UPDATED 12/11 – This will be the official thread each week for playoff talk, playoff schedules, scores and so much more! What do you think of the match ups this week?
It’s never too early to look at how the playoff picture is shaping up!
So let’s talk playoffs!
2011 Brackets (Updated 12/11)
Class A Class AA Class AAA Class AAAA Eastern Conference
2011 Playoff Schedules (Updated 12/11)
District 1 District 2 District 3
District 4 District 11 District 12
Playoff Scoring Stats (Updated 12/11)
2011 Playoff Scoreboard (Updated 12/11)
“EasternPAFootball Talk”…..Talking Playoffs
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Class A Class AA Class AAA Class AAAA
831 Responses
Golden Knight. You are correct. I realized a few minutes after i sent it that I made the Unionville/Rustin error.
@Colin,, not that it matters much, but 1 correction to your post… North Penn beat W.C. Rustin in the 1st round, though Rustin scored more points against them than any other team N.Penn beat all year. That being said… N. Penn is a terrific team and that AAAA was a great game.
But,,,as I said before, I’m not sure any team, in any class, would have a chance against Wood this year. I know it’s unrealistic, but I would love to see Wood play some of the Fla and Texas teams. Now, that would be fun to watch…
Wood is the best team I’ve seen in years . That line was incredible how they executed on both sides of the ball. Coach Carey had that line jacked up and ready to go ! I would have liked to have seen some of the local neighborhood kids play more and get a chance to score a touchdown. It would have been a nice gesture to the local folks especially since many of the players have been there since freshman year .
Wood has a number of kids from St. Joe’s Prep and CB West. Anytime you can pull kids together from those two well known football schools, you are going to produce the kind of team Wood did this year. Six Division 1 players in one graduating class?
Even with them rolling through the state, they still have a loss on their record, so cannot be considered better that the dozens of schools that won AAAA & AAA championships going UNDEFEATED.
Also:
Some of the CBW teams from the mid-80’s would have beat Wood ( there were opinions that those CBW teams would have beat most Div.III colleges). North Penn of ’03 ( the team that beat PCC which was essentially the same PCC team that won it in ’04). Several of the Berwick teams of the early 90’s………. and on and on it goes. All speculation of course.
Colin
Well said. I know it is difficult to compare matchups but sometimes that is all we can look at to get a gauge on how one team might do vs another. To put in perspective:
Mcdevitt beat Central Dauphin in a close game. Wood murdered McD.
North Penn lost by 20 points to St joes Prep. Wood mercied St Joes prep.
54-0? All I have to say about the Wood game is, Yikes. Devlin wanted to make a statement to the entire state, and he certainly did. Congrats!
No doubt Wood make a serious argument for the best team in the state this year. But the best team in the past 25-30 years? I think the Central Bucks West teams from 97-00 and the PCC team of 04 would have something to say about that. I actually think one of those CBW teams finished in the top 5 nationally.
Colin :
Have to pretty much agree with you 100%. Since I am from near Pgh I have seen all of the WPIAL AAAA top teams play this year and I agree on a given night one of the 4 you mentioned could upset Wood if everything went perfect.
At the same time, I think Wood could also beat anyone of those same teams by 4 touchdowns on a given night mainly for the exact reason you mentioned. Team Speed. Wood is really special between the overall team speed and their offensive and defensive lines.
Was at the AAAA championship game and it was a good one between 2 great teams. With that being said CD would lose by 4 tds to Wood. Nowhere near the same speed as Wood. I think most years the AAAA team is the best team in the state. But not this year.
Not sure what AAAA league Wood wouldnt win.PCL AAAA? They would win it. Lasalle would be the tough test. Any Suburban 1 division? Please!.Central? Ches-Mont? Really?…. LVC? a 2A team playing as a AAA team won that league last year.
I’ll take it a step further. Here was North Penns playoff road. Unionville,Neshaminy,Pennsbury, CR South,LaSalle,CD, Which of these teams would beat Wood? Honestly! Lasalle would clearly have the best chance butnot a great one
Lasalle playoff schedule. Judge, Roman, G. Wash, NAzereth, North Penn. Again i ask honestly which one of these teams would beat Wood? NP with the best chance but the team speed is such a glaring mismatch
The only senario in which I could see where there would be a chance of Wood not winning the AAAA championship would be if they had to go thru the District 7 AAAA playoffs where they could play NA, PCC.Gateway and Upper st Clair. But still in that senario they would not play all 4 of those teams but one of those teams could knock Wood off. I know PCC beat Wood in game 1 but that was forever ago
Thats just how i see it fellas. This is justone of those years where the AAAA champ is not the best team in the state
Deo
You are allowing your jealousy to cloud your judgement. Since you are PCL die hard please tell me who is your team.? It will probably explain a lot.
Dog21,
So Wood is the best team in the last 25-30 years because they are ranked in the top 25 nationally? You have to play the best to be the best and when you are in the “B” division, JV, AAA or whatever you want to call it you do not play the best teams day in and day out. You can not say for sure one team is better than the other if one plays weaker competition week in and week out. That being said and you rely on the rankings I guess wood is also better than that 2003 or 2004 St Joe’s Prep team that was ranked 3RD nationally? I actually feel sorry for those Wood kids as win or lose they would have been better off competing in AAAA as all the romps over weaker opponents gets old and if they won the AAAA crown there would be no conjecture or guessing as they would be the undisputed heavyweight champs.
True in the grand scheme of things. However, there are teams that have the ability to recruit. Christian Brother, which is right next to Syracuse, is was a powerhouse year in and out that had the population of an A school but competed in the highest class because of competition.
ACC last season was actually AA by population and competed in AAA and defeated mostly all AAAA opponents in its conference en route to a state title. If an A school, though rare, can get kids that are exceptional, they can beat anyone. Sure AAAA’s schools can overall fair better because of greater population, however there can always be a variable that can compete with anyone. The year Southern Columbia had Hynoski, they also had one of if not the biggest line in the state. They are single A. By the way, do they still send the non-football players to AAA Columbia Montour Vo-Tech and keep all the ball players at So. Columbia to keep their numbers at A level?
@ A:
I agree with you. I never heard of a state with 9A class, 8A class, or even a 7A class. Doesn’t mean I’m right, but someone has to show me the link to prove that.
California has the most high schools with just over 2000, Texas is next with around 1850. No other state has more then 1000. Pa. is around 950. But there are several even greater then Pa., but, once again, none over 1000.
Having said that, from articles I have read, Texas largest is 6A. So the only other state that would have more classes would be california. What classes they have, I’m not sure.
To A :
It is very difficult to ever say a class A or AA school is the best in the state or could even evenly compete with the best AAA and AAAA schools mainly because of the size differnce in the lines..
Yes, someone like Pryor (who was the single top rated high school player in the country at the time) can make it seem like the team could compete with larger schools but in reality they probably couldn’t because both their offensive and defensive lines would just be severly overmatched and worn down as the game went on.
I am from the WPIAL and listened to the haters say Pryor was only good because he was playing in a small school class. I completely disagreed and said he could be just a dominant in AAA or AAAA on a decent AAA or AAAA team playing AAA and AAAA opponents. However, to expect him or any great athlete to be spectacular on a A team playing entire AAAA teams in unrealistic.
All that said, Arch Wood may only be AAA but they have the line size and athletes to match up with any AAAA school. a great AAA team against AAAA schools is one thing. a great A team against AAAA schools in another.
nice to see district 3 bring home two state titles. maybe we’ll start to get some respect now.
@ Matt:
If what you get paid is commensurate with being condescending, arrogant, pompous a**, then indeed you are making a furtune. However, on the flip side, if they detract from your pay for the above, then surely you must be paying them. That was my point.
You are way too much of a tool to communicate with about anything.
It is what it is, i.e. you are what you are.
We are best served if you never say anything more.
@ Jay et al:
Yep, the Quad A was a good game. CD simply outplayed NP. Their win was no fluke. Kudos to them. As an NP fan, it was a surprising year. I ( actually we) didn’t think they get past the second round in the D1 playoffs. Great year.
Footnote:
As always, it was great bantering back & forth with you guys ( well most of you anyway). Remember : “fan” is short for fanatic. So if we get crazy every once & awhile, well he**, that’s what we’re supposed to do as “fans”!!
Thanks to Dave Mika & staff for the threads.
Good games overall. Wood impressed me. Id rank them behind the great CBW teams and the PCC team of 04 i think it was. Hope everyone enjoyed the games and has a great offseason.
9A? The best state is Texas and they go to 6A. They have already talked about going to 5A in Pa so there would be about 115 schools in each classification. Fl and Ca rank behind Texas in HS football (which they only go to 6a) followed by Ohio and PA. The point is just because you have more A’s doesn’t qualify better competition especially against private schools. The year jeanette had Pryor they finished in the top 10 nationally and they were a single A school playing up. I asked coach Henzes of Dunmore (whom was the head coach of Dunmore) personally about Jeanette that year and he said they were the best team he had ever seen because of Pryor. A 4A team in Pa could be a 6A team in another state because we all don’t follow the same school population divisions. Look at the PIAA and compare it to Va. Not the same. The other variable is a dominant player like Pryor, because him bein on a single A team allows them to compete with anyone anywhere.
How come all the people who do this for a living say Wood is the best team in the state, but a bunch of stubborn haters have to keep arguing the point. The play by play announcer from North Penn (who’s name escapes me right now) said Wood was the best team, hands down, regardless of class while being interviewed on a Bethlehem radio station. An O’Hara coach told me they were the best team he has seen in 25 years of coaching. Mike Carey said this was the best team he was ever involved with. I hated the CB West teams, and now often root against North Penn, but I can also remain objective enough to give good teams their due. AB Wood…best team in the state. End of story.
I would just like to say good job Southern Columbia on a great season. Unfortunately they fell late in the fourth quarter to a good Clairton team in the Stae Championship. Even though the all those seniors are graduating (mostly all of them are the starters) I think we might be seeing them in states next year. They have a really good jv team moving up.
Good effort from Beck, Ernst, Gevirtz, Reeves and crew but CD was too tough tonight. Good day all around for District 3.
Also @ Redwolf…
Don’t go too overboard with “PA is one of the hardest to win”…
Wouldn’t say that.
Some states go to 9A. A few go to 8A. Plenty to go 6A. At least a dozen go to 4A.
In the Northeast (Virginia to Maine), you are correct though. No state is as tough as Pennsylvania and it’s not close.
Maryland in particular is pathetic. Phew.
@Redwolf
He wasn’t referring to a “prep league” in terms of the Inter-Ac. He was being a tool and suggesting that Wood should have to be in a league where “recruiting” teams have to play.
In that case, I’ll name drop the amount of public league stars I know that play out of district, fake their addresses and are flat-out recruited.
It’s brutal in Pittsburgh and there are two playing for North Penn as I watch this game.
Of course, I guess people forget Berwick.
@Buddy
And you should be repaying Burger King, but I’m not complaining when you screw up my kid’s fries dude.
Seriously, your comments from top to bottom in here have been ridiculous. I should chalk it up to the fact that I’m sure you’re a teenager, so it is what it is.
In fact, why bother from here forward?
…which, by the way, proves your point even more, which I agree with… no program compares to Wood this year…