BROOKVILLE — With the District 9 League title on the line, Brookville hosts Bradford Friday night in one of the district’s games of the week featuring two 5-0 records.

It’s homecoming for the Raiders, who are trying to win their second straight D-9 League title. Even with last year’s title, however, Brookville didn’t beat Bradford. The Owls defeated the Raiders in a wild homecoming affair in Bradford, 33-27.

Brookville went on to win the D-9 League, with the loss to the Owls its only blemish in league contests. The Owls, however, lost two early games to Clearfield and Punxsutawney.

The winner of this game will win the D-9 League because of the head-to-head tiebreaker. Each team plays one more league game after this -- Brookville at Punxsutawney in two weeks and Bradford at DuBois next week -- but regardless of that outcome it’ll come down to who wins this week’s showdown.

On paper, it appears that the Owls are the favorites.

Bradford is coming off a 50-0 victory over a St. Marys team that nearly beat Brookville two weeks ago before falling in the final minutes, 15-14. The Owls opened the season with a hard-fought 22-15 win at home against Clearfield, a team Brookville beat 14-12 at Clearfield.

Statistically, there is no comparison. The Owls’ traditionally strong running game is churning out 340.4 yards rushing per game at a clip of 7.0 yards per carry with 16 touchdowns. Running back Sean Hvizdzak has actually gained more yardage than the entire Raiders running game with 653 yards on 81 carries (8.1 yards per carry) and five touchdowns. Backfield mates Dave Snyder (80 carries, 545 yards, 6 TDs) and Aaron O’Toole (42 carries, 329 yards, 3 TDs) give Bradford a dangerous triple-threat.

The Owls’ powerful offensive line has been a force, with one of its leaders Brent Raabe, named Player of the Week two weeks ago following the Owls’ 31-28 win over Warren.

And the Bradford passing attack? What passing? With the efficient running game of the Owls, quarterback Mike Austin has attempted only 16 passes, completing five for 33 yards with two touchdowns.

The Raiders aren’t pretty at all number-wise, with the exception being the record and their defense. Offensively, the Raiders average 218 yards per game. Running back Matt Gilbert (53 carries, 122 yards, 2 TDs) leads the rushing game, although he missed one game with an injury.

Quarterback Nick Heschke returned to the starting lineup after missing two games. While his passing numbers against Redbank Valley last week (4-for-10, 32 yards, 1 Int.) weren’t impressive, he did run for a 15-yard touchdown in the first half.

The Raiders will have to again get a big effort from their defense, which helped cause four Redbank Valley turnovers last week that led to 17 points. Lineman Mike Hetrick had two sacks, caused a fumble and recovered a fumble. Linebacker Josh Rakovan caused a fumble and recovered a fumble and lineman Tony Morres anchored both lines.

Not that Bradford hasn’t been playing good defense. The Owls have shut out St. Marys, Punxsutawney and Olean, N.Y.