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SOL National Week 8

L
bucksftball said:
While most of the games have already been played this weekend, just taking some time to get caught up with what's been happening around the league.

CB South - Big win against North Penn, with neither offense living up to expectations in this one. I really expected Dick Beck to dial up at least a few TDs against South. Bad day for North Penn or is South's defense that good? The biggest news of that week was one of South's star players being told by the Central Bucks School District that he could no longer attend South and needed to report to CB West. The word is that the family rectified the situation by quickly leasing an apartment within South territory. Still no word from PIAA / D1 on if that will affect any of South's previous wins this year, or if they will consider it an internal school district matter only. With two games to go after dismantling Abington, they look to have the inside track to home field advantage throughout the D1 playoffs. (Especially after the Downingtown West loss last night.) Their style of play is definitely suited to playoff football, but without a lot of big plays offensively so far against good competition, their margin for error will be smaller than last year.

North Penn - Really looked to be on a roll this year before the South game, and then struggled a bit against Pennsbury. If you want to knock them, you can say that some of their "good" wins aren't quite as good in retrospect, outside of maybe the 37-7 win over Neshaminy. If you want to be more positive, the defense is playing better and Dick Beck usually has the offense humming for the playoffs. If they can reverse the recent trend of giving up a ton of points in the playoffs, they will a tough out with most likely two home games.

CB West - A Tale of Two Teams? West started the season pretty beat up, looking to survive the early part of the schedule and get healthy by mid-season. Opening night win against Easton was a highlight and the disaster against Souderton was the bottom. Unfortunately, the injury bug has only spread. Solid win against Pennsbury was tempered by a sideline full of injured starters by the end of the game, 9 all together. With some of them being two-way starters, that means more than half the starters were out. I've got no idea who's going to show up on Saturday night against Pennridge. At or near full strength West would roll in this one, missing half their starters, now it's a dog fight. At their best, West can play with the top teams in D1, it's just a matter of how healthy they can be by playoff time. West put together two 4th quarter TD drives to take the lead against South, one being negated by a blown call on a clear TD and other by the Hail Mary. That should give them the confidence that they can play with anyone. After Pennridge they have North Penn on 6 days rest vs 8 for NP. Hopefully they get through this week without any more nicks. On a positive note, they're building new depth from the JV program. On an even more positive note, Ryan Clemens has been the best player in the SOL to date. He leads West in rushing and receiving yards, in tackles, and is perfect in FGs and has one XP miss. He's the best all-around player for West in a very long time.

Neshaminy - Good progress this year with a yardstick game against South coming up. Played West tough and were overwhelmed by NP early before settling in a little. If nothing else, they'll be battle tested heading into the playoffs at 7-3, and a home playoff game will be a nice reward. (I'm saying 7-3, but Pennsbury is going to give them a fight in week 10.) Handling Pennridge so easily should be a nice confidence booster that they're on a different level this year.

Pennridge - The record looked good on paper to start the year but they weren't competitive against the 4th best team in the league last week on their home field. They don't have a ton of size up front, especially defensively and every time you hear anything through the grapevine about the program (for the past few years, spanning three head coaches) it's negativity about in-fighting and angry parents. I was at the Neshaminy game and there quite a few Pennsbury people sitting on the visitor's side. Never a good sogn. Not sure what it's going to take to turn it around, it's a good-sized school in a football town.

Pennsbury - One of the challenges that Coach Snyder has in the current SOL National is that most teams now can line up and run it right at you, many with wing-t or hybrid wing-t offenses. Everyone sees those blocking schemes every week. That advantage they had is gone. They came out themselves in a shotgun hybrid wing-t offense last week against West (Very much like West's offense) and then went back to traditional against North Penn. I just don't think he's got all the athletes he needs to be near the top of the conference right now, especially with everyone so familiar with defending the wing-t.

CB East - Young team that looks like they lost their QB to a concussion against Neshaminy last night. Week 10 against West will be their Super Bowl.

Abington - Really in a total rebuild at this point and not competitive with the rest of the league. Need to be able to keep talent in the school and develop their young players. They've had some very good athletes and guys that play hard but need some consistency back with a coach that can pull it all back together. Maybe they have that guy there now with Coach Fleming, only time will tell. Kevin Conlin did a nice job there for a few years before things droppe
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West cant seem to avoid injuries . I agree Clemens is the best player in the league .
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Born Index - 6A

R
Thoughts

The top three are all painfully close to each other, and two touchdowns better than everybody else in Pennsylvania.

Nobody in District 1 in the first three tiers is wild.

Manheim Township is loved by this rating system more than human polls.

CB South gets the opposite treatment, way more love in human polls.

District 11 doesn’t have a top two tier team, but five in the top 20 (most if any 6A district) feels reflective of their depth. Makes for probably the most fun postseason.
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Born Index - 6A

R
Referenced this in another thread, but this time of year I start to find the Born Index an interesting way to look at teams around the state. It’s a power ratings formula, so similar to something like what Bill Connelly does for college football at ESPN with his SP+. It’s meant to predict scores (so the difference between teams rating would be how many points they’re favored by). I don’t know the actual formula (proprietary) but I think it’s interesting, particularly the tiers it creates.

Here’s what their rating spits out for 6A, which also try to break up in groups where there are natural divides.

1. Pittsburgh Central Catholic - 113.5
2. LaSalle - 113.3
3. St. Joseph’s Prep - 113.2
All virtually identical

4. State College - 98.9
5. Manheim Township - 98.6
6, North Allegheny - 97.8
7. Imhotep Charter - 97

8. Freedom - 95.5
9. Easton - 94
10. Harrisburg - 93.7
11. Parkland 93.5
12. Central York - 92.7
13. Erie McDowell - 91.9

14. North Penn - 88.7
15. CB South - 88.5
16. Downingtown West - 88.2
17. Wilson West Lawn - 87.9
18. Nazareth - 86.5
19. Emmaus - 86.5
20. Perkiomen Valley - 85.5
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Lehigh Valley Week 8

R
bucksftball said:
Watched a little bit of film on Liberty (wasn't much out there) and agree that Easton is going to win tonight. The 3-3 stack can be a bitch to block as those stacked backers change your blocking angles and assignments but with a week to prep Easton should have a big night on the ground. West was in and out of a 3-3 and back to their 4-2 against Easton, and Easton had more of their success on the ground vs the 3-3. Your note on tackling in the secondary is spot on. Against Easton, West had a 5'8", 150 pound safety making his first start (I think he's only had one more start since then as he was filling in for an injured player) Ethan Sunderland, who had like 15+ tackles, most of them solo. He doesn't make those plays and Easton has a bunch of long runs and wins the game. If Liberty doesn't have someone step up like that, it could be a long night.
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Liberty does some fun stuff with Pujals at linebacker, but I think man for man, Easton’s a better team. Next week will be the real test of how much better Easton has gotten since CB West. Daigault has done wonders at Liberty and credit to them that they’re playing games that mean something in October. It’s been a minute since that’s been the case. But the schedule has also helped the winning streak. I’m hoping the good guys flex a little tonight.

Also didn’t mention Liberty has four Easton grads in their staff, including offensive coordinator Frank Lane, who I kind of can’t believe isn’t on the Easton staff, and never has been. Lane was a 1,000 yard rusher for Easton in 1986 during the big Shriver resurgence (he looked like a disaster hire in the early 80s, then from 85-91 they flipped the switch from .500 to winning 9-10 games a year). Lane was on Jim Morgans staffs at Central, Freedom, and Parkland and coached Senneca at ACC. Everybody in Easton loves Frank and he’s one of the better career assistants in the Valley. Getting a little long in the tooth to come home, but maybe someday.
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Lehigh Valley Week 8

B
RoverNation05 said:
Game of the Week: Easton Red Rovers at Liberty Hurricanes (BASD Stadium)
When Easton and Liberty are good, this is one of the best rivalries in local football. They’ve played each other 107 times, dating back to 1904, and have played EVERY year since 1919. The stretch from 2004 to 2011 is probably the best period of the rivalry, with the 2004, 2005, and 2006 games all instant classics for various reasons as the two schools were operating at about as high a level as Lehigh Valley football programs have in unison since state playoffs started in 1988 – the Steve Shiffert/Tim Moncman overlap was great for local high school football. Current Easton coach Matt Senneca was on those Liberty staffs as the QBs coach and then offensive coordinator, and he’s mentioned all week about how special those series of games were on both sides. We’re a LONG way off of those days and both schools have been in the wilderness at various times in the 2010s and 2020s, but with a combined 12-2 record, third (Easton) and fourth (Liberty) year coaches who seem to be pressing a lot of the right buttons, and the community support that comes with fielding a winner again, we may be entering another strong period for this rivalry. Here’s hoping.

Actually on the field, it’s one of the more interesting match ups in the league this year. Liberty raced out to a 6-0 start with a soft schedule, but then played Nazareth way tougher than I think a lot of outside observers were expecting last week. Liberty has high end talent – Jake Pukszyn is probably the best receiver in the area (he’s also one of the best basketball players) and his size (6’4 190) creates a real problem against most teams. Gabe Green is looking for back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons, quarterback Antonio Fontanez was all All Conference pick as a sophomore, Daunte Morrison is maybe the best defensive lineman in the league this year, and Javian Pujols has been a revelations at rush linebacker. Easton is more balanced, where big contributions seem to come from a different position group every week.

Pukszyn versus the Rover secondary is a big spot I’m watching when Liberty has the ball. Easton’s secondary is huge, and Pukszyn won’t necessarily be able to bully Jasir Frutchey (6’4 215), Cael DiSora (6’3 195), or Sean McPeek (6’4 185). Does that mean Liberty has to really try and get it’s ground game going, or will Pukszyn be able to get open without resorting to jump balls and out physical-ing corners. Fontanez has not been quite as sharpe as I anticipated, and Easton’s secondary has been great at causing turnovers (they have 14 interceptions in seven games, including a 6A leading 5 from Andrew Biddle). If Easton can make Liberty on dimensional, their chances go way up.

On the other side of the ball, Liberty gave up 300 rushing yards to Nazareth, and Easton’s offensive line and dynamic running back pair has to be licking their chops. Liberty’s defensive front has been very good, and the 3-3-5 look can be weird to run against, so Easton has to communicate up front and get to their assignments. But if the offensive line can keep Morrison out of the backfield and Day and Thomas get to the second level, Liberty has tiny guys in the back seven that may have a hard time tackling one-on-one against Easton’s backs, Day in particular.

I think Easton wins this one and makes a statement headed into Freedom next week.
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Watched a little bit of film on Liberty (wasn't much out there) and agree that Easton is going to win tonight. The 3-3 stack can be a bitch to block as those stacked backers change your blocking angles and assignments but with a week to prep Easton should have a big night on the ground. West was in and out of a 3-3 and back to their 4-2 against Easton, and Easton had more of their success on the ground vs the 3-3. Your note on tackling in the secondary is spot on. Against Easton, West had a 5'8", 150 pound safety making his first start (I think he's only had one more start since then as he was filling in for an injured player) Ethan Sunderland, who had like 15+ tackles, most of them solo. He doesn't make those plays and Easton has a bunch of long runs and wins the game. If Liberty doesn't have someone step up like that, it could be a long night.
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SOL National Week 8

B
While most of the games have already been played this weekend, just taking some time to get caught up with what's been happening around the league.

CB South - Big win against North Penn, with neither offense living up to expectations in this one. I really expected Dick Beck to dial up at least a few TDs against South. Bad day for North Penn or is South's defense that good? The biggest news of that week was one of South's star players being told by the Central Bucks School District that he could no longer attend South and needed to report to CB West. The word is that the family rectified the situation by quickly leasing an apartment within South territory. Still no word from PIAA / D1 on if that will affect any of South's previous wins this year, or if they will consider it an internal school district matter only. With two games to go after dismantling Abington, they look to have the inside track to home field advantage throughout the D1 playoffs. (Especially after the Downingtown West loss last night.) Their style of play is definitely suited to playoff football, but without a lot of big plays offensively so far against good competition, their margin for error will be smaller than last year.

North Penn - Really looked to be on a roll this year before the South game, and then struggled a bit against Pennsbury. If you want to knock them, you can say that some of their "good" wins aren't quite as good in retrospect, outside of maybe the 37-7 win over Neshaminy. If you want to be more positive, the defense is playing better and Dick Beck usually has the offense humming for the playoffs. If they can reverse the recent trend of giving up a ton of points in the playoffs, they will a tough out with most likely two home games.

CB West - A Tale of Two Teams? West started the season pretty beat up, looking to survive the early part of the schedule and get healthy by mid-season. Opening night win against Easton was a highlight and the disaster against Souderton was the bottom. Unfortunately, the injury bug has only spread. Solid win against Pennsbury was tempered by a sideline full of injured starters by the end of the game, 9 all together. With some of them being two-way starters, that means more than half the starters were out. I've got no idea who's going to show up on Saturday night against Pennridge. At or near full strength West would roll in this one, missing half their starters, now it's a dog fight. At their best, West can play with the top teams in D1, it's just a matter of how healthy they can be by playoff time. West put together two 4th quarter TD drives to take the lead against South, one being negated by a blown call on a clear TD and other by the Hail Mary. That should give them the confidence that they can play with anyone. After Pennridge they have North Penn on 6 days rest vs 8 for NP. Hopefully they get through this week without any more nicks. On a positive note, they're building new depth from the JV program. On an even more positive note, Ryan Clemens has been the best player in the SOL to date. He leads West in rushing and receiving yards, in tackles, and is perfect in FGs and has one XP miss. He's the best all-around player for West in a very long time.

Neshaminy - Good progress this year with a yardstick game against South coming up. Played West tough and were overwhelmed by NP early before settling in a little. If nothing else, they'll be battle tested heading into the playoffs at 7-3, and a home playoff game will be a nice reward. (I'm saying 7-3, but Pennsbury is going to give them a fight in week 10.) Handling Pennridge so easily should be a nice confidence booster that they're on a different level this year.

Pennridge - The record looked good on paper to start the year but they weren't competitive against the 4th best team in the league last week on their home field. They don't have a ton of size up front, especially defensively and every time you hear anything through the grapevine about the program (for the past few years, spanning three head coaches) it's negativity about in-fighting and angry parents. I was at the Neshaminy game and there quite a few Pennsbury people sitting on the visitor's side. Never a good sogn. Not sure what it's going to take to turn it around, it's a good-sized school in a football town.

Pennsbury - One of the challenges that Coach Snyder has in the current SOL National is that most teams now can line up and run it right at you, many with wing-t or hybrid wing-t offenses. Everyone sees those blocking schemes every week. That advantage they had is gone. They came out themselves in a shotgun hybrid wing-t offense last week against West (Very much like West's offense) and then went back to traditional against North Penn. I just don't think he's got all the athletes he needs to be near the top of the conference right now, especially with everyone so familiar with defending the wing-t.

CB East - Young team that looks like they lost their QB to a concussion against Neshaminy last night. Week 10 against West will be their Super Bowl.

Abington - Really in a total rebuild at this point and not competitive with the rest of the league. Need to be able to keep talent in the school and develop their young players. They've had some very good athletes and guys that play hard but need some consistency back with a coach that can pull it all back together. Maybe they have that guy there now with Coach Fleming, only time will tell. Kevin Conlin did a nice job there for a few years before things dropped off.
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Lehigh Valley Week 8

R
Here's the Easton-Liberty stretch that started in 2004
2003 Easton 23 Liberty 0
Not actually a great game in Tim Moncman's second year for the Canes, but the old newspaper article has this prophetic quote from Steve Shiffert about the freshman lining up under center for Liberty: “Tell you what,” Shiffert said. “That young kid [Persa] is going to be somekind of quarterback before he’s done. We had him under tremendous pressure all night, but he never backed down once.”
2004 Regular Season: Easton 21 Liberty 7
Both teams are undefeated and ranked in the top 8 in the state. Easton opens the game running 27 option reverse, which freshman wide receiver (and eventual 2-time all state pick and four star recruit) Jarred Holley catches an option pitch (one handed, as it was thrown behind him) as an end around, then stops and hits their tight end for an 70 yard touchdown to open the game. Rovers hold on to win 21-7, essentially winning the LVC regular season championship.
2004 Playoffs: Easton 14 Liberty 7
Both teams ranked in the top six in the state, with Liberty's only loss coming to Easton and Easton undefeated. Easton only gains 54 yards of total offense and somehow wins a D11 title. Actually, it was not a somehow. Kevin Danko blocked a punt that Easton recovered at the 6 and then punched in a touchdown. They knocked Dan Persa out of the game in the first half after he was crushed by a safety blitz. Then, after Liberty tied the game and was driving to take a late lead, Todd Kresge etched his name into Easton lore forever by forcing a fumble on a blitz, picking it up and running it back 63 yard for the winning score. Easton on the night forced five turnovers and blocked a punt to somehow beat Liberty for their second consecutive D11 title.
2005 Regular Season: Easton 28 Liberty 21
Dan Persa drops to 0-4 in his career against the Red Rovers, this time thanks to some Cottingham magic. Easton, who has been running a dual quarterback system for most of the year, puts both on the field at the same time while trailing 14-7 with five minutes left in the game. With Liberty primed for a double pass, running QB Chris Flournoy got a free release off the line, and Mike Cummings hit him for a 75 yard touchdown to tie the game. Chubby Miller then blocked a Liberty punt on the ensuing drive, which Lewie Briggs picked up and ran back for a touchdown. With Liberty driving to tie, Jarred Holley picked off Persa and returned it for a touchdown, finishing a 28 point fourth quarter for the Red Rovers.
2005 Playoffs: Liberty 48 Easton 10
Not a classic, but Dan Persa finally got the Easton monkey off of his back, throwing for three touchdowns and snapping Liberty's 9 game losing streak to the Red Rovers for their first D11 title since 1994. Charles Irvin also ran for 170 yards on nine carries for the Hurricanes, who went on to the PIAA final that season.
2006 Regular Season: Liberty 17 Easton 7
Easton pitched seven shutouts in the first eight games of the season, and their first team defense had not allowed a point..until Dan Persa's 40 yard score on the opening drive of the game, and Justin Rivera chipped in with a massive punt return to set up a touchdown and an interception that ended Easton's chance to bring the game within a field goal in the fourth quarter as the Hurricanes knocked Easton from the top spot in the state rankings.
2006 Playoffs: Liberty 35 Easton 14
One week after Easton beat #1 in the state Parkland on a last second field goal, Liberty throttled the Rovers behind one of the best performances of Dan Persa's career, as he threw for 190 yards and ran for 110 and officially buried the narrative that he couldn't beat the Rovers. Liberty and Easton were ranked #2 and #3 in the state for the matchup and the Hurricanes went to the state final.
2009 Easton 28 Liberty 7
Liberty's state title defense was officially over the Rovers came into BASD and spoiled Anthony Gonzalez's final home game with a 28-7 win. Gonzalez had missed most of the season with a meniscus injury, but was primed to make a run with their All American quarterback healthy, but Easton sacked him five times and ran for over 200 yards in the win that knocked Liberty from playoff contention.
2010 Easton 14 Liberty 7
Easton clinched their second straight conference title with a 14-7 win over the Hurricanes, with quarterback Justin Pacchioli breaking Easton's all time passing record with a 20 yard completion on 3rd and 13 that allowed the Rovers to run out the clock.
2011 Easton 21 Liberty 14
Easton clinched their third straight conference championship when Ian Hayden scored a nine yard touchdown with 2:22 left, then a diving Kevin Griffin interception at the Easton 19 ended Liberty's drive to tie in the final minute.
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Lehigh Valley Week 8

R
Game of the Week: Easton Red Rovers at Liberty Hurricanes (BASD Stadium)
When Easton and Liberty are good, this is one of the best rivalries in local football. They’ve played each other 107 times, dating back to 1904, and have played EVERY year since 1919. The stretch from 2004 to 2011 is probably the best period of the rivalry, with the 2004, 2005, and 2006 games all instant classics for various reasons as the two schools were operating at about as high a level as Lehigh Valley football programs have in unison since state playoffs started in 1988 – the Steve Shiffert/Tim Moncman overlap was great for local high school football. Current Easton coach Matt Senneca was on those Liberty staffs as the QBs coach and then offensive coordinator, and he’s mentioned all week about how special those series of games were on both sides. We’re a LONG way off of those days and both schools have been in the wilderness at various times in the 2010s and 2020s, but with a combined 12-2 record, third (Easton) and fourth (Liberty) year coaches who seem to be pressing a lot of the right buttons, and the community support that comes with fielding a winner again, we may be entering another strong period for this rivalry. Here’s hoping.

Actually on the field, it’s one of the more interesting match ups in the league this year. Liberty raced out to a 6-0 start with a soft schedule, but then played Nazareth way tougher than I think a lot of outside observers were expecting last week. Liberty has high end talent – Jake Pukszyn is probably the best receiver in the area (he’s also one of the best basketball players) and his size (6’4 190) creates a real problem against most teams. Gabe Green is looking for back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons, quarterback Antonio Fontanez was all All Conference pick as a sophomore, Daunte Morrison is maybe the best defensive lineman in the league this year, and Javian Pujols has been a revelations at rush linebacker. Easton is more balanced, where big contributions seem to come from a different position group every week.

Pukszyn versus the Rover secondary is a big spot I’m watching when Liberty has the ball. Easton’s secondary is huge, and Pukszyn won’t necessarily be able to bully Jasir Frutchey (6’4 215), Cael DiSora (6’3 195), or Sean McPeek (6’4 185). Does that mean Liberty has to really try and get it’s ground game going, or will Pukszyn be able to get open without resorting to jump balls and out physical-ing corners. Fontanez has not been quite as sharpe as I anticipated, and Easton’s secondary has been great at causing turnovers (they have 14 interceptions in seven games, including a 6A leading 5 from Andrew Biddle). If Easton can make Liberty on dimensional, their chances go way up.

On the other side of the ball, Liberty gave up 300 rushing yards to Nazareth, and Easton’s offensive line and dynamic running back pair has to be licking their chops. Liberty’s defensive front has been very good, and the 3-3-5 look can be weird to run against, so Easton has to communicate up front and get to their assignments. But if the offensive line can keep Morrison out of the backfield and Day and Thomas get to the second level, Liberty has tiny guys in the back seven that may have a hard time tackling one-on-one against Easton’s backs, Day in particular.

I think Easton wins this one and makes a statement headed into Freedom next week.
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Lehigh Valley Week 8

R
Power Rankings

Big School
1. Freedom Patriot (7-0)
Remaining Schedule: Northampton, Easton, Liberty
Freedom controls their own destiny for the top seed in the D11 playoffs. Run the table, and they’re #1. It also would be the first undefeated regular season in program history. The only two nine-win regular seasons are 2015 and 2018. Freedom has the league’s leading passer (Chase Walker – 1,469 yards), leading rusher (Aaron Beete – 914 yards) and two players over the 20 catch mark (Shacre Colwell – 23 for 455 and six TDs and Amare DuBoise – 21 for 380 and 5 TDs). Most importantly, they look like the most physical team up front, with kids like Tanner Wheeler (who recently committed to Richmond), Dylan Hill, Dan Schiffert. This is a team playing great football coming down the home stretch.

2. Easton Red Rovers (6-1)
Remaining Schedule: Liberty, Freedom, Nazareth
Easton also controls their own destiny for the top seed. A win over Liberty this Friday would make Easton-Freedom the de facto East Penn Conference championship game and the #1 seed would go with it. Running back duo Dorian Thomas and Will Day each went over 100 yards last Friday against Northampton as they continue to establish themselves as one of the most productive running back tandems in recent conference history. Thomas has been the bell cow – carrying 108 times on the year, including a career high 28 last Friday against Northampton. Easton has used Day more sparingly – he missed almost all of 2023 with a foot injury – he’s only gone over 12 carries twice and has games of 6, 7, and 9. But when the chips were on the line against Emmaus, it was Day who had 23 carries for 163 yards and it would not surprise me if their workload flips as we get into the home stretch and the games get more important. If Day gets at least 10 carries in a game, he’s averaging 110 yards per game.

3. Parkland Trojans (6-1)
Remaining Schedule: Allentown Central Catholic, Whitehall, Emmaus
Parkland is likely locked into the third seed, thanks to the relative weakness of the Lehigh County schools this year and how it drags down the Trojans strength of schedule power points (Allen, Dieruff, Whitehall and ACC and no Easton or Liberty on the schedule is a relative weakness). Similar to Easton and Day, Parkland has eased off the TJ Lawrence button in games where they are simply outclassing their opponent. But when playoff time hits, expect Parkland’s offense to feature much heavier doses of the very talented sophomore tailback.

4. Nazareth Blue Eagles (5-2)
Remaining Schedule: Bethlehem Catholic, Northampton, Easton
Nazareth turned a 20-14 nailbiter into a 34-14 laugher in the final five minutes against Liberty, thanks to a 55 yard strike to tailback Marquez Wimberly and a 63 yard strip sack and score on Liberty’s first play of the next series by Lance Zuercher, who had maybe the best defensive game in the Valley this year (16 tackles, two interceptions, and the sack/fumble scoop and score to ice the game). It was encouraging for Nazareth to get Wimberly going in a big game – he’s the biggest gamebreaker in the Valley when he can get the ball in space, and 18 carries for 155 yards and three touchdowns, plus a 55 yard touchdown catch is more of what should be expected from the Blue Eagle star. They also got 224 yards passing and 106 yards rushing from quarterback Peyton Falzone and a 46 yard catch and run from receiver Caleb Newsome. Nazareth does not have the same interior line depth they had on their D11 winning team last year and they need the ball on the perimeter in the hands of their Big 3 with a chance to make a play. They did that against Liberty, and will need more of the same, particularly in the regular season finale with Easton and in whatever playoff match ups they see.

5. Liberty Hurricanes (6-1)
Remaining Schedule: Easton, Bethlehem Catholic, Freedom
Liberty fought valiantly against Nazareth, but fell from the ranks of the unbeatens. After going down 13-0 early, they clawed back to 20-14 with a touchdown right before halftime. They had their opportunities in the third quarter, but the offense stalled out and the defense finally broke with a deep Falzone to Wimberly connection blowing the game open. Gabe Green broke the 100 yard mark and Jake Pukszyn almost single handedly brought the Hurricanes back in the first half (7 catches for 91 yard) before cramping forced him to miss a lot of second half action. Liberty also controls their own destiny for the top seed and wins over Easton and Freedom would vault the Hurricanes to the top spot. Still a lot to play for, but they can also lose the opportunity for a home playoff game by dropping both of those contests. They’ll have Easton at BASD on Friday night in our game of the week.

Honorable Mention: Emmaus (5-2), Northampton (4-3), East Stroudsburg South (5-2)

Small School
1. Northwestern Lehigh Tigers (7-0)
Northwestern is #1 in the state per PA Football News an #2 by PennLive and has not faced much of a challenge so far this year, including blowouts of North Schuylkill (49-7), Blue Mountain (30-8), Pottsville (35-0), and Northern Lehigh (56-7). They should roll again with Jim Thorpe before a pair of on-paper tough games with Tamaqua and Southern Lehigh to close the year. Eli Zimmerman’s 17 touchdowns leads the area as he looks for a second straight All State season.

2. Southern Lehigh Spartans (6-1)
Southern Lehigh destroyed Tamaqua last week to knock the Blue Raiders out of the state top 10 and out of the #2 spot here in our power rankings. They opened the game with a shovel pass to Michigan recruit Andrew Olesh, who took it 83 yards for a touchdown and things devolved from there for the Blue Raiders. Colton Sams threw three touchdowns, while Olesh had over 100 yards receiving and emerging star running back Sean Stecker scored twice. Southern Lehigh still controls their own destiny in the Colonial League with Saucon Valley and Northwestern Lehigh still on the schedule.

3. Notre Dame (GP) Crusaders (6-1)
We said Notre Dame’s numbers would be silly down the stretch against a soft schedule, and Matt Bodnar threw for 324 yards and four touchdowns in the first half against Pen Argyl. He finished the day with 446 and 5 scores, giving him 2,615 yards and 27 touchdowns with three games remaining in the regular season. I don’t know if they can run the ball against good teams or get stops when they need to, but boy can they chuck it around.

4. Tamaqua Blue Raiders(6-1)
Tamaqua got blitzed early by Southern Lehigh and never recovered, and suddenly the 6-0 start doesn’t seem to guarantee them much, with remaining dates with Northwestern Lehigh and Blue Mountain. They’ve been the Cinderalla team so far, but these rankings are on alert for midnight.

5. Saucon Valley Panthers (6-1)
Welcome to the party Saucon Valley! The Panthers have been throttling their schedule since a 24-7 loss to Notre Dame in week four. Senior running back Jared Rohn is the bell cow here, with 102 carries for 700 yards and 13 touchdowns. Braden’s father Tommy set the Northampton rushing record back in 1999 and was a state finalist wrestler, and of course his grandfather is Don Rohn, a two-time state champ for Saucon Valley and an NCAA wrestling champ at Clarion before coaching Northampton to one of the biggest powers in the country. Saucon will have a crack at Southern Lehigh with a chance to get themselves a home playoff game in week 9 and is a great bet to finish at least 8-2 headed into the playoffs.

Honorable Mention: Blue Mountain (5-2), Northern Lehigh (5-2)
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