SCRANTON -- It's an annual tradition in the Electric City that got postponed by the Scranton teachers strike, but now the big game is back on.
The football face-off between the Scranton Knights and the West Scranton Invaders was supposed to played back in October, but the teachers strike halted that.
Team rivalry was pumped up as Scranton's and West Scranton's football teams prepared to face off against each other in the decades-long annual tradition known as the Battle for the Bell.
Knowing that this was a game that almost wasn't makes it all the more important that it's finally happening.
"It's definitely exciting. This is something that everybody waits for in both schools, Scranton and West, so it was kind of a bummer to think we weren't going to have it. So it's definitely a good feeling that tonight's the night," said Miss Invader Ollie Desarno.
"It's really exciting and lucky that we could actually do it because we all were expecting that we weren't going to have it, so now that we're having it it's fun," Scranton sophomore Courtney Peart said.
West Scranton's marching band and cheerleaders made a big show of marching from their school all the way to Memorial Stadium at Scranton High.
Even though this game is being played as the regular season has ended for other school districts, this is the most valued game of the year.
"This game kind of like brings the community together. The other weeks of football are important, but the Bell Game is the Bell Game. You are competing for a reason. You are only competing to win, but you're competing for the bell," West Scranton junior Stephanie Bingham said.
The winner not only gets bragging rights, but also gets to keep the bell the rest of the year.
In the end, Scranton won the game 21-14 in overtime.
