Are you ready for some football?
Welcome to the official forum on high school football for the 2018 season.
During the off-season let’s talk about players, recruiting news, teams and everything about high school football.
During the season each week let’s talk about match-ups and how teams did. Let us know what player(s) stood out each week.
881 Responses
Jeff, you might be right, but until December, you, me, and everyone else is just guessing when it comes to Archbishop Wood.
They’ve essentially received a bye into the PIAA semi-finals after going an entire season without beating anyone great. Last night, in the THIRD week of the playoffs (after a true bye in week 1) they played a 5-5 Gratz team that has now been outscored on the season. Next week they will draw a 3 or 4 loss team out of 2/6, known across the state as perennial big-school power districts (sarcasm intended)… Seriously, their path to the state semi-finals is ridiculous They will get there without playing a top 15, maybe not even a top 20, 5A school.
If you examine their body of work on the field it’s a mixed bag. On one hand, they didn’t get embarrassed in losing to probably the best two teams in PA and NJ. On the other hand, they lost to a 3-6 McDonogh squad and beat a 2-9 St Pius team by 2 points. The offense just doesn’t seem to be clicking under the new coach.
To take a historical perspective, Wood outscored opponents by 300 points in 2016 and 2017 en route to state titles. So far in 2018, they’ve outscored opponents 242-166. So if the District 3 winner (Manheim still has to beat two MaxPreps top 6 teams in Cedar Cliff and Cocalico just to win the district) or WPIAL winner can’t beat Wood this year, the PIAA might as well cancel the 5A tournament going forward. P.S. it’s a shame Malvern Prep isn’t in the PIAA because I think they would torch Wood.
I do hope they play at NP’s crappy field, we need all the help we can get.
I didn’t expect them to get this far. I’m glad, cause the Eagles are hard to follow.
All I can say is this……………..someone has to beat SJP !
My, my, my…..lets see who is going to confess that they were wrong about NP being overrated and had no shot at making it to the District finals . Oh by the way it was also said that NP couldnt beat either of the Downingtowns and they beat west in their own building. Waiting on the geniuses to start talking out the sides of the necks predicting CVille mercy rules NP next Friday..
I have to give credit to NP, I was one of the naysayers who didn’t think they would make the final when the playoffs started, pretty impressive win tonight at Dwest, especially considering the circumstances. I still don’t think they can score enough to keep up with Coatesville next week, but we’ll see.
Big upset in 5A in the WPIAL, West Allegheny shocked previously unbeaten Gateway 42-28, Gateway had given up 50 points all year until tonight, I saw WA struggle to beat Woodland Hills last week and thought they had very little chance in this game, tremendous coaching job by Bob Palko.. In the other 5A game Penn Hills came back from a 14-0 first half deficit to beat Peters Twp 22-14, I was at that game and was not all that impressed with PH, lots of skill but undisciplined and both O line and D line decent but not great. What I think this means on the state level is neither West A nor Penn Hills will be able to stop Archbishop Wood’s running game in 2 weeks, and you can pencil in AW right now for Hershey, think Manheim Central is the only team that has a chance to beat them. Lots of guys on here thought I was crazy a few weeks ago for saying AW was still the team to beat in 5A, well, looks like they are the team to beat until proven otherwise, cause I don’t see anyone preventing them from getting to Hershey.
What more can I say? Great win by the Knights, especially considering the circumstances. Finding out only hours before the game that you lost any home field advantage and needed to get on a bus all the way to Downingtown. Sure, they get Coatesville next week but for now, this is to be enjoyed. All year they’ve been questioned and all year they have found some way to win. Go Knights!
Coatesville is very, very good. Let nothing I say after this take away from that. They’re neck and neck with 2016 North Penn as the best D1 team in a long time.
But Garnet Valley got taught a humiliating lesson. I hate to say this about a 17/18 year old kid, but their QB totally blew the game for them in the first half. Their passing game had plenty of very basic opportunities to get them on the board. He completely under-threw a big play on the second drive and shorted his receivers for big gains repeatedly after that. They muffed an option on 3rd and short down, then the QB bricked a simple hook route that gave Bryant an “easy” 90 yard pick six.
GV’s coaching staff should take a long look in the mirror after this. They’ll continually roll their league with an occasional hiccup or 2, but they need a QB who can execute simple out routes to be able to compete with the big boys. Granted, they’ve run into 2 dominating programs the last 3 years, but they need to decide whether competing for a state championship is really their goal.
Coatesville wins 42-7, mercy rule. GV played hard — they’ll be back. I liked how C’ville just pounded the ball up the middle (I think they rely on the pass too much sometimes). Hope C’ville doesn’t have to play on NP’s crappy field (I would guess not, but . . . )
As for Imhotep it doesn’t look like teams from the past, they struggle on offense
Np 35
DW 21