HS Football: Week 4 Preview

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. 

We had a great time on our “fall season premiere” of “SportsTalk” last week as PIAA Associate Executive Director Melissa Mertz discussed a number of scholastic sports topics and touched on a number of positive initiatives the organization has done to help student-athletes.

You can catch the entire interview through RCN On-Demand and by hearing our podcast.

There were a number of very competitive games last week, including two overtime contests and four other games decided by less than seven points.

With all of last weekend’s big “showdown games” behind us, it’s time for this week’s edition of our high school football polls for teams in the District XI region…

 Big” Schools Poll

1)   Freedom

2)  Emmaus

3)  Easton

4)  Parkland

5)  East Stroudsburg-South

 “Small” School Poll

1)  Bethlehem Catholic 

2)  Palisades

3)  Saucon Valley

4)  Central Catholic

Other schools receiving More Than One Vote: Northwestern, Notre Dame

Our poll remains with the same structure that we’ve utilized for many seasons.  We take the 400-male enrollment number as the cutoff for schools within the District XI/RCN-TV broadcast area.  All of the schools above that number qualify as “big schools” in our poll. These schools consist of Parkland, Liberty, Allen, Easton, Emmaus, Liberty, Dieruff, Pocono Mountain West. Freedom, Stroudsburg, Pleasant Valley, Northampton, Nazareth, Whitehall, Southern Lehigh, East Stroudsburg-South, and Pocono Mountain East.  The five schools receiving the most votes are listed above.

“Small schools” (below 400-male enrollment) consist of both Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and Colonial League teams —  Bangor, Saucon Valley, Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic, Northwestern, Wilson, Palisades, Palmerton, Salisbury, Notre Dame, Pen Argyl, Northern Lehigh and Catasauqua.  The top four vote-getters are named.

Here are our RCN football experts weighing in on four of the biggest high school games this weekend . . .

The “PICK 4”	Bethlehem Catholic vs. Parkland	Wilson vs. Northwestern	Central vs. Whitehall	Liberty vs. Easton
Gary Laubach	Parkland	Northwestern	Central	Easton
Tony Cocca	Parkland	Northwestern	Central	Easton
Keith Groller	Parkland	Northwestern	Central	Easton
Chris Michael	Parkland	Northwestern	Whitehall	Easton

Check back next week for more high school football notes, polls, video highlights and predictions.

Note: Yes, I did prediction winless Whitehall to beat Central Catholic, a 2-1 squad that just defeated Nazareth this past weekend.  No, I am not just picking a different team so we have some variety in this week’s picks.

I think the Vikings deserve a ton of credit for posting a very impressive win over the Blue Eagles and are in good shape for competing for a 4A district playoff spot going forward.

But Whitehall still has a lot to play for and this is one of their best regular season chances for a “W.”  Thanks to the new high school playoff format, the Zephyrs, despite their 0-3 record, are still considered in many circles as the team expected to capture this fall’s District XI 5A Championship.  They technically may not need ANY wins to qualify for the playoffs, but I think mentally it’s important for Whitehall to try to win this weekend’s contest.

Time will tell if my theory is correct.

Check back next week for more high school football notes, polls, video highlights and predictions.