HS Football: Week 5 Preview
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An extra big shout-out to our fall sports athletes as the remnants of Hurricane Florence stormed through our coverage area, arriving just as most contests were getting underway. As I could attest, the pounding rain made for ultra-slick conditions and tough visibility (yes, I was out in the storm at a soccer match—thoroughly protected, I thought, with an umbrella, hat and rain slicker).
The players I talked with afterwards said it was an interesting experience and told me they had a lot of fun playing in the sloppy, soaking conditions.
For me? I’ll be doubling-down on the Vitamin-C for the next few days as I continue to try to dry out from the event.
As far as high school football this past weekend, we had a pair of great games on RCN-TV as both Easton and Bethlehem Catholic won in dramatic, come-from-behind fashion…
Don’t be surprised if a few plays from these games come up again on our “year-in-review” recollections in a few months—both on the TV “SportsTalk” program and here at “The Shop.”
With those 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) Northampton
“Small” School Poll
2) Palisades
4) Northwestern
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.
Now, I won’t spend much time pointing out that I was the ONLY person who picked winless Whitehall to beat 2-1 Central Catholic last weekend in our “Pick 4” contest…
(pause here for your applause)
…but as my former “SportsTalk” partner’s favorite line goes, “even a blind squirrel can find a nut every once in a while.”
So here we go with this week’s football experts (and me) weighing in on four of the biggest high school games this weekend…
| The “PICK 4” |
Easton vs. Emmaus | Northwestern vs. Bangor | Southern Lehigh vs. Palisades | Liberty vs. Parkland |
| Gary Laubach | Emmaus | Northwestern | Palisades | Parkland |
| Tony Cocca | Emmaus | Northwestern | Palisades | Parkland |
| Keith Groller | Emmaus | Northwestern | Palisades | Parkland |
| Chris Michael | Emmaus | Northwestern | Palisades | Parkland |
Check back next week for more high school football notes, polls, video highlights and predictions.
