of 38 previously held by the Chenango Forks Blue Devils team of the mid-2000's.  Convinced?  I hope so.

That being said, as we've reported this week, on the field the teams are committed to executing the gameplan and aren't buying into the hype.  While it may be easy(ish) to tune out the crowd and the noise come Friday night, there's no way that a high school athlete can ignore the talk in the school cafeteria or the hallways, let alone the posts on Facebook and Twitter.  So, sure, it's all X's and O's come game time, but with a game this big, this exciting, even the guys on the field can take a step back and look at this bout through the eyes of the fans.