The Playoffs: All classifications write-ups and Power Ratings (1A-4A)

[Stalker]

I'll crank these out as can. Here are Thursday games.


The Playoffs: All classifications write-ups and Power Ratings (1A-4A)
Defending state champ underlined, Runner-Up italicized,
All games at Hershey Park Stadium.

1A Final; Dec 7th 1-PM
Homer-Center D6, 13-1 vs Jeannette D7, 14-1
Homer Center got another big win last week that surprised many pundits when they defeated Steelton Highspire’s Steamrollers 20-14. This comes on the heels of their previous week’s stunner when they defeated 3-time defending state champ Bishop Guilfoyle by the same score to end their 59 game winning streak. The Rollers (11-3) came in as at least a slight favorite in this one and did move the ball with Qb Malachi Young throwing for 210 yards and 2 scores while Dupre Andrews rushed for 126 yards. They broke a few big gainers (65 and 77) for scores but did not have the muscle to match them up front as the Wildcats did what District-6 teams do, pound away, in this case for 324 rush yards and 355 total yards. Big Jesse Lee (6-1, 220, sr) rushed for 148 yards with Mike McCracken (5-11, 185, sr) gaining 122. Lee has 1384 yards on the year while McCracken has 1104. Their win over Steel High makes Homer Center the 1st team from Indiana County to ever make it to the state finals.
As expected, Jeannette got a war from Farrell (11-3) who showed well in special teams returning a kick-off 89 yards for the score. But that was it with Jeannette’s defense shutting them down to 159 total yards (108 rushing) in a 17-6 win. Jeannette had 284 yards of offense as the Steeler D did their job as well. But All-Everything QB/RB Robert Kennedy proved too much, rushing for 128 yards, catching 2 passes for 58 yards, intercepting 2 passes (12th of year) while completing 2 of 2 passes for 24 yards. For the year he completed 57% of his passes fo1329 yards while rushing for 1242 yards. Co-Qb Seth Howard completed 7 of 12 passes for 116 yards. They move on to play Homer Center in their 3rd visit to Chocolate Town (2A playoffs) where they lost to Wilson Boro (16-0) 29-28 in 2006 with a 14-2 squad, before coming back the following year for gold, with an 16-0 team to beat Dunmore (14-2) 49-21. The math is calling this one even although the Jayhawks have the more difficult schedule. Looking at the most difficult teams played recently shows the following; HC’s vs Bishop Guilfoyle and Steel High compared to Jeannette’s vs Rochester, Clairton, Imani Christian and Farrell. Homer Center’s last two wins really jump out but no more than the string Jeannette put together in the postseason taking down the aforementioned quality teams. I think it's Jeannette but the math says Wildcats by .59.

4A Final; Dec 7th 7-PM
Imhotep Charter School D11 12-1 vs Cathedral Prep D10 13-0
Imhotep had no trouble with Bethlehem Catholic (12-3), shutting their offense down completely by disallowing an offensive touchdown in a 34-14 win. Who expected that? This was accomplished without their premier running back Isheem Young who was suspended. BC’s only scores came on special teams breakdowns allowing a fumble returned for a score and another recovered in the end zone. They came into the game averaging 42ppg, making this Imhotep’s best defensive effort against a quality opponent of the season, holding them to 190 total yards of which 70 came on the ground. Contrasting this to TEP’s 469 total yards of offense shows the enormity of the rout, particularly knowing 379 of those yards came on the ground. Without the suspended Young, Tykee Smith (5-11, 190, jr) more than filled the bill getting 256 rush yards on 31 carries along with Khadarius Samson’s 85 yards on 7 carries. Qb Jalen Sutton-Christian made a lot of this work easy completing 5 of 5 passes for 90 yards and rushing for another 98 yards. Yusuf Terry caught all 5 of his throws. The win provides for a great rematch of last year’s final won by Cathedral Prep 27-20. Last week saw the Ramblers take care of Berks Catholic in a somewhat misleading score of 42-24 after Berks battled to a 21-21 tie at halftime. Berks kept it tight but couldn’t control running back Billy Lucas who found every crack and crevice, rushing for 272 yards, scoring on runs of 59, 23, 21, 49 and 85 yards on 14 carries. It’s too easy saying Cathedral wore them down. They simply had more, finishing off with a 21-3 2nd half. The stats show a strong rushing performance by both with Prep rushing for 372 yards to 282 for Berks. Passing was a side show with Prep completing 5 of 14 for 98 yards to Berks 88 yards on 9 of 14 completions. Looking at high end opponents of both ICS and ECP shows ICS losing to Harrisburg, bad, 33-14, but it was early. Last week they stuffed Bethlehem Catholic 34-14 who can be linked to high end teams Parkland who beat them 38-24 and Selinsgrove who they beat 34-33. Doing the same with ECP shows a season opening throttling of Pittsburgh Central Catholic (10-3, 6A WPIAL runner-up) 40-7 and a win at Warren, MI over the Div-2 champ De La Salle (12-2, titles 14, 17, runner-up 06, 08) 33-23, formerly Detroit De La Salle. All that convoluted math has Cathedral Prep winning in a struggle by 7.60 points.

 

[PA2CAMoleskinner]

Stalk -

The last of your write-ups for 2017 (man, the season went by much too quickly).

Well, at least we get four more match-ups after these two games -- and then I'm sure you'll also think about punching up the Final Four in the NCAA football playoff set-up (so we have a little bit more to enjoy).

And thanks for taking the time on these "things" - they're always a great read.

 

[Stalker]

Stalk -

The last of your write-ups for 2017 (man, the season went by much too quickly).

Well, at least we get four more match-ups after these two games -- and then I'm sure you'll also think about punching up the Final Four in the NCAA football playoff set-up (so we have a little bit more to enjoy).

And thanks for taking the time on these "things" - they're always a great read.

Anytime Keystone2Cali Man. It did go by fast like it always does but after this week comes college's real season and that's my time of the year! GA paid some bills last week in a win over Auburn that was so easy I was certain I missed something. Almost spooked me away. Losing it maybe?
Yeah, I can punch the numbers for the CFP and Huck can create the contest. There you go! Anyway, you're very welcome.

 

[kitwor]

Stalker,

As always your write ups on these match ups are sensational. I always look forward to them. Something tells me that Imhotep will be playing on a more emotional level (especially in the first half) with the loss of Young but the game that really set the tone for me on this ECP team is how they totally dominated Pittsburgh Central Catholic earlier in the year.

I honestly think if the Panthers can keep that emotion in the second half they would have a chance but my mind says otherwise because this Cathedral Prep team could very well be the best team in Pa regardless of classification.

It would be great if Homer Center can win their game especially with how they've been blown out in the state tournament the past few years.

 

[Relayer]

I honestly think if the Panthers can keep that emotion in the second half they would have a chance but my mind says otherwise because this Cathedral Prep team could very well be the best team in Pa regardless of classification.

kit, if ECP is truly the best team in the state, it's a joke they are playing at 4A. They haven't played anyone close to the talent of Wood or Prep. If both Wood and ECP roll in their games, the football fan in this state gets screwed. In a perfect world, they should be playing each other this weekend.

Thanks PIAA for expanding to 6 classes, it has accomplished nothing!

 

[shfoot]

Relayer: cash flow only

 

[lilromeo]

kit, if ECP is truly the best team in the state, it's a joke they are playing at 4A. They haven't played anyone close to the talent of Wood or Prep. If both Wood and ECP roll in their games, the football fan in this state gets screwed. In a perfect world, they should be playing each other this weekend.

Thanks PIAA for expanding to 6 classes, it has accomplished nothing!

Totally agree that ECP should be at 5-A .They miss the cutoff by just a few both this year and last year. If I had their talent there is no way I wouldn't want to showcase it at a higher level. I don't understand their thinking,can anyone provide information on the whys?

 

[SPEED&JUMP DR.]

Its not like you can change classifications on the fly. There is a 2 year cycle and you must commit to your class about 9 months in advance. Wood now has numbers to move DOWN to 4A and I think they need to declare by next week for the 2018 & 2019 seasons. It will be interesting to see what they decide. But with most schools, especially those non boundary schools that recruit, accept transfers, etc-its preety hard to know what the make up of your team will be 2 years down the road.

 

[HSFballFan19]

Whatever happened to the "success factor" that was discussed before this latest cycle? I thought that was a great idea. Based on my understanding of the rule, it would have forced Wood to move up to 6A after this year. Likewise, Tep and ECP would've moved up to 5A for this next cycle. Then, if Tep and ECP continued their success, which many would assume, they would've moved up to 6A for the following cycle.

At that point, you would have Prep, AW, LaSalle, and Tep all beating each other before facing the D11 winner. I felt it may have stopped a lot of complaining. To be clear, I am
NOT trying to get into the recruiting/transfer conversation, just a simple question/hypothetical that I felt may have worked.

 

[Relayer]

Doesn't help that I've never liked ECP going back to the CBW days. Their fans were always pretty cocky.

I thought it was funny that all the 4A pubs in D10 voluntarily moved up to 5A to send ECP a message. Not to mention avoid them in the post-season

Back in the day I never bought all the Berwick hype with those "mythical" national titles. They always played in their cushy little 3A bracket every year and won a ton of state titles playing no one. Would have been great to see them compete against a CB-West or North Hills.

 

[ptomaselli]

Doesn't help that I've never liked ECP going back to the CBW days. Their fans were always pretty cocky.

I thought it was funny that all the 4A pubs in D10 voluntarily moved up to 5A to send ECP a message. Not to mention avoid them in the post-season

Back in the day I never bought all the Berwick hype with those "mythical" national titles. They always played in their cushy little 3A bracket every year and won a ton of state titles playing no one. Would have been great to see them compete against a CB-West or North Hills.

Seriously? A public school team that won it's bracket playing those in front of them? The folks here are comical judging that any team they feel comes by their players illegally in their eyes should all be dumped in one classification. Schools are taxpayer funded and should be there for the students. If you're local public school's coach is a moron, why should the kid be forced to stay there?

Seriously, more and more I feel like they should do away with school sports and have the teams be club driven.

Cocky? Every team's fans get cocky when they have long periods of success.

 

[6daystosaturday]

HS: LS, Prep, Tep, Wood, all get moved up to 6A. District 1 and D12 reseed together for playoffs. Final 8 played at linc on a fri/sat. Champion emerges.
No need for PIAA states. Sepa champ calls itself state champ. Board is embroiled in debate on how this year the big pub PR could beat the Sepa champ SJP/LS/Wood/Tep. Wouldn't it be great to get a true state champ? Wash/rinse/repeat.

 

[Relayer]

Seriously? A public school team that won it's bracket playing those in front of them? The folks here are comical judging that any team they feel comes by their players illegally in their eyes should all be dumped in one classification. Schools are taxpayer funded and should be there for the students. If you're local public school's coach is a moron, why should the kid be forced to stay there?

Seriously, more and more I feel like they should do away with school sports and have the teams be club driven.

Cocky? Every team's fans get cocky when they have long periods of success.

My point on Berwick is this. If they are going to be crowned the best high school football team in the country on multiple occasions, could they at least play the best schools in their own state? I don't think that is too much to ask.

 

[shfoot]

Relayer: As you know SH played Berwick in 96,97,98,00,and 01. Dallas played us in 99.
The 96 game was with Gus Felder picking up a fumble and running it back in the wrong direction for a safety, thus the Berwick 27-2 win. We lose 7-0 to Berwick the following yr. SH finally did Berwick in in 99-14-10, 2000- 14-7 and 2001- 30-21. At that point Berwick had no long become a so called powerhouse. What did make them strong was every other offensive play they changed the whole line wearing down opponents. Even after we beat them and won the state title in 1999, Berwick was always ranked above us until we beat them in the playoffs. IMO, I don't think Berwick or SH state team could beat the 4A playoff teams. They weren't that good (nationally).