Thinning the high school herd

At my last stop, there wasn't really a point. Only two schools (same two every year) ever made it past the opening round and they were annual threats to go to the finals.

 

My bank account doesn't like the summers.

 

Getting volleyball playoffs out of the way is a bigger issue for us once the football playoffs start. Fortunately, our best team got knocked out in a region final.

Out of about 40 schools we cover, we're down to four for football.. Those four, however, have all been pretty salty: Three ranked in the final state top 10 poll, two in the top five, and the fourth is on a nine-game winning streak and averaging 40 points per first half in that streak.

Thing is our two 3As may have to play each other in the next round in a region final. Playoff cannibalism ... gotta love it.

 

Four area teams went into the state football semifinals, two came out the other end.

Just about perfect.

One plays for the title on Friday afternoon, the other on Saturday afternoon. Sweet!

 

Got one of our two through tonight; the other one has about a 50-50 chance tomorrow night.

It's the quarterfinal round, although that coincides with our AAAA and AAA district finals. (Our district champion in those classes goes directly into the state semifinals.)

We're set up for something memorable next Friday night.

The state's career rushing champ, Steel-High's Jeremiah Young, ran for 352 yards as the Rollers beat Bishop McCort.

Schuylkill Haven's Zack Barket broke Austin Scott's single-season rushing record and cleared 4,000 for the season by running for 246 yards as Haven beat Riverside.

Next Friday night: Young and Steel-High vs. Barket and Schuylkill Haven in a Class A state semifinal. It really pisses me off that I'm going to be slotting.

 

We had three teams entering tonight, only one team won, leaving us with a 5A state title game Friday night. That ain't bad.

Next week's still busy as hell with D2 semifinals (probably), SEC title game and the HS title game.

 

Give me a couple hours, Shot. I'll be right there to relieve you.

 

One more HS football team left now...

Now after seventeen features a day this week I'll be in the clear...

 

I didn't know Calhoun City was in your area. BTW, Henry, you heard it here first: South Panola is going down Friday night. I've seen Meridian twice this year and they're the better team.

But I'll be watching it from the office, because all four of the teams I had left lost last night, so I'm done for the year. First time we haven't had at least one team make it to the finals since 2000.

 

In all, we had four football teams in the playoffs. All were in the same bracket, so we were bound to carry the thing into states no matter what.

The last team in was a four-loss outfit that suffered all of its losses early or in the middle of the season. Down the stretch, they knocked off two unbeatens and made it into the playoffs. First round, they upset their district's champion, also previously unbeaten and with a D-I QB. Region finals, they upset another district champion, also unbeaten, with an RB who is a certain D-I signee. Today, they knock off another undefeated regional champ with multiple D-I players.

Either way, it ends next week with the state final. They'll face an undefeated team with, at least from my quick count, five D-I players though someone else told me they have eight. So it's been a good storylne for us.

 

Well, CC is on the edge of our circulation area. Good enough.

 

We lost eight of 14 teams this week in the third round, which saw three matchups between area teams. All six survivors are in different classifications, meaning we could lose all six next week.

Three of the remaining teams are in five-round brackets, meaning next week is the state semis for them. The others are in six-round brackets and conceivably could play up to Dec. 20.