Playoffs ’22 Storylines & Polls
Before we take a look at this week’s high school football polls, here are a few of the storylines heading into this fall’s postseason action…
- Can Freedom repeat its 2021 storyline…PLUS ONE?
Last fall, the Patriots started the year losing two of its first three games before running the table through the remainder of its Lehigh Valley schedule, capturing a district title and coming within a whisker of upsetting a District 12 powerhouse. Freedom has taken a similar course here in 2022, led by a great running back and solid defense. IF it can win another title, can it also take the next step and win a state playoff game?
- Can Northampton get over the “Southern Bump”?
Northampton chose to play in the “north” division of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference a few years ago and played a much weaker schedule while setting school records in back-to-back seasons with new regular season win totals. The gripe against the K-Kids’s success carries weight when they don’t beat teams from the southern division of the conference, but Northampton has proven itself with four wins over those teams in their last four tries. Can they win one in the playoffs, however, remains to be seen? Many insiders say this year’s team has the ability to do just that.
- How will the expanded “3A” playoffs shake out?
One of the changes to the District XI playoff structure this year involves adding more teams (and more playoff spots) to the 3A classification. There’s a number of teams that had success, but with completely different styles. Which team’s strengths will win out and which “side” of the district will bring home the gold medals this year? (there were no Lehigh Valley teams in last year’s 3A championship game).
- Will it be an “All Lehigh Valley” 6A Championship game in three weeks?
Another playoff change for this fall was the addition of a “sub-regional,” with teams from District 2 and District 4 competing for postseason spots with District XI. Standings-wise, there were no non-Lehigh Valley teams in the top four spots, but that doesn’t mean we can’t see one of those teams going deep into the playoffs (anyone remember Nate Eachus from Hazelton?) Any District XI team would be wise not to look past any “outsider” squads this fall.
We’ll be talking about these and other things to watch for as we embark on the playoffs this season (check out our website for our coverage schedule). To further help you get ready for the local post-season action, we will have a special guest on this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” show. Former Easton Head Coach Steve Shiffert, one of the winning coaches in Pennsylvania history, still remains active watching and attending local games and will be a panelist on this week’s program to break down all the “film” from the regular season’s games. He will be joining us to give his insights and predictions for many of this weekend’s big games.
You can email me, with your question or comment about local football and we may read it on this Thursday’s program at 7pm on the Astound TV Network.
Also, be sure to tune in this weekend for ATVN’s coverage of the first round of the playoffs!
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Additionally, a big “thank you” to our friends from the Pennsylvania Cable Network for selecting ATVN to broadcast our feed of last Friday’s Parkland/Emmaus game to a statewide audience!
It’s always an honor when they select a station to broadcast their “game of the week”. To have the rare distinction of being asked to do it twice in eight weeks (something that hadn’t occurred in my 20-plus years working in the cable television industry) was truly a reflection of the outstanding work by our ATVN sports crew members.
The ladies and gentlemen manning the cameras and all the technical positions in the production trucks did their usual stellar job for both games we broadcast on PCN this fall. The teams also accommodated us for both contests by giving the Commonwealth audience good, competitive contests that were fun to broadcast!
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Below we have high school polls for both leagues in the ATVN viewing area, along with the listing of all of the teams that are included in our respective categories.
EPC TOP 5
- Freedom
- Nazareth
- Emmaus
- Northampton
- Parkland
Eligible Teams from our viewing area (in no particular order):
Northampton, Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, Freedom, Liberty, Dieruff, Allen, Allentown Central Catholic, Parkland, Whitehall, Emmaus, and Nazareth.
COLONIAL TOP 4
- Northern Lehigh
- Northwestern
- Notre Dame-GP
- Southern Lehigh
Eligible Teams from our viewing area (in no particular order):
Bangor, Pen Argyl, Notre Dame – Green Pond, Wilson, Catasauqua, Salisbury, Saucon Valley, Northwestern, Northern Lehigh and Southern Lehigh.
Be sure to check back to our website for next week’s poll results and come back frequently for any changes to our ongoing broadcast schedule information as we the playoffs roll on.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.
