Charm the Saints

They say the 3^rd time is the charm. For the 3^rd week in a row, Delhi will face a team with very strong passing abilities. The previous 2 weeks have not gone especially well for the Bulldog pass defense, having given up 194 yards to Oxford in week 3, and having 319 more put in the books by Sidney this past week. We’ll get our chance at redemption, as we’ll face a Seton Catholic team that threw for 233 yards in a 25-20 win over Bainbridge on Saturday. The ball got spread around to 6 different receivers, as QB Jake Daly completed 15 of 23 passes with 2 TD’s. Things may look eerily similar to last weekend, as Daly is also a threat to run the ball, as he was the Saints’ leading rusher Saturday with 12 carries for 61 yards, operating out of a spread offense.

I remember thinking to myself Saturday how glad I was that we were not going to face a player like Umbra nor an overall team like Sidney for the rest of the year. While I don’t think Seton is at that level, I can say I was foolish to not even realize what we’d be up against just a week later. While Seton has not exactly blown through their competition, they have certainly done enough to make me more than concerned. The Saints opened with a 4 point win over Elmira Notre Dame, which didn’t give a whole lot of gauge since END was not very good a year ago. In week 2, they dropped a 15-7 decision to Oxford, a week before Oxford gave us all we wanted and more. Week 3 brought a 30-8 topping of Watkins Glen and another week of ho-hum. But last week’s win over BG has me starting to get impressed (and worried). This is the same BG team that had Walton right on the ropes in week 2, as it took a Walton 10 yard TD <pass> (usually a curse word in pumpkinland) for Walton to come out on top. This is the same Walton that had Sidney on the ropes in week 1 (with a 10 point lead with like 3 minutes to play), and that has been completely dominant the past 2 weeks.

So, in summary, we get to play a foe that has had some reasonably impressive showings against pretty good teams, that looks to be very good at something that we are struggling to defend, and we get to do it all without our 4^th year starter and leader.

Should be a good test of our character, and, if we can come through it, it will show guys like Telian, Ellis, Salerno, O’Connell, and others that they can shoulder the load without the presence of Fletcher. You think that could be a good thing as the season develops? I do. There are few worse feelings than the feeling of being one-dimensional when your one dimension has been shut down.

Obviously it is a huge game in terms of playoff implications as well. Our division has the potential to be very messy. We can keep that from happening with a big victory here, and at least one more between BG and DepoCock (obviously I’d love to take all 4 of our division games). Outside of Delhi and Walton, EVERY TEAM has a loss that didn’t come to Walton – Seton to Oxford, Oxford to Delhi, BG to Seton, etc. Harpursville could also knock someone off on a good day (they played BG to 18-12). Our win over Oxford was pure gold in setting us ahead in the playoff race…..a win against Seton would be another golden nugget to add to that, and we’d be in prime position. We lose, and, while we’d still be in the thick of things, the battle becomes much more uphill.

I had another rough week picking games, going 15-6 (0.714) for a seasonal total of 64-24 (0.727). This week could be another tough one – Vestal over EFA, Norwich over Chenango Valley, Binghamton over Horseheads, Sidney over UVE, Tioga over Groton, Owego over Waverly, Odessa-Montour over Newfield in the battle of the defeateds, Candor over END (BIG temptation to pick END to put a monkeywrench into division VIII), Oxford over BG (playoff implications here), Greene over Unatego, SVE over Lansing, Newark Valley over Glen, Ithaca over Maine-Endwell, Harpursville over DepoCock, Whitney Point over Trumansburg, Sus Valley over Windsor, Forks over Walton, Johnson City over Southside, Moravia over Edison, Oneonta over Dryden, Corning over UE. Maybe I should start predicting what my winning percentage will be, and start tracking that…..I’m guessing about 0.710 for the coming week….