Thursday, November 18, 2010

Kovak's fearless prognostications, WPIAL semifinals

The Class AA and Class A pairings were not kind to last week's picks as I went 4-4 in those respective brackets for a quarterfinals record of 11-5 and an overall mark of 76-26, a .745 win percentage.

Class AAAA
Pittsburgh Central Catholic over North Alleghent
Woodland Hills over North Hills

Class AAA
Mars over Montour
Thomas Jefferson over Central Valley

Class AA
Aliquippa over Ford City
South Fayette over Beaver Falls

Class A
Clairton over Springdale
Rochester over Avonworth

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Easy Class A picks this week. If they are wrong we are talking major upsets

PREXIE said...

class AA could be ford city against beaver falls. those are hard games to pick.the rest looks about right although there may be an upset in AAA or AAAA. dont see one in A.

Leonidus said...

Wow! Bold you are sir! Picking Mars over Montour and Central Catholic over NA?

Clairton Champ said...

Guarantee Mars beats montour tonight. Mike's pics are on point do some research Leonidus.

Anonymous said...

Well this week the picks were not so good for AAAA and AAA, 1 out of 4. A was easy to pick but I must say I was not impressed with either Rochester or Clarton. I was at the Rochester game and Avonworth could beat them. Rochester was not as good as expected. If they had their starting RB it might have been close. Rochester D was just soso, they let avonworth go up and down the field but did stop them from converting. I think Rochester will get rolled over by Clairton though I really thought their game would not be that close.

Joey Niklas said...

So you're not impressed with Rochy and Clairton because they didn't win by 30+. I mean come on. How bout giving Avonworth and Springdale a little more credit here. Springdale was the first team that somewhat moved the ball against the Bears. Plus Springdale's defense forced the Bears to be more ball control oriented instead of those big plays that we're accustomed to seeing. The playoffs are a different animal. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Springdale is playing for WPIAL Gold next season. They're going to be loaded.

As for the Clairton-Rochy game. I can't wait for this game. Gotta find a way to set my alarm at 6AM so I could leave by 7.

Leonidus said...

Clairton Champ, Ummm,....Who was it that you were saying needs to "do some research"?!? I only said it was bold to pick Mars and Central Cath. You said strong words like GUARANTEE MARS WINS and (LEONIDUS) DO SOME RESEARCH. Since you enjoy my picks so much here's the final four to rep the WPIAL:

AAAA -NA over Woody High
AAA- Central Valley over Montour
AA-Aliquippa over South Fayette
A-Clairton over Rochester

mike_kovak said...

I'm glad the game I'm covering next saturday starts at 1:30 p.m. instead of 9:30 a.m.

It will be interesting to see how Clairton and Rochester come out with that early of a start.

I don't think I've ever been aed up for something at 9:30 a.m.

My Friday Night Thoughts will be posted later today from Hershey as I cover the Peters Townships girls state soccer championship match.

mike_kovak said...

Good points Joey about people expecting Clairton and Rochy to win by 30-plus points.

It's the WPIAL semifinals. Only good teams make it that far.

mike_kovak said...

And, yeah, I took a beating on my AAAA and AAA picks.

Clairton Alum said...

I was at the Clairton/Springdale game. You have to give Springdale credit. What they do on offense, they do very well. Their game is all about ball control offense. We had 1 offensive series in the first quarter...1. It took Clairton a quarter to adjust to what Springdale was doing. The Dynamos would gain 4 yards a carry on the first drive until finally the bears stopped them and that just chewed up the clock. Clairton couldnt rely just on the big play...they also had to move the ball on the ground, take what Springdale was giving them, and make sure their drives counted for 6. You have to give Springdale credit. They are ranked as a top 10 team in the state for a reason.

This brings us to "Tums" week...I get indigestion just thinking about this game every year. Should be interesting...

Anonymous said...

After seeing Central Valley knocking TJ around, it's even more heartbreaking knowing Ringgold was capable of doing the same.

Leonidus said...

Anon 12:28, That's not accurate. Just because Central Valley beat TJ doesn't mean Ringgold would have. Central Valley beat Ringgold too. And regardless of what margin the teams lost by, they are two different teams with two different styles. No offense, but I take TJ all day head to head against Ringgold. TJ has the coaching and reloads to win big games every year, and have loads of big game experience. Ringgold does not have that luxury. I take experience, coaching and skill over skill alone, all day. I understand that you feel that if CV beat Ringgold by less that TJ would not hang with Ringgold but unfortunately it's not that easy. Some teams have better corners, some teams have better running backs, better recievers.. it all comes down to who has the players on the opposite side to neutralize the other teams good players and where the teams weakness is. Just like in boxing, styles make a fight. I've seen guys get knocked out by bums but beat really good fighters that iced the bum that beat them in the first round.