Shippensburg’s high school football team is coming off arguably its biggest win of the season last week over West Perry.

But there is little time to celebrate, as the Greyhounds (6-1, 3-1 Mid Penn Colonial Division) host another team near the top of the conference this Friday at 7 p.m. in the Northern York Polar Bears (5-2, 2-1 MPC).

“We need to play well this week, and I’m a little worried, because we spent so much energy and emotion last week,” Ship coach Eric Foust said. “We need a find a way to match what we had last week.”

Last week was an early roller coaster for the Hounds, as they fell behind 21-6 but scored 28 unanswered points for a 34-21 victory over the Mustangs. Along with the defense, which had a pick-six, fumble recovery and a sack by Colton Musser, Adam Houser and Jacob Loy led a potent rushing attack that amassed 257 yards on the ground, with 179 coming from Houser and 68 from Loy. For the season, Houser has 1,123 yards on 140 carries, good for an average of just over eight yards per carry.

While the Hounds ran roughshod over West Perry last week, there wasn’t much to be seen from the passing game, as Ship managed just three yards through the air. Foust would like to see more out of his passing game, but he points the finger mostly at himself for the low numbers throughout the season.

He said, “We need to be more multi-dimensional, but I think that’s on me more than anything. We are being cautious, and while we believe Zack (Manning) can make the plays in the pass game, it’s hard to turn away from a running game when we’re averaging five and six yards per carry. Hopefully we can get the passing game going this week, but again, we’re not going to force it.”

The Polar Bears are led by senior quarterback Chris Barrett and junior running back Kyle Swartz. Barrett has shown his versatility all season, piling up 526 passing yards to go along with 514 yards on the ground. Swartz has totaled 861 yards rushing on 126 carries. Sophomore Jordan Heisey has also played some quarterback, throwing for 106 yards on 12 completions and rushing 29 times for 116 yards.

Said Foust, “I think they’re offense is comparable to West Perry’s. They are dynamic, and they have a quarterback that can do a lot of things. I thought our defense finally played a good, aggressive kind of football that we’ve been looking for in the second half of last week. Hopefully they can keep that going this week.”

Shippensburg made a statement with a win over West Perry last week, and a win over Northern York could be the start of a late season run into the playoffs.