Early season dreams can come true

Written by: Joe Stokes on Thursday, September 6th, 2012. Follow Joe Stokes on Twitter.

September 6, 2012

Last December four great teams accomplished what seemed like an impossible dream to them last September. Southern Columbia, Archbishop Wood, Lancaster Catholic and North Penn enter this season as defending PIAA state champions, while every other high school team in Pennsylvania starts the 2012 season with that championship dream in the back of their minds.

The 2012 high school football season opened last week under bright lights and warm breezes. The slate is clean and when the season ends in December the cold winds will be blowing in Hershey but hearts will be warm for the teams that survived to make that dream trip.

The 2011 championship predictions went well as this future teller went 3-1 as North Penn, Archbishop Wood and Lancaster Catholic won as predicted while Southern Columbia’s 35-19 win over Clairton prevented a perfect prediction week.

The last six years the prognostication record stands at 267-105 while going 53-26 for the 2011 season.

The early season is rough for anyone to predict an outcome as new coaches and new teams are just learning to work together in September. One game to watch in order to get a handle on this season features Central League rival Ridley traveling to face off with Haverford High School. The Fords opened the season with a hard fought come from behind win over Council Rock North 23-10. Haverford trailed early but QB Eddie Durkin found receiver Marcus Sydnor for a key fourth down conversion that turned the momentum in the Fords favor. While game stats were very close Haverford was able convert the points to open the season on a winning note. Ridley opened their season on the road but the bus ride to Glen Mills did nothing to slow the Green Raider offense. QB Ed Hild started his first game Friday night but played like a seasoned veteran with 119 passing yards and three TD passes to cap a 35-7 victory over Battling Bulls. Haverford has some high hopes this year and would love put it to one of the top Central League teams every year. However one should never underestimate the Ridley tradition. Count on a close exciting win for the Green Raiders.

Ridley 27 Haverford 19

The rest of this week’s fearless title forecast:

Cardinal O’Hara 34 Haverford School 21

Interboro 35 Episcopal Academy 14

Strath Haven 24 Radnor 13

North Penn 28 Archbishop Wood 17

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2 Responses to “Early season dreams can come true”

1. joe says:
   September 7th, 2012 at 8:58 am

   Thanks Brian, either my brain or my sight must be failing me.

   Will be making the correction thanks to you.

2. brian says:
   September 6th, 2012 at 10:55 pm

   just so you know, SCA lost to clairton 35-19.