No one inside the Interlake or Sammamish football programs knows more about the Crossroads Cup than Totems’ assistant coach Eric Harrington.

A running back for the best football team in school history- the 1999 group that reached the 3A state title game before falling by four points to Prosser- Harrington still vividly remembers his own Crossroads Cup games.

“The most memorable is probably a double-overtime game from my junior year,” Harrington said. “We lost, but my senior year it was kind of one sided.”

This year, both Interlake and Sammamish enter the game looking the kind of turning point victory that can change a season.

For the Saints, that means getting in the win column for the first time this season and keeping their 2A state playoff hopes alive. It was a lone win over Sammamish in 2010 that propelled coach Jason Rimkus’ squad to a play-in game and eventually the 2A state quarterfinals.

A few miles away at Sammamish, the Totems are looking for their first winning streak since 2004 after picking up their first conference win since 2007 last week against Lake Washington in overtime.

“There was a lot of emotion, even from some of the kids that don’t show a lot of emotion,” Totems’ head coach Brian Tucci said of the aftermath of last week’s win. “It was huge for us as a team and a program with where we are trying to go.”

While Tucci’s group celebrated a potentially program-defining win, Interlake slogged through yet another close-but-no-cigar loss, 26-14 to Mount Si.

“Every team we play is good in our conference,” Saints’ head coach Jason Rimkus said. “We’ve gotten better every week.”

Interlake players and coaches are hoping those improvements finally pay off against a Sammamish team it has owned in previous years, last losing the Crossroads Cup 15-13 back in 2006. The Saints’ streak has only added fuel to the rivalry’s fire.

“The kids genuinely love the rivalry,” Rimkus said. “I wouldn’t say it’s hatred. It’s more like playing hoops in your backyard.”

There’s no doubt the game has a family feel, with many of the players having played junior football together for the Bellevue Bears, the last feeder team in the Greater Eastside Junior Football Association that is shared between two high schools.

“I know a lot of them,” Saints’ running back Jordan Todd said of the Totems. Todd added that he attended middle school at Tillicum, where most of the students will continue on to Sammamish rather than Interlake. Senior lineman Netto Cancilla had a similar, yet slightly less diplomatic take.

“We don’t lose to them” Cancilla said. “And we’re not going to lose to them.”

While Cancilla and his teammates have never experienced anything other than overwhelming wins in the rivalry, Sammamish seniors like quarterback Austin Lee are yearning for their first taste of success against the Saints.

“It would be the best moment of my high school career,” Lee said of a possible win over Interlake. “I would never have to listen to them again.”