SJP throttled
- Thread starter Zipline33
- Start date
Not a SJP fan but have to give some credit for ANY team that's willing to line up against those powerful North Jersey private school squads. Bosco, Bergen, SJR, PC et. al are no joke! The recruiting wars (and that league re-defines what recruiting is!) have redistributed the high-end talent more equally of late, but Bosco is still a beast. They have established cut-throat recruiting that makes anything in PA look like grammar school, No BS!!
Not totally surprised by score, SJP with a lot of new inexperienced players that will need to establish themselves. They, like many, are mostly concerned with how they function in Nov./Dec.
Additionally, Don Boscoe was doing 2 a days with equipment the third week of July. These teams that you mentioned are a level above the prep and laSalle IMO. Bergan Catholic ,St. Joe Montvalle have dates this year with LaSalle and the Prep. If we cannot be at least competitive why play them anymore. I know LaSalle gave Bergan a good game last year , but lets see this year. I really am behind our PCL teams and just take a deep breath when I know these games are coming up on the schedule. I wish laSalle the best this week against DeMatha . It will be a tough night.
Let's see what happens when St. Joe's Regional comes to play the Prep in October. I expect it to much closer than yesterday's game--even though SJR beat Bosco last week. Bosco's loss last week probably made things harder for SJP yesterday.
Going just on the boxscore, it seems SJP got burned by giving up big plays. Two Bosco TDs came on punt returns, one on a kickoff return, and one on an interception return. But even taking those plays away, SJP still would have lost.
I'm not sure if playing Bosco the week after playing an opening game far away--Texas, Chicago, and Louisiana in the last three years--is a good idea. After the last three years you'd have to say that Bosco plays at a different level than SJP.
LaSalle isn't playing Bergen Catholic this year. They played them close on the road last year but came up short; pretty sure that was their 4th matchup in recent years.
The value of these games seems questionable unless you believe the concept of playing them equates to good playoff prep.
Pine Richland played SJP step for step with a typical schedule. North Allegheny in '10 and '12, Central Dauphin in '11 won gold, counting only the years PCL competed....2009 on. None of them played anything close to SJR, DBP, BC, IMG, etc unless I'm missing something.
In terms of playoff prep, isn't it better playing what we saw last weekend, LS vs PBS, DtE vs Nesh, NP vs WC. They're prepping for the postseason in D3 with Central Dauphin playing Manheim and Wilson, CD East same vs Wilson, State High vs McD, and so on.
Hey, great games to play, I'd schedule one being a private school for recruiting purposes then move on to games like the above.
Pine Richland played SJP step for step with a typical schedule. North Allegheny in '10 and '12, Central Dauphin in '11 won gold, counting only the years PCL competed....2009 on. None of them played anything close to SJR, DBP, BC, IMG, etc unless I'm missing something.
In terms of playoff prep, isn't it better playing what we saw last weekend, LS vs PBS, DtE vs Nesh, NP vs WC. They're prepping for the postseason in D3 with Central Dauphin playing Manheim and Wilson, CD East same vs Wilson, State High vs McD, and so on.
Hey, great games to play, I'd schedule one being a private school for recruiting purposes then move on to games like the above.
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You guys crack me up! You' re going to bring Pine Richland into this discussion. FYI.....you lost! You play your schedule and we will play ours. If you come out on top then you can boast your system works. Until then I wouldn't comment on anything regarding the Prep. To answer your question....NO, it is not better playing what we saw last weekend.
Ironic in many ways. SJP has scheduled 'these games' for 15+ years, far longer than anyone else. It had as much to do with a unique experience as anything else. The reality of today, and realistically, the last 3+ years is that there aren't any 'local' games to be had. The cause and effect is also affecting other PCL schools for scheduling purposes as well. SJP is available to play fair and reasonable 'local' competition but the scoring of pub league inhibits that. Frankly, I agree with Tulla, scheduling that Bosco game after a destination game is brutal. Hopefully, they can fair better this week against St Ignatius. Unfortunately, NP and Wood both dropped them so that didn't help. As far as PIAA, I'll simply say this, there were many questions about whether the PCL and its methods, competition, etc could compete ... I think those questions have clearly been answered.
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That would be awesome. WPIAL needs to loosen the scheduling grip a little bit. Maybe if things go to 6 classes, that would be possible.
Roxy,
As I said, that North Jersey-United league just a different animal from the rest of state. IMO, the PIAA champ would mercy-rule just about anyone else in the state. They start formal practice much earlier than everyone, the recruiting of high-end talent is beyond cutthroat, been like that for decades. The talent in recent years somewhat more distributed, now seeing PC and SJR becoming powers as Bosco and Bergen Cath. had dominated the recruiting wars. Infante knows all to well as he was indoctrinated in that league prior the SJP move.
I still give credit for any of our teams scheduling those boys, those top 4 are beasts!! Brooks enjoyed the OOC tilts against out of state powers before and during the PIAA engagement. Regardless of the schedule timing, still think Gordon(then) and Infante(then/now) wanted to play those teams as a maturing test to their players. What matters most in PA is how has your team progressed and playing come Nov./Dec., period! PCL 4A allows for a ton of OOC schedule flexibility, travel costs are secondary for the "well endowed" schools.
I agree that the disparity between the top tier of Catholic Schools in North Jersey and the rest of the state--public and Catholic--is huge in Jersey. And I'm not sure what it takes to field the type of team Bosco fields year in and year out is possible for any school in the Philly area or even necessarily desirable.
That said, from watching last year's SJP-Bosco game and from picking up a bit of what happened on Saturday, it seems that for whatever reason (nerves, early season problems with mechanics, especially on special teams, or something else) SJP has made lots of fundamental errors in playing Bosco. Of course you could say that Bosco's being a better team is the cause of the errors, but I think SJP's sense that they have to play close to mistake-free football makes the make more mistakes than usual. I posted that I thought the first few series would be crucial in deciding how the game would go and, like the last two years, the Prep fell quickly behind, I'm told, at least partly as a result of uncharacteristic errors. If anyone who was there could confirm or correct me, I'd appreciate it.
I meant the above to be a reply to Yesman's comments.
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Maybe next time we'll just ask you what we should say. Dude, we're just talking here.
If the Prep placed any priority on an undefeated season they wouldn't play the schedule they do.
