The Oak Harbor High School football team hopes the last chapter of the 2014 conference season has a different ending than the past two years.

For the third consecutive fall, the Wildcats will face Marysville-Pilchuck in the final league game of the season with the North 3A title on the line.

The clubs hook up at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, at Wildcat Memorial Stadium.

In the previous showdowns, Marysville-Pilchuck won. The Tomahawks came from 18 points down to win 47-39 in 2012, then won 39-21 last fall.

This will be, in fact, the fourth year Oak Harbor enters the last Wesco game with a title in sight. In 2011, the Wildcats and Meadowdale, both unbeaten in Wesco play, tangled in the final game; that, too, was an Oak Harbor loss, 34-17.

If Oak Harbor wants to reverse the trend, it will have to do so with an upset.

The fourth-ranked Tomahawks (4-0, 6-1) will be heavy favorites over the unranked Wildcats (4-0, 5-1), thanks in large part to all-state running back Austin Joyner.

Joyner, who will play for Washington State University next year, blitzed Oak Harbor for 260 yards on 16 carries (five of more than 25 yards) in 2012. Last year he finished with 148 yards, including TD runs of 72 and 49 yards, on only six carries before leaving with an injury early in the second half.

Joyner did not play in M-P’s only loss this season, 34-10 to second-ranked O’Dea, because of a hip injury.

The Tomahawks played a tough non-league schedule, with a 40-28 win over sixth-ranked 4A Lake Stevens (6-1) to its credit.

This season Joyner has piled up 870 yards on 61 carries (14.3 yards per rush), often sitting out the second half in a number of Tomahawk routs. He has scored 18 touchdowns.

Marysville-Pilchuck is far from a one-man team. Killian Page has rushed for over 1,019 yards on 109 carries (9.3 average). Last year, when Joyner exited with an injury in the Oak Harbor game, Page took over, finishing with 176 yards on 28 carries.

Oak Harbor and Marysville-Pilchuck play similar styles, running out of the wing-T formation.

The Wildcats have passed more often. Senior QB Clay Doughty is having a solid season, hitting 39 of 56 passes (70 percent) for 602 yards and eight touchdowns with no interceptions.

M-P quarterback Eric Lind enters Friday’s game with only 37 passes, completing 15 for 190 yards and three scores.

Oak Harbor will counter the Joyner-Page assault with its three-man rushing attack.

Senior Dejon Devroe has 907 yards on 65 carries (13.95-yard per carry average) for 13 touchdowns. Sophomore Princeton Lollar, bulling between the tackles, has 533 yards on 79 carries (6.75) for seven scores. Senior Zack Jones adds 351 yards on 32 carries (10.97); he has four touchdowns.

The two teams’ scoring averages are similar. M-P wins by an average score of 42.3-19.9. The Wildcats win 42.7-19.7.