Saturday, October 27, 2007

Friday night thoughts, Week 9

If Trinity draws the second-place team (Belle Vernon) from the Keystone Conference in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs, the Hillers will roll to a victory. Don't be shocked if the Hillers find a way to reach the semifinals. The talent is there. The glaring weakness is pass defense. A matchup against a good quarterback with tall, quick receivers could undo Trinity's playoff hopes.

Said it before and it's time to say it again, Chartiers-Houston quarterback Brad Banas is one tough hombre. Banas is a very impressive football player.

The number of teams with losing records in the WPIAL playoffs continues to prove too many teams qualify. Eight teams per classification is plenty.

If Donte Valentino does not return to the California lineup for the first round – and all indications are Valentino is out for the remainder of the year – the Trojans' postseason stay figures to be a short one. No disrespect to Carmichaels, winners of five straight, but a 47-8 loss at home is no way to enter postseason play.

Speaking of Carmichaels, the Mikes have serious momentum heading into the playoffs and Class A is a wide-open field after the top two teams (Clairton, Serra Catholic). Fort Cherry also is on a big-time roll and getting it done on both sides of the football.

Since people like to point out my mistakes, I'd like to point out something I predicted correctly. I did pick McKeesport to beat Canon-McMillan but told everyone within earshot that the Big Macs would give the Tigers fits, which they did. C-M matches up speed-wise with any Class AAAA team and will be an incredibly difficult opponent for either a conference champion or second-place team in the first round.

Without any knowledge of playoff matchups, my predicted first-round winners are Canon-McMillan, Trinity, Monessen and Jefferson-Morgan. Still on the fence about Fort Cherry. The Rangers are awfully young and could be playing Rochester in the first round.

1 comment:

Mapod said...

Trinity can get to the semis with a good draw, True,but you know the WPIAL would not let that happen.
Monessen is also a good team in single A. With out Valentino, Cal does seem a team on the down swing. Playoffs will weed out the strong conference form the weak, if the WPIAL seeds the teams honestly. Not to go from previous years but how strong the terams are this year.
Would be nice if someoen updated the Standing on the OR football page.