Playoff crunch time (Predictions 5-0 Last week)

Written by: Joe Stokes on Thursday, December 1st, 2011. Follow Joe Stokes on Twitter.

The best and longest weekend of every football season lived up to expectations. The Thanksgiving weekend fulfilled every football fan’s dream week.

Local fans saw some great action on Thanksgiving morning with Easton winning the 104th meeting with cross town rival Phillipsburg 24-8 but losing two days later in a playoff showdown with Nazareth Area 28-21. No fan could ask for better football than that on one weekend.

The playoff week three predictions went perfectly well as this humble writer went 5-0 as North Penn, Pottsgrove, Ridley, Abington and Council Rock South all won as predicted.

The last five years, this future teller has a 258-100 prognostication record while going 44-21 for this season.

The District One AAAA champion will be crowned this Friday night in a contest featuring number one seed Council Rock South and eleven seed North Penn. This could also be considered the Suburban One League championship as well. The North Penn Knights won the Continental Conference crown while the Council Rock South Golden Hawks hold this year’s National Conference title. Don’t let the 11th seed fool you into dispensing any chance for a North Penn win this weekend. The Knights are in this position more often than not and Coach Dick Beck has plenty of game plan experience when titles are on the line. The Golden Hawks enter this contest with many offensive and defensive weapons. The Council Rock South offense averages 28 points per game and QB Brian Donnelly has shown great skill in operating the triple option attack. On the defensive side the Golden Hawks lean on University of Maryland bound P.J. Galo. As the outside linebacker he ends up all over the field and can be counted on being near the ball on every play. North Penn can put together a ground or air attack that can confound even the best defense. The running attack of Dan Gervitz and Kyle Mayfield can provide ball control while QB Corey Ernst can hurt you with his arms or legs. The Knights defense only allows eight points per game and when hot can stuff the run game when necessary. This is a very tough call as a prediction on either side would be reasonable. The bet here is that Council Rock South endures in a match decided late in the game.

Council Rock South 36 North Penn 27

The winner of Council Rock South and North Penn will next face the victor of LaSalle vs Nazareth Area game played on Saturday. LaSalle’s experience may make the difference in this contest.

LaSalle 27 Nazareth Area 21

The rest of this week’s fearless forecast:

Archbishop Wood 38 Pottsgrove 20

Allentown Central Catholic 28 Shamokin 10

West Catholic 21 Pen Argyl 20

 

Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball

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7 Responses to “Playoff crunch time (Predictions 5-0 Last week)”

1. Rollie Ciffo says:
   December 2nd, 2011 at 2:05 pm

   David, I did see them. EasternPAFootball.com certainly does have a nice spread of articles across districts. My issue is product placement not quantity or even fairness. Nothing against Nosovitch & Gulyas as they’re what’s right about HS FB. But those articles I mentioned are older than Moses compared to the others. Its my opinion (& you know what they say about those) that this site feature frequently cycle the articles up top.

2. David Mika says:
   December 2nd, 2011 at 12:21 pm

   @ Rollie…I like all the Districts…Did you see the Mount Carmel, LaSalle, Pius X, Bangor, Pen Argyl and Bishop McDevitt article this week? I am the District 11 writer on here too….Is that okay??? LOL

3. Rollie Ciffo says:
   December 2nd, 2011 at 12:01 pm

   I apologize. I didn’t mean that I wanted the article links posted….though in re-reading my post it sure looks like that’s what I meant. (Sorry, it was past my bed time).

   What I really want is for newer articles like this and “Gearing up for Another Run at Hershey” to be prominently highlighted at the top of the page instead of meekly hidden below in the Recent articles list. “Nosovitch to Gulyas” and “The Greatest Show on Turf” have to be at least a week old. I get it, David likes ACC, Nosovitch, Gulyas, D11 etc. and its his website. Just try not to make it so obvious.

4. Joe Stokes says:
   December 2nd, 2011 at 10:23 am

   Not sure how articles are chosen for front page. I just submit my article each week and adminstrator places it where they believe it should be placed.

   Writing the articles the last 20 years or so has allowed me to keep up with high school football which I think is the only level of the game that retains the sports only component. Unlike NFL and major colleges which has turned into the enetertainment business.

   Should be some great games this weekend

5. D1FootballFan says:
   December 2nd, 2011 at 9:49 am

   Rollie,
   I’m thinking EPaFootball writes their own articles.

6. Rollie Ciffo says:
   December 1st, 2011 at 9:08 pm

   Why doesn’t EasternPAFootball.com post the newer articles like this on its front page. What is now? 5 straight days of the same articles proclaiming the invincibility of ACC/Nosovitch/Gulyas?

7. D1FootballFan says:
   December 1st, 2011 at 8:58 pm

   I’m liking the PCL trifecta!!!