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
@Bojangles – in a word, no, expect SoCol to beat either LV or Richland by 3 TD’s, they are that much better than everyone else in 2A, agree they would likely win 3A, but 4A is a whole different story, doubt they would beat the traditional powers in 4A.
@d3 Mike – you are right, Erie Prep is not nearly as good as their prior 2 teams state championship teams, but they are still very good, I’ve seen them play once this year, I just don’t see them winning the title again. TJ has a mental block against them, that’s why I don’t like their chances to beat them, but if South Fayette upsets TJ on Saturday I give them a chance against ECP because they have a very good passing game and might be able to exploit Prep’s secondary. The only flexibility TJ has with their schedule is the week O game, and they have a scrimmage instead of scheduling a game, imo they would be better off playing a powerhouse team from 5A or 6A than another scrimmage, other than that the WPIAL makes the schedule, although they could ask the WPIAL to schedule tougher non conference games, this year they played a horrible 5A Connelsville and a mediocre 3A Central Valley as their 2 non conference games, which did absolutely nothing to prepare them for the state playoffs.
The Prep vs. Tep trilogy was entertaining, but would be nice to see some new teams this year, maybe Becahi or VV will upset Imhotep, and the D3 winner will get past the Prep/WPIAL winner, we’ll see, expect some very competitive games the next few weeks.
I don’t know the other teams you mentioned but York would be one and done most years. District 3 isn’t great at 2A now that Lancaster Catholic and Wyomissing moved up. (Both won state titles at 2A within the past few years and play at 3A now).
And this isn’t most years, since Southern Columbia probably has the best small school team in memory. They might mercy rule the field.
I know that S Columbia could most likely win 3 and compete in 4A…but is there any chance for York or the Richland/ligonier winner
@D3 Mike,
Disclaimer: I am a Valley View alum but I won’t tell you or anyone they are the best and will smoke all of 4A. I was interested to see what neutral people have to say.
What I will say is this…I was at the VV/Tep game last year when isheem young pretty much beat us by himself. They are not AS good and we are better. They are most certainly beatable. Like You said, was there enough of a change to eliminate a 41 point gap? The gap is definitely narrowed, by how much? I don’t know. They still have a Baylor commit and a WV commit, plus more D1 prospects. So for sure the whole east, including us are all u underdogs. I can only hope for a great game.
@Jeff H
I watched ECP get steamrolled in 2015 by Tep. Of course Tep had something like 8 or 9 D1 guys and their line averaged 6’5 308 that year I believe. And then of course ECP regrouped and beat Tep the next two years. It was fun to watch the trilogy but it’s nice to see new teams in.
I agree with D3 Mike that 4A is wide open this year. And any “predictions” once we get to next week could literally go either way it’s that close imo. TJ vs SF..fayette could win that game for sure. Berks/mcdevitt…same thing. Bechai/pottsgrove…Bechai prob wins that. And then Tep/VV. It’s going to be fun to watch.
I propose that the PIAA creates another class for all Catholic and privates schools no matter what size the school. Too much recruiting by these schools and nothing gets done. I went to Catholic high school and I am sick of all of them.
@Sky I wasn’t there so I can’t comment on what happened Friday night. But I’ve seen several LaSalle-SJP games in recent years and a fair number of other Prep games (often a computer screen, which of course offers a better view than almost anyone at the game has) and I’ve never seen the Prep hit the opposing team’s center when in a goal line defense in a way that would likely or even very possibly cause an injury. If two Prep defensive linemen hammered LaSalle’s center in the way you say they did, I think the officials should at least have thrown a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct or unnecessary roughness. And if there was clear intent to injure or, since such intent is hard to be sure of, reckless action that could lead to injury, the players should have been thrown out of the game. (I’m next to certain the officials can do that.) And, frankly, if what you describe is what the officials saw, I have no idea why they didn’t act accordingly.
The context of my comments is hearing from a few LaSalle people myself in recent years and from family and friends in contact with other LaSalle people–I’m a Prep guy–that the Prep has thrown a lot of money at the football program, brought in a lot of “athletes,” and is way too cocky and aggressive while LaSalle plays a cleaner, more disciplined game with players who may not be as talented but who “play their hearts out” and, in a case of “virtue rewarded,” spring the occasional upset over the Prep. (Maybe a combination of factors had LaSalle thinking lightening would strike again on Friday.) I know I’m not entirely objective, but I can recall a few LaSalle-Prep games, Including ones the Prep won, e.g. regular season 2015, where the officiating struck me as strikingly biased in favor of LaSalle.
Jeff, why doesn’t TJ schedule better non-conference foes? Does the WPIAL restrict it in some way?
And yeah, Cathedral Prep plays a tough schedule but they do every year … and they were still undefeated 6 of the 7 times they made the state finals previously (1 loss the other time). This year they have 2 losses, so just based on the prior year comparisons I don’t think they’re as good as their previous state final teams (FWIW I’ve seen them play exactly zero minutes). Just read a bit in the Erie paper.
Should be a good game out west, though. I’d love to see BC get another shot at Prep but will be pulling for TJ just so I don’t have to hear their coach crying about non-boundaries in the post-game again 🙂 Where will that one be played this year?
Also, agreed on BC needing to control tempo in D3. A true contrast in styles with BC grinding the wing-T and McDevitt airing it out.
PS If anyone has access to the MaxPreps tool (I can’t find it) I’d be curious to see the strength of schedule ratings for the top 4A schools. McDevitt and Berks both played decent slates this year and Imhotep always does.
@Sky – I’m from Pittsburgh and have a lot of respect for the job Infante’s done at SJP and by all accounts seemed to be a class act, but if the reports I heard about Friday’s game against LaSalle are true then I agree with you 100%, bush league and classless move. And some of the LaSalle guys have been saying that’s not the first time something like that has happened, not sure how accurate that is but my respect for Infante just went down several notches. I root against them just because I’m a public school fan and from the other side of the state, but all the more reason to hope Coatesville or someone else beats them.
@D3 Mike & Bojangles – ECP is starting to get healthier and got Billy Lucas back last week, and I give them the edge over the WPIAL winner, which I think will be TJ for the 4th yr in a row, but expect South Fayette to give them their toughest challenge of the year on Saturday at Heinz. ECP plays a way more difficult schedule than TJ (or SF for that matter) and that comes back to haunt TJ when they play Prep, if they are ever going to beat them this is probably the year, but I don’t see it happening (and I hope I’m wrong because I’m a WPIAL guy) I do think the D3 winner has a good chance to beat ECP this year, and think McDevitt and BC is a tossup, if BC is going to win think they need to control the clock and limit the number of possessions McDevitt gets, because I don’t think they are going to beat them if it turns into a shootout.
In the east I agree and don’t see anyone beating Imhotep, think the D3 winner and Imhotep would make for a good final in Hershey, before the playoffs started I picked BC vs.Imhotep on this board, and I’m sticking to that prediction for now.
@FrankG..come on, a team as disciplined as Prep is, jumping offsides twice before cadence even starts is just crap….this cheap shot maneuver is bush league at best. Its hard to respect the best team in the state when they do this kind of garbage. Coaching staff should be ashamed of themselves for coaching this behavior.
@Bojangles now you’re talking!
It’s a lot closer this year – any of 6 schools could realistically win the state title.
Thomas Jefferson is stronger and Cathedral lost a lot of talent plus has had injury issues. I’ll take TJ in a close one in that quarter (assuming TJ makes it past a very good South Fayette team).
McDevitt is a bad match up for Berks Catholic. I’m an alum and have been to most of their games – great front 7 but inexperienced and a bit slow in the secondary. Malvern torched them up top as Cathedral did in years past. We’ll see if BC can get to the QB or not. Should be a great game but I’d have to pick McDevitt in a shootout.
Valley View is improved but have they narrowed the Imhotep gap by 41 points?Imhotep isn’t amazing this year but they’ve been to a bunch of consecutive state finals now. With their schedule, experience, and D1 talent that side of the bracket is still theirs to lose.
Imhotep
TJ
Erie
McDevitt
Berks
Valley View
How bout a break from 6A for a bit…since imhotep and ECP are not the monsters they’ve been the last few years…any thoughts/predictions on 4A?
I’m pretty sure 3CTV is not covering the C’viile/GV game — announcer said it was their last game on Friday. I think the cost is prohibitive (thanks to the PIAA). They did the district final last year, so I guess if they got the finances they would cover it.
I doubt 3CTV broadcast the Cville/Garnet Valley game. I believe they made mention this past week on the broadcast that it was going to be there last of the year.
The PIAA is charging these stations anywhere from $350-$500 per game for 5A/6A. To broadcast the entire D1 playoffs a station is going to be spending almost $2,000. Although it is a luxury to have (especially if you stayed home the past 2 weeks with the weather) I doubt these stations have the sponsorship revenue to be able to do it more than a couple weeks. Not sure about the NPTV, I think according to PIAA rules they get a discount if it a school-owned station. Even still the school is going to be paying out hundreds of dollars to broadcast all the games.
@ Buddy, et al…..
3CTV is done broadcasting/streaming football games this season. Their last game was last Friday. No GV/C’Ville game (or any other game) broadcast/stream this week from them.
Friday: NP was 11th seed in 2011, went to state final lost to CD 14-7.
But I say so what. If you aren’t in a group of 8, you don’t make playoffs.
Of course that year ( 2011), it would have been a travesty if NP didn’t make it.
Also, D1 lowers to 8 teams, the rest of the state will follow suit. They almost have to.
@ et al:
3CTV covers Chesmont football live. I assume they will cover C’ville / GV.
But will they also cover DTW/NP ? Or can they only be in one place at a time?
@Buddy:
With the way the PPL works, Central is in the toughest division (i.e. with Imhotep, Northeast, Gratz, Bartram, Frankford) so they have recently struggled in the regular season. Then they play some of the teams in the lower divisions in the playoffs (the seeding system is super wonky) and win a couple games before losing again. The PPL playoffs also start a week before the rest of the state. In general, that playoff system could use some (read: a lot of) tweaking, but I guess they want all the city public schools to play in a playoff if they make it through the season without forfeiting.
My updated, revamped, streamlined, even steven no bye week, 32 team 5 week 6A playoff bracket suggestion that still reasonably retains and crowns district champions (really not too much different from what we have now)………..
D1 – 8 teams (this was tough as you have 33 teams competing, but hey, we have all chalk right now with the final four)
D3 – 8 teams (well done D3, already in place)
D11 – 4 teams (we had the best 4 D11 teams playing this past weekend, question is, would we originally have Parkland or Stroudsburg as the 4 seed)
D12 – 4 teams (sorry no separate PCL and PPL over the top useless playoff, figure it out during the regular season, and figure out your 4 reps)
D7 – 4 teams (sure that will send shivers up the spines of WPIAL traditionalist and messes with their Heinz Field final, but oh well, something has to give)
D 2/4/6/8/10 – 4 teams (State College and 3 other sacrificial lambs to fill out the bracket and have some form of inclusive representation)
Buddy-
Remember though, NP has made it to the final or won D1 from lower than the 8th seed on more than 1 occasion. I believe the year they lost to CD in the state final they were either the 9th or 11th seed. Not sure if going down to 8 actually gives you the best teams in the district.
@Friday
NPTV has never, in the past, streamed games live.
When did this start and are you sure?
BTW, did you see the last game on NPTV? Horrible. Film was fragmented. It would freeze, when started again, play was over.
There just isn’t a great way to do the brackets when every district has a different number of teams, and so many districts now have only 1 or 2 schools in a class.
If you break down the 90 teams in 6A to get to the semi-finals you have:
D1: 33 schools
D11/D12: 22 schools
D7/D2/D4/D6/D8/D10: 18 schools
D3: 17 schools
D1 has the most teams by far; D3 second most by almost a half dozen. There just isn’t a cleaner way to split them up IMO. I think the PIAA did their best on that.
BUT… they should require all districts to have their bye week in week 11 instead of week 14. That’s within their control so I think the PIAA dropped the ball there.
Of course that still doesn’t change the fact that the D1 winner still needs to be the best out of 33 teams as opposed to 17, 18, or 22. So it will never be “fair”; the best the PIAA can do is make it less unfair with how byes can be allotted by the districts.
@Sky I find it very odd that if such unsportsmanlike and even dangerous play is so obvious to those of you in the LaSalle stands watching those plucky Explorers playing their hearts out SJP has yet to be appropriately penalized, especially since, according to you, it’s been common practice for SJP to take such cheap shots for several years now.
Buddy-
NPTV on youtube has been streaming all home games, including playoff games at Wissahickon. If the weather is decent I will be there, if not I will be streaming it on the TV with a fire and an adult beverage.
No question a bye late in the playoffs is an advantage, part of the problem with the move to 6 classes is there’s not enough teams to field a full playoff bracket in each class, the way things are set up now some teams have to get byes, as Kevin X. mentioned there are 5 situations out of the 12 brackets where this occurs. The WPIAL winners in 1A and 3A have a bye after the district championship next week, just like the Harrisburg/CD winner. In fact the WPIAL 3A winner the last 2 years has had a bye after the WPIAL championship, then had to win 1 game to get to Hershey, and both of course subsequently won the state title (Beaver Falls & Quaker Valley). I think those 2 teams were the best teams in the years they won, but there’s no doubt they had an advantage by having a bye in the quarterfinal round while everyone else was playing. The way to avoid that is to eliminate a week off the playoffs so you can put together a full playoff bracket where no one gets byes, and maybe it still doesn’t work, but it’s something I think the PIAA needs to address.
Prep/LaSalle—-LaSalle played their hearts out against a better team. They gave St. Joes Prep all they wanted. Infante is a great coach, that can’t be denied. Personally, I think that any coach that would coach their defense to purposefully jump offsides at the goal line to get a free hit at the center and qb is a classless jerk who should be penalized severely for this lack of sportsmanship and potential for injuring a player. For more clarification, LaSalle was first and goal from the Prep 1. Not once, but twice in a row, as soon as the offense was set before cadence was started, the defensive lineman over the center jumped off the line of scrimmage and hammered a cheap shot at the center and the qb. This is, and has been a common practice for Prep to do this to opponents for some years now. I myself have seen this activity numerous times. When it is obvious what they are doing, why is it tolerated? At some point in time this activity is going to cause an injury, most likely a neck considering the impact. Any input by any refs in the forum would be appreciated.