I was thinking over the past 15 years, I have seen hundreds of HS Football games. Which game would you say is the best HS Football game you ever saw?
One game that comes to my mind recently was in 2006, Bethlehem Liberty defeated Pennsbury in four-overtimes 45-38. That was one of the greatest games that people still talk about.
Another of my favorite games was the 2003 3A State Final game in a snow storm. Manheim Central won in double overtime over Pine-Richland 39-38 to win their first state championship in football.
What is the best game that you ever saw?
61 Responses
District 2 = football pride
with many respected “SMASH MOUTH” football programs
there are so many amazing game’s to recall….
however as LAKELAND CHIEFS fan there are many for the CHIEFS that come to mind….many would say
from the year 2000 LAKELAND was the annoying monkey
on the respected DUNMORE BUCKS back who dismantled teams except the CHIEFS for 11 straight games LAKELAND held off rival DUNMORE in season and DISTRICT 2″AA” CHAMPIONSHIPS. season sweeps on DUNMORE doesn’t come easy. in recent years the Bucks have turned the tide ..The Chiefs WILL BE BACK !!
OTHERS WOULD DEF SAY…..
2010 “at” UNDEFEATED RIVERSIDE VIKINGS
in week 9 with everyone healthy for the vikings the CHIEFS were down 20…and came back to BEAT the VIKINGS 21-20 winning that game”AA” LAKELAND won the LFC title and
‘A”RIVERSIDE went into the P.I.A.A PLAYOFFS HAMMERING teams and reached the class “A” STATE TITLE game
losing a VERY CLOSE game against CLARTON THE VIKES were up 24points late in the game ..but bowed to a very talented Clarton squad ….
but one game that stands out to me is the year 1980 Lakeland the owner’s of 7 suburban league championships moved to the “BIG 11” with “SOME” schools saying we couldn’t compete with the big dogs well the CHIEFS settled this with POWERHOUSE VALLEY VIEW COUGARS in the
BIG 11 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
LAKELAND 43
VALLEY VIEW 8
enough said !!
Lakeland’s championship tradition started with the much respected Jerry Wasilchak who lead the CHIEFS to many championships coach “WAZ”
retired in 1984 but stayed on the sidelines for many years to lend his much respected ideas
SUBURBAN CHAMPIONS
1971-1972-1975-1976-1977-1978-1979-
BIG 11 CHAMPS
1980-1981-1982-1987
LACKAWANNA FOOTBALL CONFERENCE CHAMPS
2000-2001-2002-2003-2004-2005-2006-2010
DISTRICT 2 “AA” CHAMPS
2000-2002-2003-2004-2006
DISTRICT 2 is loaded with PRIDE to mention
a few…..BERWICK …….
ABINGTON HEIGHTS – DUNMORE – VALLEY VIEW –
OLD FORGE – RIVERSIDE – LACKAWANNA TRAIL –
DELAWARE VALLEY- DALLAS
and one team on the rise is WESTERN WAYNE
with going many seasons without any wins
last year winning a few and losing close games
the WILDCATS have shown BIG IMPROVEMENTS !!!
good luck wildcats and new coach !
just remember “YOU GET OUT WHAT YOU PUT IN”
HARD WORK- PRIDE – =CHAMPIONS
GO CHIEFS !!!!
Mine go back a little more than 15 years but not to far past.
Second best game I saw. 1991 Eastern Conference Class 1 Final Berwick (10-2) at North Pocono (11-0). 2 heavyweights pounding it out. Berwick leads 21-14 with 20 seconds left. Keith Olsommer catches a 10 yard touchdown pass from B.J. Gallis. After learning that Montoursville had won the right to go to the state tournament (as they only took 4 teams that year), NP head coach Nick Donato says F-IT, we’re going for the win. With Berwick pinching the ends, Fullback Ryan McGee takes the ball right up the middle for the 2 point conversion and a 22-21 victory that gave NP a 12-0 season.
BEST game I saw. 1988 District 11 AAAA Championship Pocono Mountain (11-0) at Easton (10-1). Pocono Mountain from the little Centennial League and Easton from the big bad East Penn Conference. Can it be that the Centennial League can go into Cottingham Stadium in Easton and walk away with a District Championship 2 years in a row? Easton took Lehighton very lightly the year before and paid dearly for it. There was no way they were going to let it happen again. Or would they? Easton stuffed the stat box full like it was no tomorrow, while Pocono Mountain was barely staying afloat. Easton lead 17-14 (the only time all season PM trailed) with 6 minutes to go and was marching down to put the final nail in the coffin. But Eric Dial stepped in front of a Marlon Worthy pass and returned it 35 yards to set the Cardinals up. They drive the ball to the 10 where Placekicker and Soccer Star Dave Smith hit a 27 yard field goal with 4 minutes to go to tie the game at 17. The feeling around the Press Box was the game would end in a tie and both would be declared champions. What we didn’t know was that this was the first year of the OVERTIME TIE-BREAKER. Pocono Mountain won the toss and deferred. With the ball placed on the 10 yard line, Easton came out and gained 5 yards on first down but 2 incompleted passes brought up 4th down. Worthy attempted a 22 yard field goal that he pushed to the right. Smith then calmly came out and nailed a 27 yard field goal that as Bob Gehris called on the Twin-County Cable TV broadcast “He kicked that thing down to Fisher Field”. Final Score PM 20 Easton 17. Total Offensive Stats PM 187 total yards Easton 379 total yards.
Interboro (7th seed) wins at Hazelton (2nd seed)in double overtime, 2002 AAAA first round game. Large home crowd, only about 100 Bucs fans there. Interboro is a huge underdog, not to mention much smaller in size than Hazelton. Nice people of Hazelton asking me, “Where are you from?” Fast little bowling ball for Hazelton (Josh Heck?) gains about 350 yards rushing, 250 in first half. Fumbles ball in 2nd OT to seal Interboro win. Will never forget it.
@ staff:
This one has run it’s course guys. another topic?
The Eastern Conference game (90 or 91) between Shamokin and Berwick at Shamokin. Really tough, physical game. Both teams were stacked. Shamokin’s defense was great that year and Berwick had Powlus. So many hard hits and over 13,000 there to watch!
1997 or 1998 CB WEST vs Central Dauphin. Pettine vs. Chaump.
Armstrong, Potter et al force overtime to win…at Hershey Park for the Eastern State Final.
I GOTTA ADD, WHEN MY SO PLAYED 05-06 WITH LOWER MORELAND (D1) THEY PLAYED AN UNDEFEATED PENNINGTON,NJ TEAM FOR THERE ONLY 2ND PLAYOFF SPOT( WE PLAYED AND LOST TO LANSDALE CATH. A REAL CLOSE GAME )IN THERE SCHOOL’S HISTORY ,IT WENT 3 OVERTIMES, WE WON AND PLAYED A HELL OF A GAME, I KNOW WE’RE NOT A BIG TIME PROGRAM BUT WE HAD ONE HECK OF A TEAM THAT YR.THANKS !
The greatest I’ve ever seen was when the 2-6 Tamaqua Blue Raiders upset the 6-2 Minersville Battlin’ Miners. The game was pushed back to Monday Night Football and was also sent into overtime 21-21. Minersville scored first, 28-21. Tamaqua failed to score on 4th & Goal but had it called back on pass interference and scored on the next play. Tamaqua fumbled the extra point and the kicker just hurled the ball into the endzone where it was caught for the 2-point conversion, 29-28.
Last year’s Eastern final with LaSalle and North Penn was the best I have ever seen. Two heavyweights standing toe to to killing each other for four quarters. They both left everything on the field that day. I left that game thinking that there is now way LaSalle can recover from that type of game and be ready to play a State title game one week later. It was just too brutally physical.
Erie Cathedral Prep was loaded with big time recruits when they ended CB West’s state record winning streak, 41-35 in overtime.
I left convinced I’d never see a better game.
2001: Pius X/Sharpsville. Sharpsville goes up 9-7 on a FG that bounces off the cross bar TWICE before falling over. Then Sharpsville fumbles late in the 4th quarter trying to protect a lead – ball gets kicked and re-fumbled down the sideline for 40 yards. Sharpsville punts out of their own endzone with less than 20 seconds to go. Pius fair catches and wins the game on a last second free kick. Absolute slobber-knocker all afternoon. Was the first weekend after 9/11 also. Teams were #1/#2 in the state during that week as well.