Carve’m Up

Forecast for Saturday for Walton – 65 and sunny. October 9, and the leaves are in peak color. Delhi and Walton tied for the division lead with 3-0 records. Ah, Delaware County football at its very best! And you can even watch an entertaining opening performance, as unbeaten Sidney will host unbeaten Forks Friday night in what I see as a very good game (wonder how soggy Sidney’s awful field is).

While it looks to be a glorious October weekend for football, there is also surely a whole lot at stake for us. Last year’s game was purely for pride, since we were in different classes. The previous 2 seasons we really didn’t have much to lose, with Walton at the top of the state rankings and our Bulldogs struggling a bit at game time. Here we are now in prime time.

While both teams have made it through half the division schedule unscathed, it hasn’t been easy, and each of us has a pretty tough job to finish it out. Walton still needs to face Oxford and Seton. Delhi will face BG next Friday night, and will close at home with Hanposit. BG is now in 3^rd behind Delhi and Walton, and is in the best spot of anyone to make a move to take a playoff spot away, most likely from Delhi. If Delhi were to lose to Walton and BG and beat Depocock, BG and Delhi would in all likelihood end in a tie, each with 2 losses. Since BG would have won head to head, BG would go and we’d be playing a crossover in week 9. So, from our point of view, we really to win 2 of the next 3 games, which means we need to beat either Walton or BG as well as DepoHanPositCock (and obviously preferably all of them).

For Walton, I believe they just need to win one of their remaining games, and they would be in, since they already have head to head over BG. If they did happen to lose all 3, things might get very interesting, but I really don’t see that happening. I think any of their 3 remaining opponents could very realistically beat them, but I don’t see it likely that all would, barring any huge injury situations.

I usually get a bit of a feel for each game where I think we need to excel the most…..whether getting first downs, passing the ball, playing good defense, etc. For this week I think defense is the key. We seem to struggle but then find some spots where we can move the ball on Walton. I think we stand a better chance of winning by punting a few times, as long as we play air tight defense. When you come up on a team like Sidney, I’m more inclined to go for wanting first downs as my first choice….limit the opponent’s time of possession, and hope you can maybe see a few of their passes hit the ground at key times. Avoid those big plays.

While it could change, Walton has not yet looked like a huge big play threat. They’ll want to continue to first down us to death. We need to turn it into a punting competition (and Telian has been excelling in that particular area incidently). Then, at some point, we are going to be able to move it. We’ll complete a couple passes, Fletcher will get some 3^rd quarter runs where he’ll get behind the defense, and hopefully we can put a couple in.

I also am in love with the fact that we threw 3 TD passes last week. Our production from the TB’s has dropped a bit since opening week, but that passing game definitely gives us an opening we didn’t have last year, and Salerno’s mobility and ability to break off a pretty good run only make that better. I give Salerno and Fletcher co-MVP for the Seton game incidently….some VERY gutsy play for both of them.

I’m guessing that some of these players’ fathers were playing the last time we beat the Warriors down in the land of baler twine bikinis. It was 1986 be exact – 24 years ago! We’ve come close on a few occasions, but haven’t been able to finish the job. On the good side, Walton has lost 12 games total since 2005, and 3 of them have been to Delhi. In fact, we’re tied with Chenango Forks for 1^st in the category, some company I don’t mind keeping! We are 3-3 with Walton since ’05.

I hope we can continue this kind of yearly event. It’s certainly a hallmark of fall for me. It’s certainly discouraging seeing the Delhi enrollment fall like it has, and who knows where it’s going to go from here. And I was very shocked to see Walton without a JV team this year because of NUMBERS. I remember the days when the varsity would have in the high 30’s. Maybe they all joined the swim team or something. On that note, keep that swim team in your prayers…..I heard a bunch of them got stuck in the floodwaters. Look at slide 3 on this page….

And, in case anyone missed it on last year’s New York Times Best Seller list, see the online version of the greatest Walton love story ever told….

Well, I think I found my new talent – predicting how well I’ll do on my predictions, haha! I predicted a 0.710 week, and had I added up what the potential percentages were, I might have nailed it right on the head. I made another 15-6 this week, meaning 0.714, and very close to my 0.710 prediction. My season tally is 79-30 (0.725). Let’s pick’m for this week…Oxford over Greene (hard to say, both have been up and down), Corning over Vestal, Owego over Dryden, Oneonta over Windsor, Binghamton over Ithaca, Johnson City over Norwich, Forks over Sidney (might go watch this one), Candor over Odessa, Trumansburg over Glen, Newark Valley over SVE, UVE over Unatego, BG over Hanposit, Chenango Valley over Sus Valley, Maine-Endwell over a resurgent EFA, Seton over Harpursville (could go either way, but won’t affect playoffs), END over Edison, UE over Horseheads (what I wouldn’t give to see this go the other way, but I’m sure it won’t), Point over Lansing, Southside over Waverly, Groton over Newfield, Tioga over Moravia (nasty playoff situation over there). I’m going to predict two better this week…..I’ll guess that I’ll go 17-4 (0.810)….

2 pm Saturday down in pumpkinland, see you there!