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.
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.
