Boyer’s Bulletin: Peeking ahead at the postseason
Marian's Rory Dixon is pulled down by Minersville's A.J. Halford during Friday's Schuylkill/Colonial Blue Division game at Minersville's Veterans Memorial Stadium (Photo by Kelly Wiley).
Playoffs? … Who’s talking about playoffs?
Well, I am.
As the calendar flips to October and we enter Week 7 of the high school football season, it’s almost impossible to not peek ahead at the postseason.
That’s what everybody plays for, right? To get into the District 11 playoffs and battle for a championship. So let’s take a quick look at where our local teams stand as the season officially hits the stretch run with four games left in the regular season.
If the season ended today, 12 of our 16 area teams would earn berths in the District 11 playoffs:
Class A — Nativity, Tri-Valley
Class 2A — Williams Valley, Schuylkill Haven, Minersville, Mahanoy Area
Class 3A — Tamaqua, North Schuylkill
Class 4A — Blue Mountain, Pottsville, Lehighton, Jim Thorpe
Most of those playoff berths are locked in, barring a second half of the season collapse. Some are not. Marian (Class A) also has a good shot of qualifying, while Shenandoah Valley (2A), Panther Valley (3A) and Pine Grove (3A) face long roads to reach the postseason.
Let’s break it down by class:
CLASS A
This is a subregional with District 2, with three teams from D-2 and three teams from D-11. Of the six teams in this class, the top four teams ranked by power rating qualify, regardless of district.
As we enter Week 7, Lackawanna Trail (5-1) leads this bracket at .673278, followed by Nativity (5-1) at .566439, Tri-Valley (4-2) at .535136 and Old Forge (3-3) in fourth at .446884. On the outside looking in: Marian (4-2) at .444643 and Holy Cross (3-3) at .383218.
Should the four playoff qualifiers be evenly split by district — two teams from District 11 and two teams from District 2 — then the teams from each district will play each other in the semifinals for their respective district championship regardless of where they are in the final power ratings, and those semifinal winners will play for the subregional crown in Week 12.
Side Note: Personally, I love that District 2 and District 11 were able to agree on this arrangement. A few years ago, District 12 wouldn’t do the same with District 11 in Class 2A, leaving district titles to be determined by rating points. District titles should be won on the field. Enough said.
If the four playoff qualifiers are three teams from one district and one team from the other district, then the semifinal matchups will be by power rating, with No. 1 facing No. 4 and No. 2 facing No. 3.
All of the teams involved still have tough games remaining on their schedule:
** Lackawanna Trail closes with Carbondale, Susquehanna, Holy Cross and unbeaten Riverside.
** Nativity wraps up with Mahanoy Area, Minersville, Schuylkill Haven and Marian.
** Tri-Valley must face Shenandoah Valley, Mahanoy Area, Minersville and Schuylkill Haven.
** Old Forge has Susquehanna, Holy Cross, Riverside and Carbondale left to play.
Despite being No. 5 at the moment, Marian still has a good shot to get in but has a rough schedule remaining as well with games against Schuylkill Haven, Williams Valley, Pine Grove and Nativity.
Holy Cross also controls its own destiny, but has games left against Riverside, Old Forge, Lackawanna Trail and Susquehanna.
This is a race that will come down to the final week. Stay tuned.
CLASS 2A
There are 10 teams in the District 11 Class 2A field and eight make the playoffs. So while there are still four weeks left, it’s a pretty safe bet to say top-ranked Williams Valley (5-1) and No. 2 Schuylkill Haven (5-1) have secured berths.
The Vikings and Hurricanes are followed by Northern Lehigh (4-2), Executive Education (4-2), Catasauqua (3-3) and Pen Argyl (3-3), with Minersville (3-3) in seventh and Mahanoy Area (2-4) in eighth. Palisades (1-5) and Shenandoah Valley (0-6) are currently on the outside looking in.
For the Miners and Bears, the goal is to stay ahead of Palisades. Both Minersville and Mahanoy Area have a pair of games in which they will be heavily favored. But so does Palisades, which has Palmerton (1-5) and Wilson (0-6) remaining.
You also have to keep an eye on playoff positioning. I’m sure the Miners and Bears would rather not have rematches with Williams Valley or Schuylkill Haven in the quarterfinals. A couple of wins in their final four games might move the Miners and Bears up the power ratings.
CLASS 3A
There are only four unbeaten teams remaining in District 11 and two of them reside here — Northwestern Lehigh (6-0) and Tamaqua (6-0). They are currently ranked 1-2 in the power ratings in Class 3A.
Notre Dame-Green Pond (5-1) is in third, followed by North Schuylkill (3-3) in fourth, Saucon Valley (5-1) in fifth and Salisbury (3-3) in sixth. Panther Valley (1-5), Palmerton (1-5) and Pine Grove (1-5) round out the bracket.
Only four of the nine teams in Class 3A make the district playoffs, so the bottom three teams are already pretty much eliminated. It also casts a spotlight on North Schuylkill, which must fight off Saucon Valley for that fourth spot.
There are several interesting games remaining that will determine who’s in and who’s out in this bracket.
Northwestern Lehigh — Pottsville (Oct. 4), at Tamaqua (Oct. 18), at Southern Lehigh (Oct. 25)
Tamaqua — at Southern Lehigh (Oct. 4), Northwestern Lehigh (Oct. 18), Blue Mountain (Oct. 25)
North Schuylkill — at Blue Mountain (Oct. 10), Pottsville (Oct. 25)
Saucon Valley — Southern Lehigh (Oct. 18), at Northern Lehigh (Oct. 25)
Notre Dame-Green Pond is a virtual lock to make it, as the Crusaders will be heavily favored to win their final four games against Pen Argyl, Palisades, Palmerton and Wilson, four teams with a combined 5-19 record.
Who will join them? This will be a fun bracket to watch down the stretch.
CLASS 4A
Like Class 2A, there are 10 teams in Class 4A and eight make it. That means No. 7 Lehighton (2-4) and No. 8 Jim Thorpe (1-5) have a real good shot to get in, and No. 2 Blue Mountain (5-1) and No. 5 Pottsville (3-3) are safe bets to qualify.
Where this bracket gets interesting is who finishes where after Week 10.
Southern Lehigh (5-1) and Blue Mountain (5-1) are 1-2 at the moment but have tough Schuylkill/Colonial Red Division challenges down the stretch. They should be in a good spot to earn quarterfinal home games.
Bethlehem Catholic (4-2) and Allentown Central Catholic (2-4) are 3-4, with Pottsville fifth, East Stroudsburg North sixth and Lehighton and Jim Thorpe 7-8.
Bethlehem Catholic routed ACC 27-0 two weeks ago. The Hawks have games remaining with Freedom (6-0), Nazareth (4-2), Liberty (6-0) and Northampton (4-2). Central Catholic has an easier slate, with Allen (2-4), Parkland (5-1), Dieruff (4-2) and Whitehall (2-4) left to play.
For Pottsville, the goal is to finish fourth and get a quarterfinal home game. It would behoove the Tide to play ACC or Bethlehem Catholic on the grass at Veterans Memorial Stadium rather than on the turf at J. Birney Crum or Bethlehem SD Stadium.
Odds and Ends
** District 11 held its annual media conference last week — I guess my invitation got lost in the email — and football chairman Jason Zimmerman said that there will definitely be District 11 playoff games played Thursday nights.
Zimmerman said the six brackets would be stretched over Thursday, Friday and Saturday each weekend, but didn’t say which brackets would play on which dates. My hunch is television broadcasts and matchups will ultimately decide the playoff schedule, but don’t be surprised if several Schuylkill County teams play Thursdays.
** The Minersville Area School District has taken a lot of heat for the condition of the playing surface at its Veterans Memorial Stadium following Schuylkill Haven’s 72-52 win over the Miners on Sept. 19. It wasn’t too much better for Friday’s game against Marian that went into overtime.
Covering that game gave me flashbacks … to the 1990s and early 2000s at Schuylkill Haven’s Rotary Field, which was usually a dirt strip by midseason. After years of roping off the center of the field each week and trying to plant grass there, the school district put turf on Rotary Field in 2006, then refurbished it a few years ago.
It’s time for Minersville to look into renovating Veterans Memorial Stadium. It’s not a project that can be done overnight and it will need community support. But an artificial surface that also accommodates the school’s soccer teams, giving them a chance to play home games under the lights and in front of fans sitting in a grandstand, will benefit the Minersville community an abundance of ways.
