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
Knight time: I remember 2016. Ortega was a Freshman, Young was a soph., and no Bryant (and C’ville scored 25 points too — not a lockdown IMO). Most importantly, however, I was talking about this year’s team. You’re comparing apples and oranges. If you want to go back to 2016, why not go back to 2017? (More recent and more similar to this year’s team)
To all Suburban One folks, how is it possible that Quakertown does not play North Penn even though they are in the same 7 team conference? Their next 5 games are against Upper Moreland, Cheltenham, Wissahickon, Upper Dublin, and Plymouth-Whitemarsh. Is this standard operating procedure in the SOL?
@ Buddy
My extended family is mostly all DelCo (frown), so I tend to pay more attention to what goes on there than I do elsewhere. I’d be very surprised if GV doesn’t win out. Haverford was their biggest test of the year, and they gutted that one out for the W (keep an eye out for Haverford- they have lots of skill around a 3 year starter at QB. They’re not going to be an easy out in the playoffs, reminding me stylistically of Perk Valley 2 years ago when Sturm was at QB. They should win the rest of their games as well, and be a dangerous 5-10 seed). 5A Springfield DelCo is 3-0, but they have struggled big time in their last 2 and don’t seem to have the level of offense they had a year ago. For comparison, GV crushed a slippery slope Ridley program 55-21, 500+ yards rushing, mercy rule at halftime, with 2 of Ridley’s scores being kickoff and fumble returns and the other after the mercy rule; Springfield needed 3 overtimes to beat Ridley after not scoring at all in regulation. I’d put GV as at least a 2 touchdown favorite over Springfield right now with blowout potential. The only other team that has a remote possibility of challenging GV in the Central League is 5A Radnor, who has one of those teams with a core that has been together since pee wee days. It would still take the collective game of their lives to knock off GV, whose depth on 3 platoons is incredible for a high school team.
@Jeff H
Interesting, possibly shady, theory about D12 going out West. So I take it that the D1 winner will play the D11/D? winner in the semis? Parkland/Freedom/Emmaus must be dancing a jig over not staring at SJP in the quarterfinals again.
@Bleed Red & Black
Good math. It looks like it will be close between Coatesville and GV for the 2 seed, since one of the DTowns will likely have 2 losses and either Springfield DelCo or Haverford will have 2. Weird how it’s gonna work out better for the Raiders to not play Unionville this year. Do you know what kind of points, if any, C’ville gets for that Middletown game? That could be the deciding factor in what would be a huge difference for either team being home or away in the district semis.
@Knight Time
2016 when Ortega and Bryant were freshman and Aaron Young was a sophomore? Is this year’s North Penn team trotting out Ricky Johns, Owen Thomas, Justis Henley, and Reece Udinkski?
Not sure if this NP team is the caliber of that team. It took an almost 300-yard effort and 4 TD by the best RB in the country (Swift) to knock them off from playing for the state championship.
@bleed red& black and @ chief red raider
Outscoring the tougher opponents and can’t seeing anybody locking them down. How quickly you forget 2016 and the District Playoffs with the great skill players and high scoring team of that year
@Uncle T
I agree that Shanahan dropping to 4A could come back and hurt Coatesville and both DTown’s at some point, but I think teams in every league outside of the SOL National and SOL Continental are in similar situations. Coatesville and both Dtown’s have 3 5A schools and Shanahan 4A on there schedule so if they win all of them they will get 460 pts. Garnet Valley, on the other hand, has 4 5A schools which will net them 480 points. The 20 points are essentially 2 extra wins awarded by bonus points. The 100 point difference North Penn would have by playing all 6A schools is a little more difficult to overcome.
There are only 7 undefeated 6A D1 teams remaining (Cville, Dtown East, Dtown West, Garnet Valley, North Penn, Quakertown and Truman) if standings are correct and I didn’t miss somebody.
The big separator is going to be the bonus points come the end of the year. Coatesville already has 170 bonus points (tops among the undefeated teams) at the moment thanks to strong starts by basically everybody on their schedule outside of Cumberland Valley and Henderson. North Penn, on the other hand, has the lowest with 90 bonus points due to slow starts by pretty much everybody on their schedule. Granted all of that changes once conference games start this week and the likes of Shanahan (2-1)and WC East (3-0) both have to play Cville and Dtown East and West, and should be 3 losses.
Can’t speak for anybody else but Coatesville is going to rack up a ton of bonus points by having Harrisburg, Dtown East, Dtown West, Rustin and possibly Middletown South on their schedule. Although they could also be hurt by Rustin deciding to play the 2nd scrimmage thus only playing 9 games and Middletown only having 8 games scheduled before the conclusion of the PIAA defined 10 week season.
BR&B, please re-read my post. I’ll specify…..”not impressed last night with the Red Raiders, at least from the middle of the second quarter after the muffed punt.” If you or anyone else who is familiar with C’Ville and watched from that point on (muffed punt), I really don’t know what else to say. Up 28-0, complete domination, getting the ball back at worse mid-field, looking at going up 35-0 and then not putting them away at that point. In fact, they were outscored 19-7 from that point on, and the D did not stop CV for the rest of the game (3 TDs and the half). That from a top ranked team playing at home, with an x-tra day of rest/prep, against a struggling, re-building team, yes, that does not impress me. I’m not saying I’m not impressed with the Red Raiders and their past history (and a congrats are in order for being the first D1 team to reach 700 wins with that win Friday night), or this year’s team overall, just that game the other night. I can see Will Howard picking that D apart, or Garvey Jonassaint running all night long on that D, if they play like that again. Yes, they are still in my mind the favorite to win the D1 6A title, but North Penn, Garnet, D-East and West will have a lot to say about that as Uncle T laid out.
You’re the man Bleed Red and Black — nice synopsis concerning Coatesville. If they can stay healthy, they should go pretty far. I am a bit concerned with the defense, but maybe they will just outscore the tougher opponents — I don’t see any team locking them down.
@Uncle T
No one is belittling C’Villa but at the same time we are not going to act like they are going to just tip toe through the tulips in District 1…….Please!
@ Uncle T – just my opinion and have no information to support it but I think some of the powers that be in the PIAA got tired of the 6A final (and previously 4A) always being District 12 vs. District 7, so for the next 2 yr cycle that’s not going to happen because they moved District 12 to the other side of the bracket, so D12 vs. D7 will occur in the semi-finals and not the final. State College will be in the mix as they will take on the D7 winner in the quarterfinals, but as of now I would expect either Pine Richland or North Allegheny to play SJP in the “western” final in a couple of months.
@Foleman – great win for BC over McDonogh, I thought they lose by 10-14 points. Certainly appears BC and McDevitt and headed for a rematch in the D3 final, and since Imhotep is now on the other side of the bracket the winner of that game has an excellent chance to face Imhotep in Hershey for the title (Erie Prep is down a good bit this year, don’t think either ECP or TJ from the WPIAL will beat Imhotep in the semi-finals).
Also surprised like most of you that Township beat CD at their place, looks like they are a strong contender to repeat.
Regarding Coatesville I think most neutral observers would have them as the favorite to win DI, yes, I realize because of the playoff format they will likely have to beat several very good teams in a row, possibly GV and NP on the road, I think the team that poses the biggest threat to them is GV, don’t think NP has the front 7 on defense to slow down Ortega and company, and doesn’t have the firepower on offense to outscore them.
allright. name goes in top block ( under “leave a reply”), next block email, comment under “website”.
Or what?
C’ville has dates with both D’towns. Could be a wrestle there.
Will GV go undefeated?
Saw film on Malvern Prep vs LaSalle, Explorers had all the chances in the world. TO’s killed them. A young team that will be back.
They have 2 Freshman that start at LB. #22 Carter is a absolute stud, he was the best player on the field at times maybe 8 Tackles 2-3 Sacks. I was also very impressed with Lasalles 6’6 WR, man is this kid good. D1 material. BIG, Great Hands. He has to get the ball
Malvern was so so, Scored on the same play 3x Rocket Screens
Coatesville is the team with the highest ceiling, but they are set up for a difficult D1 path. It’s still a little early, but the way things look, North Penn and Garnet Valley are both likely to run the table and their schedule points will give them the 1 and 2 seeds respectively. Bishop Shanahan dropping to 4A is gonna be costly for C’ville’s points, but they should win out as well and get the 3 seed if they are as good as advertised. That will likely mean either DTown East or West (who both look quite legit), in the 2nd round. So we’re talking about a round 1 cakewalk, a home rivalry rematch against one of the DTowns in round 2, then 2 long road trips against GV and North Penn. That’s a tough ask, so they’ll have earned every bit of it if they just get back to where they were last year.
Does anyone know why the PIAA moved D12 to western side of the playoff bracket this year?
Bleed Red & Black – Coatesville has an awesome Team and a great tradition. Don’t let these grumpy old men get to you. Way too many positive things to talk about in high school football. Not sure why some need to belittle other teams to make their schools seem better.
To say that you weren’t impressed with Coatesville by watching 1 game is just plain ignorance. There are 2+ years of tape/film, newspaper articles, etc with the same core group of guys to prove that they are impressive. Since the trio of Ortega/Bryant/Young have been on the field together they are 27-4 with the only losses coming to start powerhouses SJP, Cumberland Valley (twice) and North Penn. In that time frame, they are averaging over 42 points a game.
You can go back to plays for teams every year and pick apart why players did certain things. They are high school 15-18 year old KIDS. They are going to make mistakes. Professionals NFL players do stupid stuff and they are getting paid millions of dollars. Coatesville basically did whatever they wanted in the 1st half against Cumberland Valley hence the 28-7 score with the only points coming off the fumbled/muffed punt. They only had 2 possessions in the 2nd half and scored on the 1st and ran the clock out on the 2nd.
Is their stuff that Coatesville could improve on? Yes, of course, there are. But the same can be said about most high schools in the country at this point in their season. I would expect Coatesville as well as any other playoff team to be vastly improved come playoff time compared to week 2-3. Coatesville is has been inconsistent on the defensive side of the ball stopping the run the last 2 games, but they are also working in a handful of guys with limited varsity snaps at both the LB and DL positions.
The “lack of discipline” and penalties have been an issue forever at Coatesville. At times I think the calls come out of reputation more than anything. They won the D1 championship last year with those “issues” as well as making it to the state championship game in 2012 with those “issues”. You can go back to the last 10-15 years if not longer and find Coatesville getting the raw end of the deal on many occasions when it comes to penalties and refs calls.
Coatesville is going to be right in the thick of the D1 playoff talk and trip to Hershey talk(barring injury) come the end of the year. Coatesville is going to score points, the question will be is there a team in the area with that can either match their offensive firepower or make enough plays on the defensive side of the ball to give them a chance to win. Coatesville isn’t a one trick pony if you sell out to Aaron Young from running the ball Rickie is either going to beat you in the passing game or with his feet. If you try to take the passing game of Rickie/Dapree away then Aaron is going to kill you on the ground. They’ve got 5 guys right now with D1 offers/commitments (Young, Ortega, Bryant, Santiago and Holmes) as well as a couple other at least that have a chance to play high level ball (Nichols, Thompson, Kirk)
Hey Derrick and Mike Smoll. I didn’t see the Central – Warwick game so I can’t comment on his performance, but I do know that Warwick has three D1 Linemen in Big Rucci (Wisconsin) Little Rucci (Wisconsin) and Coomer (Delaware) so they are certainly a formidable team. Also, Simon already has offers from Pitt and West Virginia so evidently some college coaches feel he is an OK QB.
Did not envision Township beating CD. That’s makes them the favorite now in D3 6A.
Cocalico with a big win over Mifflin makes them 3-0 to date and a challenger to Central maybe??? Mifflin is struggling at 0-3 however.
Three former LL QB’s in the NFL. Nagy and Reich are coaching and Henne is back-up with the Chiefs. That is amazing! I’m guessing there isn’t another High School league with two former players as head coaches in the NFL.
BC with a nice win over McDonough 14-13. McDonough went for two at the end of the game and missed.
I do think that Coatesville will win the east this year, but there will be a lot of tough teams in the District 1 playoffs, they may have to get through a really good North Penn team and then SJP after that, but I think they can do it. And if not, I’m still just really excited for this season.
Sounds like Knight Time is making a prediction — we’ll see if “any” playoff team with a good defense and a run game game can take out Coatesville. It’s a bit of cheap shot to say C’ville can be taken out year after year because of their emotions and undisciplined play — they won District 1 last year (beat GV by the way) and were a play away from going to the state championship (and they didn’t lose because of their emotions or penalties). I’m definitely not in awe of C’ville, they are H.S. kids after all, but if anyone has seen many of their games over the past few years, it’s hard to deny their talent. Young, Ortega, and Bryant are genuine D1 prospects — I just want to enjoy watching them light up the scoreboard for a little bit longer. By the way, I like that “Greatest show on turf” thing. It’s been said before, but it’s still pretty catchy.
To all the followers in this forum in awe of CVille and their greatest show on turf. Their Achilles heel for years has been their discipline (unecessary penalties) and can be taken out of their game because year after year they play with their emotions on their sleeves. Any playoff team with a good defense and can run the ball (NP and GV) can take them out
District 3 Commish watch the QB you recommended on TV last night for 2 1/2 Qtrs, a very good High School ball player, but “Definitely a Power 5 QB” seems to be a stretch, from the limited time I saw he’s got a lot of work til he’s in that company.
@ Foleman. I watched Evan play last night on PCN. He is good, but I don’t see what you see. I have definitely seen better QB’s in high school.
Where is the scoreboard?
TAKE THE S off HTTPS://
Hey Kevin X, as a C’ville guy, I don’t necessarily disagree with you. However, it seemed to me that without all the penalties (or lack of penalties) it would have easily been a mercy rule game. The big question is: were most of the penalties (or no calls) legit? If so, then I’m more in line with your thinking. I definitely saw some poor tackling from C’ville and some secondary issues, but I think it will take a very strong defensive team to slow down their offense — Ortega’s arm is fine. I think the Downingtown games could be good, but I think they will be shooting matches and C’ville has the heavy artillery.
Last night Southern Columbia freshman Gavin Garcia 3 TD this kid can play. Southern has so many weapons. This could very well be the best Southern team to date. And that comes from a Dunmore bucks fan.