BYRON, Ill. (WTVO/WQRF) — Through three weeks of this high school football season the Byron Tigers have looked unstoppable. The North Boone Vikings haven’t been too shabby either the last two weeks. Friday night they will collide in Byron in our “Overtime” Gilley’s Heating and Air Conditioning Game of the Week.

Byron head coach Jeff Boyer told me in August this might be the deepest and most committed team that he’s had. That appears to be true so far. In the Tigers first three games against Rock Falls, Lutheran and Rockford Christian they’ve outscored them 211-20. They’re ranked number one in the state in Class 3A.

“We’re probably playing more kids this year than we ever have,” said Boyer. “These kids, like I said, they’ve worked hard, and a lot of these kids deserve to play, and they’re certainly seeing the results on the field.”

Even if some of their opponents aren’t able to push the Tigers, they push themselves. They’re motivated every day by their state semifinal loss last season at I-C Catholic.

“I think we want to really bad this year since we lost in the semis last year, we’ve just got something to prove,” said returning all-conference defensive lineman Josh Harris. “Come back and show everyone we are the real deal.”

“As soon as the season ended last year, we had guys in the weight room right away making themselves better, pushing themselves every day,” said tight end/defensive end Braylon Kilduff. “A lot of people broke the all-time (weightlifting) records. Everyone’s all-in.”

North Boone has been motivated all year by the fact it missed the playoffs last year snapping a string of four straight playoff appearances. It has been big for the Vikings to get two wins in their first three games this season. They could easily be 3-0, but they lost their opener in overtime to Oregon.

“That certainly was a focus for us getting off to a good start,” said North Boone head coach Ryan Kelley. “That’s something that we didn’t do last year, so that was kind of a point of emphasis for us.”

“We wanted to come back, and we wanted to have a much better season,” said defensive lineman Jimmy Ellsworth. “Last season’s not who we are, and we’re here to prove that North in football is not a 3-6 team.”

The last two weeks North Boone has defeated Genoa-Kingston 35-6 and Winnebago 55-6.

The Vikings have always been explosive on offense with their spread attack. That’s true again with Jack Christensen stepping in and stepping up at quarterback and with all-conference selection Chris Doetch back at receiver along with Julian Rodriguez, Azriel Dixon and 6’4 Bradley Dahl.

This year the Vikings’ defense has also risen up. The defense has given up only six points in each of the first three games against Oregon, Genoa-Kingston and Winnebago.

“Our running game has been working really well,” said Christensen We’re averaging like 200 rushing yards a game. Our passing is looking really good now. Our defense is stopping everyone too right now.”

“They can be very explosive on offense to where they can score at any point,” said Boyer. “North Boone’s a playoff team, so we have to be ready to go.”

“We’re all super excited, pumped up to have a very physical game,” said Ellsworth.

“It’s a good test for us to kind of see where we’re at,” said Kelley.

For highlights of this game and many more Friday night watch “Overtime” live at 11 p.m. on Fox 39.