Early season showdowns
Written by: Joe Stokes on Wednesday, September 19th, 2012. Follow Joe Stokes on Twitter.
The first three weeks of the 2012 season are in the books and top teams are starting to show the promise that only seemed like a dream during summer camp. Downingtown East, LaSalle, St Joe Prep, Archbishop Wood and Garnet Valley are all off to impressive starts in District one and twelve.
The next few weeks will be critical for those trying to stay close enough to challenge for a shot at post season life.
Week three predictions went well as this future teller went 4-1 as Garnet Valley, Downingtown East, LaSalle and Strath Haven all won as predicted while Souderton’s upset of Neshaminy accounted for the lone miscalculation.
The last six years the prognostication record stands at 275-107 while going 8-2 for the 2012 season.
This fourth week of the season offers several league rivals facing off in games that may make the difference in league standings and playoff rankings at season’s end. Downingtown East @ Coatesville, Archbishop Wood @ West Catholic and Central Bucks West @ Souderton to name a few.
In the Central League most eyes will settle on this week’s key match between Ridley and Strath Haven. Ridley holds a 16-12 series advantage but this rivalry features several winning streaks by each team. The Green Raiders have won five straight since 2006 while Haven enjoyed an eight year run starting in 1996. These stats are meaningless this week as each game offers an open door for either of these squads to excel in 2012. The Strath Haven Panthers are on a two game run after an opening night set back at Imhotep Charter while Ridley is 3-0 with hard fought wins over Glen Mills, Haverford and Conestoga under their belt. The Panthers will depend of running back Tevon Howie to lead the way. Howie ran for 136 yards and all three TD’s in a 21-7 win over Marple Newtown last Friday. Ridley will answer with their own running attack. The second half surge was impressive as running back Rich Coia followed great blocks by O line standouts Max Sinex and Steve Plousis to stun Conestoga 31-17. The defensive edge goes to Ridley and count on them to extend the streak to six over the Panthers.
Ridley 34 Strath Haven 20
The rest of this week’s fearless forecast:
Archbishop Wood 37 West Catholic 28
Downingtown East 35 Coatesville 19
Souderton 24 Central Bucks West 12
Academy Park 27 Pennridge 23
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September 22nd, 2012 at 11:12 pm
The Downingtown East/Coatesville rivalry game turned out to be epic and the stars shined bright in this down to the wire affair. DT East won 35-34 . Kyle Lauletta led the Cougars with 328 yards on 25-35…5 tds 3 pass n 2 rush inclusing a controversial game winner to Jay Harris who worked back to the front of the end zone with Lauletta being pressured and apppeared to have some of his feet but not the ball past the goalline but referees quickly ruled in favor of the DT East…Harris finished a hell of game with 13 catches for 112 & 2 TDs. For the Red Raiders Qb Emmett Hunt led the way with 290 yards on 16-23 with 5 TDs….Chris Jones had 6 catches for 107 yards & 3 TDs including the go ahead TD to complete a Raider 21 point comeback in dramatic fashion in which they missed what turned out to be a crucial extra point at 34-28 after CV trailed 21-0 in the 1st qt. Andre Boggs sparked CV with a 68 yard TD from Hunt on route to his 6 catches 150 yards n 2 TDs. Explosive must see game for both teams…DT East used the hurry up offense early to startle the Raiders to an early lead also squib n even onsides kickin to keep the ball away from the speed the burned the all night….Murphy-Nelson & Tyler Burke had very solid games at linebacker for their respective teams. If only they meet again….
September 20th, 2012 at 6:19 pm
Thanks for your comment NothinButSports.
No insult intended on pick against Coatesville. The Red Raiders have lots of talent and this game could go either way.
Was impressed with Downingtown East’s early season run and gave that a lot of weight in making the pick.
Should be a great game.
September 20th, 2012 at 5:51 pm
Coatesville 16 pt underdogs…i’d say that’s fearless alright or wreckless lol but definetly one of the premier games in the area lead by Qb/Wr combos Kyle Lauletta/Jay Harris of Dtown East & Emmett Hunt/Chris Jones of Coatesville respectively. I expect the two teams to exchange blows early but speed kills & with the CV Red Raiders strong defense led by Jr Lb Tyler Burke and the speed & size they have at corner to contest Harris enough to capitilize on its home field advantage and win 28-21