For the second straight season, the Game of the Year of the football regular season is here: Canisius at Lancaster.

The No. 2 large school Crusaders again travel to take on the No. 3 Legends at 7 p.m. Friday in a game broadcast on WNY Athletics. 

Lancaster prevailed last year, 24-20, in front of a raucous overflow crowd at historic Foyle-Kling Field.

Friday's game will mark two straight years of high-profile showdowns between a private school and a suburban Erie County school – the previous time a matchup like that occurred was in Week One of 1998 when Orchard Park played St. Joe's.

Canisius, in their second season under coach Kraig Kurzanski '84, comes into the game having won three straight games in dominant fashion.

The Crusaders followed their Week Four 49-7 rout of St. Joe's which tied up the all-time rivalry series for the first time since 1987 with a head-turning 42-18 win at Benedictine in Cleveland, Ohio, then beat Canadian national top 10 program Huron Heights, 41-14. Lancaster is coming off a great road win at perennial power Jamestown.

Quarterback Vincent Zimmerman '24 earned a spot on this week's Connolly Cup honor roll for his three-touchdown, 240-yard performance against Huron Heights.