With the crowd on its feet in anticipation of the opening kickoff, the public address at Northwest High School's stadium blared techno music and a voice proclaimed, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the main event!" followed by boxing's familiar call of "Let's get ready to rumble!"

The overflow crowd of 4,500 fans gave Friday's varsity football match-up between the Northwest High School Jaguars and the Seneca Valley High School Screamin' Eagles all the atmosphere of a heavyweight fight. And for the residents of Germantown, the game turned a cross-town rivalry into the community's main event.

The game matched Seneca Valley, the defenders of four consecutive state 4A football championships against Northwest, a 3-year-old school with an up-and-coming football program looking to crawl from the shadow of its Germantown rival and forge its own identity.

It also brought friends and neighbors out for a good-natured "backyard brawl" that lived up to its rivalry.

"One! We are the Jaguars! Two! A little bit louder! Three! ...," Chris Ginsburg, a freshman linebacker for Northwest's junior varsity football team, chanted along with the Northwest cheerleaders as he stood next to the concession stand and watched the game that was tied at 7 at the end of the first quarter.

"All these years Seneca's been winning and they think they own Germantown," Ginsburg, clad in his No. 35 football jersey, said.

"It's ours," chimed his friend Andy Wildman, a sophomore tight end and linebacker for the JV, also wearing his jersey. "This is our house."

Northwest decorated its house for the occasion, with "Jaguars" painted in bold black capital letters in the end zones and on the home sideline and crumpled newspaper poked through holes in the chain link fence surrounding the stadium, spelling out messages of good luck and players' jersey numbers. As the Jaguars took the field, they broke through a banner that read: "The real reason they're Screamin'/This is Jaguar country."

But Donald Kress, who serves as the school system's community superintendent for both schools, explained that the rivalry stemmed less from a turf battle and more from a family feud. Northwest opened in 1997, drawing students from Seneca Valley's enrollment.

"Some of these students went to middle school together at Clemente," Kress said. "Some of them who were freshmen at Seneca Valley High School are now seniors at Northwest High School."

"It's a good healthy rivalry," said Kress, whose daughter graduated from Seneca Valley and whose son-in-law is now an assistant coach there.

"It's a neighborhood rivalry," said Seneca Valley head coach Terry Changuris. His players were aware that bragging rights were at stake, he said. "We addressed that when we talked. These kids grew up with each other, they went to school with each other, so that speaks for itself."

School spirit for the growing rivalry between the schools could be seen on the face of Northwest junior Richard Rotella, who painted a big black blob from ear to ear and carried a sign that read "Northwest Rocks."

"It's our No. 1 rival Seneca Valley, and they are going down," Rotella said. "They beat us bad last year."

Undaunted, a group of girls from Seneca Valley showed their school colors as they walked passed Rotella and through the stadium gates wearing Screamin' Eagles jerseys.

Inside the stadium, sophomores Natalie Flores and Karelia Flores, who are not related, sported long-sleeved Northwest T-shirts created by a friend's father as they looked for friends and seats in the crowded bleachers. The back of Karelia's shirt contained a message inspired by the movie "Wayne's World" "We like Seneca Valley!!! NOT ... Go Jags." Natalie, a Northwest student who goes to Seneca Valley for ROTC training, wore a message inspired by a popular song that read "Who Let the Jags Out?"

The morning before the game, Northwest athletic director Tom Manuel said he expected "pretty damn near the whole school" to attend.

"It's going to be packed. We've had kids lining up for 45 minutes at a time at lunch to buy tickets for both themselves and their parents," said Manuel.

"The community supports football both here and at Seneca," he said.

The community support for Northwest on Friday included some future Jaguars. Moriah Vanvlerah celebrated her 10th birthday at the game with 10 friends from Ronald McNair Elementary.

"She wanted to come," said her mother, Lynda. "We come every year."

Moriah said she is not a football fan, but comes to the games for one thing: "Screaming."

"She also likes to see the boys," Lynda teased.

Northwest sophomore Brittany Burton and friends had similar interests. "I'm interested in the people who are up here," Burton said, motioning to the bleachers.

"This is a different thing -- instead of going to the mall," sophomore Crystal Edwards said.

On the opposite side of the field, freshman Jessica Carrillo, wearing a green Seneca Valley jacket, took more of an interest in the game. "C'mon Seneca!" she screamed, as Northwest, leading 13-7, pinned the Screamin' Eagles inside their own 20 yard-line early in the fourth quarter.

"If we don't win, I have to take this jacket off and turn it around," she said.

"If we lose, Tim's gonna dye his hair black," Carrillo said, nudging her friend Tim Butler, a strawberry-blonde freshman at Seneca Valley who said he made a deal with another Screamin' Eagle fan.

"The community is great -- very supportive," said Victor Manor Sr., whose son Victor Jr. is a sophomore guard and nose tackle for Seneca Valley. "They're enthusiastic, but not too zealous where it goes overboard."

"The kids -- all of them went to school together," said Manor, whose brother Alfred came from Texas to see his nephew's team play. "They're separated by different schools, but they're still friends."

Fans on both sides of the field agreed that the rivalry is a friendly one.

"My kid goes to Seneca, but all her friends go to Northwest, so she's sitting on the Northwest side," Buddy Gibson said. Who was Gibson rooting for? "Northwest -- the underdog."

While friends mingled in the crowd, on the field the two teams showed they were developing a strong football rivalry. With four minutes to go in the game, fireworks erupted in the night sky, evidence of the celebration going on at the grand opening of the nearby Germantown soccerplex. Moments later, the Northwest crowd erupted as junior running back Eugene King plunged into the end zone to put the Jaguars on top 19-7 with four minutes left in the game.

Near the Seneca Valley sideline, Carrillo removed her jacket and Butler began pondering life with dyed hair.

But it wasn't over. The Screamin' Eagles scored a late touchdown and recovered the ensuing onside kick, giving Seneca a chance at a seemingly impossible comeback.

But when a pass to the end zone on fourth-and-14 fell incomplete, it was finally time for Northwest to celebrate.

Fans yelled "Three! Two! One!" as the clock ticked down before rushing to the center of the field, where players, coaches, staff, students, and parents screamed and jumped and hugged one another.

In the midst of the celebration, Northwest head coach Randy Trivers stood at midfield and addressed his team. "October 6, 2000, will always be remembered as the night that there's a new king crowned in Germantown!" he said.

King, who rushed for 80 yards on 13 carries and scored all three of Northwest's touchdowns, agreed. "We can claim Germantown and tell them we're king," he said.