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Villanova/Football Week 7 Preview

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Offensive linemen don’t ever get much publicity…unless they do something wrong.  But Bethlehem native Louis Csaszar has been carving out a standout career while doing some great things at Villanova University.

He not only became a regular starter in his sophomore season, but also that year was named to the CAA Football All-Academic team.  He’s continued to be a key member of that O-Line ever since.

We caught up with Louis recently on “SportsTalk” to ask him about both his individual and team successes in the NCAAs, as well as his close-up perspective of the school’s basketball team’s two — count ‘em, TWO–National Championships, while he has been on campus…

Villanova has a tough schedule ahead of them but Wildcats’ Head Coach Mark Ferrante has built a solid program and this team should continue to be fun to watch for the next two months.

Last weekend on RCN-TV we had the opportunity to see a team from outside our coverage area go up against a Notre Dame team that desperately needed to avoid picking up a third loss in September.

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

1)  Bethlehem Catholic 

2)  Saucon Valley

3)  Northwestern

4) 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, DieruffPocono Mountain West, Freedom, StroudsburgPleasant ValleyNorthampton, Nazareth, WhitehallSouthern LehighEast 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, NorthwesternWilson, Palisades, Palmerton, Salisbury, Notre Dame, Pen Argyl, Northern Lehigh and Catasauqua.  The top four vote-getters are named.

As we have surpassed the halfway point of the high school football regular season, I wanted to give an update on how we are all doing on guessing the winners each week for our “Pick 4” contest.

  • Gary Laubach – 17 wins
  • Keith Groller – 17 wins
  • Chris Michael – 17 wins
  • Tony Cocca – 16 wins

Don’t forget, on each Thursday “SportsTalk” show, Keith and I usually spend a few minutes recapping the “Pick 4” standings along with offering a few thoughts on our contests, in addition to pointing out more observations and opinions about the following weekend’s games.

Hopefully we can “break up” the log jam in the standings this week as we all weigh in on four of the biggest high school games coming up this weekend…

The
“PICK 4”
Easton vs. Freedom Southern Lehigh vs. Northwestern Liberty vs. Nazareth Salisbury vs. Northern Lehigh
Gary Laubach Freedom Northwestern Nazareth Northern Lehigh
Tony Cocca  Freedom Southern Lehigh Nazareth Northern Lehigh
Keith Groller  Freedom Northwestern Nazareth Salisbury
Chris Michael  Freedom Northwestern Nazareth Northern Lehigh

Check back next week here at “The Shop” for more high school football notes, polls, video highlights and predictions.

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.”