Salmen’s Spartans are hosting the Northshore Panthers tonight in the fifth-annual Spanther Bowl with kickoff scheduled for 7.

The game was started because of the relationship formed between the two schools the year after Hurricane Katrina hit. Salmen’s campus was destroyed by the storm. Northshore allowed Salmen students to take classes at NHS, while Salmen got back on their feet. The winner of the game gets to keep the banner at their school until the other team wins.

Currently, the Spartans have the banner after capturing the 2009 contest 27-6.

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Salmen enters this season following back-to-back state semifinals appearances. Last week, the Spartans blanked Pearl River 42-0 at the Salmen Jamboree.

Salmen coach Jerry Leonard said Northshore’s always big and physical, so it will be a challenge.

Northshore comes in after a tough 2-8-season. The Panthers played Slidell to a 7-7 tie in the Salmen Jamboree.

“They are a real good football team,” Northshore coach Mike Bourg said. “We’re going to have to play the best football game we’ve ever played to beat, but I believe we can.”

Salmen runs the spread offense with senior quarterbacks Matt Lipham and Daniel Sams calling signals.

Last week was a total team effort for the offense. Sams threw a 59-yard touchdown to Jamal Robinson and later rushed for another.

Lipham had a 56-yard run on the game’s opening play.

Joron Adams tallied on a nine-yard run and the third QB Aaron Hill found Greg Brickley for another score.

Defensively, the Spartans were stout last week.

Claude Schick returned an interception 35 yards for a touchdown and Malcolm Pichon recovered a fumble, which set up Adams’ TD.

Leonard talked about the defense.

“I thought we lined up better,” Leonard said. “We flowed to the ball better. We had real good intensity, which we need to keep up, but there’s still room for improvement on both sides of the ball.”

For Northshore, the Panthers run a spread offense with junior Steven Gaines at quarterback.

The running backs are senior Jared Faciane, sophomore Marshall Wadleigh and junior Jared Faciane, who also plays wide receiver. Last week, Nick Ledet scored the Panthers’ touchdown on fourth-and-goal from three-yards out.

Bourg said feels one of the keys for Northshore is ball control.

“We’ve got to be able to run the ball and keep our offense on the field longer than our defense,” Bourg said. “We need long-sustained drives. Even if we don’t score, we need long-sustained drives because their offense is so good.”

Defensively, the Panthers are a 3-3-club.

Last week, NHS’ unit helped set them up with an opportunity to capture the victory when back J.R. Vappie recovered a fumble at Slidell’s 25. Later, a low snap prevented the field goal from being attempted.

Bourg talked about what the defense has to do for a chance.

“They throw well, they’ve got some big-strong receivers and they run well,” Bourg said. “We have to be able to stop everything. If we can control the front and get them to third-and-long, we’ve got a shot.”