It is hard to believe we have reached week seven of the high school football season. The Autumn weather has been almost perfect most weekends and area fans have been treated to some great football with plenty more to come as we approach the end of the season. In District One AAAA the top five in playoff points showed a few changes from last week. West Chester Rustin, Garnet Valley, Neshaminy, Coatsville and Upper Dublin have opened a little bit of a gap over the next five teams in the race. At the AAA level we have Pottsgrove, Academy Park, Bishop Shanahan, West Chester Henderson and Springfield (Delco) leading the pack after week six. http://www.pawrsl.com/pfn/rankings_2013_dist01.htm
There are only a few weeks left for these teams to solidify their playoff seeds and it will sure be fun to watch.
It is now time to dive right in with predictions on five of the most competitive contests this week.
Week six predictions were dismal with only 1 out 5 game winners. While week five was 5-0 only Garnet Valley came through as predicted in week six. Archbishop Wood, Great Valley, Abington and Central Bucks South all fell short of this writers expectation.
The last seven years the prognostication record stands at 333-138 while going 16-9 for this season.
This weekend’s weather may add to the challenges as a coastal storm was projected to keep most area fields wet on Friday night. The featured game for most high school football followers could well be the Catholic League showdown between St. Joe Prep vs LaSalle @ Plymouth Whitemarsh High School on Friday night. It seems that these two teams are always in the thick of both league championship and playoff contention this time of year. These schools first played in 1915 with St Joe Prep leading the series 42-35-5. However LaSalle has won 8 out of the last 12 contests. The Hawks of St Joe scored an impressive 31-21 win over Archbishop Wood last Saturday with QB Chris Martin passing and Olamide Zaccheaus catching while the defense kept Wood off the scoreboard in the final 34 minutes of this game. The LaSalle Explorers needed a last quarter surge to sneak past Father Judge 17-16 last Saturday afternoon. Coach Drew Gordon will have to figure out a way to slow down the speedy Hawks or this game could get ugly. This game can be seen live on The Comcast Network Friday night @ 7 PM
St. Joe Prep 35 LaSalle 20
The next game to check out is a Central League showdown between Haverford and Springfield (Delco). The Fords needed to overcome a 17 point lead by Conestoga last Friday night for a 28-17 win. An intercepted pass by Jai Thornton in the third quarter was the game changer. The Springfield Cougars exploded for a 45-6 win over Strath Haven. The Cougars used two QB’s Charlie Carbin and Brian Allen to lead the seven touchdown assault on the Panther defense. This is a tough call but the Fords find a way on a wet field. This contest can be seen on live streaming video http://www.ssdcougars.org/Resources.cfm?subpage=47365w.
Haverford 27 Springfield 23
The rest of the fearless forecast:
Pennridge 31 Central Bucks South 21
Great Valley 27 Oxford 16
West Chester Henderson 28 West Chester East 17
