Playoffs OK but don’t forget Turkey Day

Written by: Joe Stokes on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011. Follow Joe Stokes on Twitter.

The best and longest weekend of every football season is upon us. The Thanksgiving weekend is every football fan’s dream week. While key playoff games are set for Friday and Saturday, Turkey Day Thursday may provide the best matchups of all. The tradition of local rivals meeting on Thanksgiving has provided many suburban towns and city neighborhoods generations of football bragging rights from year to year.

The most talked about T-Day game has to be the 105th meeting between Easton and Phillipsburg held at Lafayette Colleges Fisher Stadium. This game has it all with 15,000 seats sold out a month before the game along with local cable TV coverage for those that can’t squeeze into the stadium. On many occasions both teams faced playoff action the next day but neither school would ever consider backing out of this contest. In Southeast Pa several other local teams will face off as Ridley/Interboro, Haverford /Upper Darby and Phoenixville/Spring-Ford to name just a few.

Once we conclude the local Thanksgiving Day action we will be treated to the next round of playoff contests. Last week some order was restored as higher AAAA seeds Council Rock South and Garnet Valley survived spirited challenges to get to the third round. At the AAA level the top seeds of Phoenixville and Pottsgrove also fought off the lower team victory trend.

The playoff week two predictions went moderately well as this humble writer went 3-2 as North Penn, Pennsbury and Council Rock South all won as predicted, while Pennsbury topped Abington and Phoenixville eecked out a one point win over Academy Park and Pottsgrove did the same to Strath Haven to account for the two prediction setbacks.

The last five years, this future teller has a 253-100 prognostication record while going 39-21 for this season.

Once again the big question for this week’s playoff action is how well will the remaining top seeds perform on their home field in third round action. The top of the AAAA bracket belongs to Council Rock South and they face a tough match against the Garnet Valley Jaguars. Council Rock South suffered just one defeat in the regular season and has won both of it’s playoff matches. The Golden Hawks QB Brian Donnelly ran for 181 yards and scored 2 TD’s in a 31-19 win over Downingtown East last Friday. On the same night Garnet Valley’s A.J. DePietro came off the bench after a nine week injury layoff to catch the winning TD pitch from QB Ryan Corkery to survive a 52-48 shootout win over Central Bucks South. The call has to go with Council Rock South with a little more defense and home field advantage.

Council Rock South 41 Garnett Valley 23

In another third round AAAA post season game old reliable North Penn is entertaining the upstart Pennsbury Falcons. Knights QB Corey Ernst and receiver Dan Gevitz provided most of the offense in a hard fought 21-7 win over a stubborn Neshaminy Redskins squad last Friday night. The Pennsbury offense relies on the run and followed running back DaQuan Mack’s 186 yards on 22 carries to a 42-21 stunner over Coatesville to move into this round. The North Penn tradition and balanced attack may make the difference this week.

North Penn 27 Pennsbury 17

The rest of this week’s fearless forecast:

Pottsgrove 38 Phoenixville 31

Ridley 24 Interboro 20

Abington 21 Cheltenham 9

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