Peak – a – boo

October 31, 2008

Boo! There, I got my Halloween writing out of the way.

I guess it has been a while since I’ve written, so seeing me may frighten you. Don’t worry, I frighten many people.

I certainly hope that everyone has kept warm and dry this past week. We had ~18” at our house, while it looks like about 4” fell in town. I kept saying all day Tuesday and Wednesday that it was all a cruel joke. We went about 30 hours with no power, so even though I had the pictures ready earlier in the week, it was late last night before they made it up. And, for those interested, still no baby. I’m getting pretty nervous about making game #155 tomorrow!

So, where are we…..wow, a very nice turnaround. 4 game winning streak….162 points in our last 4 games….another trip to the sectional semis……things are looking up. Even our previous losses are looking better now….Sidney is in the playoffs. Westmo knocked off the state’s 2^nd ranked team a few weeks ago, and are now highly ranked in C. And, of course, we all know how our Route 10 neighbors have been doing. I think if you look back at our progression, we started strong with a great scrimmage and week 1 win, took a definite step back with the Sidney game, made a few strides in playing better against Westmoreland (though I think some mistakes helped us to lose that one, it wasn’t just being overpowered), started strong against Walton, but took a step back when we lost control of things with the long Walton TD pass, then stumbled back to winning with a sloppy performance against a short-handed Deposit team, then we started to shine. Obviously the strength of the opponents hasn’t been great, but we’ve been playing tremendous ball on both offense and defense lately. I think that it is incredible that we haven’t punted in the last 3 games. Also, at the beginning of the season I lamented how we weren’t hitting enough big plays….I see that changing as well, with several 30+ yard TD’s over the last few weeks.

So, I want to think we’re peaking, and the timing could not be better. The offense certainly speaks for itself, but I like how few mistakes we’re seeing on defense. I thought sure Seton and Joseph Martin would take us for 1 or 2 long TD’s, but we held the section’s leading receiver (at the time) to 2 catches for 20 yards. Davionne and the others did a tremendous job. That is so encouraging.

We can disappoint some teams if we do this as a team. We need to forget about personal glory, stats, all that, focus on our coaching, and we could ride this thing. Back in 1999, DK said that the Waverly game in the C semifinal “validated” our season. Then we proceeded to pour on some gravy in the following weeks. I feel the same way this season. This game right here will make a successful season if we can win, and will give us nothing to lose going up against Walton. Going from 4-5 to a sectional finalist has got to be considered success in anyone’s book. So this is our mini Super Bowl right here. Groton is a great team that brings a balanced game to the field, so we will have our hands full for sure. Let’s see if we can assert some muscle in this game and pull it out.

For picks, I obviously took a week off last week. Probably would have been my good week with my luck. For the last week I did picks (week 7), I was 18-6 (0.750). I never seem to do horribly this year, it is just consistent mediocrity. Oh well, all the prognosticators on the Syracuse forum seem to be in the same boat. My year total is 127-45 (0.738). So, here are the week 9 picks, playoffs first……Bingo over Ithaca, Corning West over Johnson City, Pumpkins over Candor (it is after all their day being Halloween and all), UE over Horseheads, Maine-Endwell over Corning East, Forks over Waverly, Windsor over Dryden, Sidney over Elmira Notre Dame (my one go-out-on-a-limb pick), Greene over T-burg. Then for the remaining games, I pick Vestal over Oneonta, Tioga over Hancock, Norwich over Sus Valley, BG over Seton (Ross finally gets to stretch his legs after weeks of being bottled up), SVE over Moravia, Chenango Valley over EFA, Owego over Southside, Harpursville over Deposit, Odessa over Whitney Point, Unatego over Newark Valley, and Newfield over Edison.