Season Coming to a Head

What do we say? I think all of us are sick of losing down there. I guess it was meant to happen once again. We did some very nice things at times. Our offense moved the ball better than last year. We had 13 first downs, compared to 6 for Walton. We held Walton to under 100 rushing yards, which is phenomenal in my book. We went over 0.500 passing for the first time this season. We just showed ever more ability to mess it up. Picks for TD’s, facemasks, blocks below the waist, chop blocks, and loose tight ends. Made it all for naught. I don’t know what to say. We’ve just got to find a way to get better in some of these areas. We’re good enough to beat anyone when it comes to hard nosed physical football. And I even think we are more consistent on our blocking now than we were at the beginning of the year. We just have to play cleaner, more mistake-free ball.

Things get interesting very soon. Developmental time is over. Mistakes can now mean our season will end early. Hancock hasn’t shown much, but after that every week should be a huge challenge. Oxford will want a playoff spot as badly as we, and they gave Walton a run. Candor has section IV’s leading rusher. Then we would get Walton again. If we’re lucky enough to get out of the section, Onondaga looks like a team of men among boys. And section VI’s 2 teams both could be killers. Not sure who will show up from the east in the state final, but I’m sure they will be no slouch. EVERY week will be a huge challenge. We’ve lost our 2 big challenges so far, but we can take encouragement that we’ve done some great things in each one, with a few times of great ball movement in both losses, as well as pretty good defense (outside of the first quarter and a half of Sidney). I hope our senior leadership can take charge, and that we can put it all together.

The probable playoff picture is that Walton goes #1 and the winner of Delhi/Oxford goes #2. This is far from certain however. There are a couple other scenarios. The long shot (but by all means possible) is that Bainbridge wins out over Oxford and Walton. Then, if Delhi beats Oxford and Hancock, there would be a 3-way tie between Walton, Delhi, and Bainbridge. If this were the case, Delhi looks right now to have a slight edge in tiebreaker points, with BG and Walton pretty close (probably a slight edge to Walton here). So that would probably be Delhi at #1 and Walton at #2. The other scenario would be for BG to beat Oxford and then lose to Walton. Assuming Delhi beats Hancock, a Delhi win over Oxford would still put them at the #2 spot. A Delhi loss to Oxford would make for a 3-way tie for 2^nd place in the division between Delhi, BG, and Oxford. Again, with wins over class C Sully West and TriValley, Delhi would have a slight edge in tiebreaker points, and would probably take it. So, I think the bottom lines is that we root for Bainbridge over the next 2 weeks. I’d love to have that #1 seed…..Candor looks like a bear, while the #2 seed over in the west will probably be a team that lost to Seton Catholic.

Sectionwide, I’m impressed with UE. I wish I could see them play Newburgh tomorrow. Newburgh narrowly lost to Monroe-Woodbury last week, the defending AA state champ. Syracuse CBA is not impressing, so, who knows, maybe we’ve got a chance to win a AA state playoff game this year. In A, Corning East looks about as expected. Class A looks pretty tough statewide, so I really don’t know how they’ll do. Windsor looks like the team to beat in B. They could have enough to make it to the state semis I think, but section V’s Geneva or Hornell will stop them cold there I think, probably by a big margin. Sidney just won’t quit in C. I don’t think they’re super talented, but they are really playing with heart. Lansing will give them a game, and they also better hope they don’t trip over Unatego next week. I see them in states, and I think they’ll face a tough game in the semis. And D’s, well, let’s just hope there is some maroon in the dome, if we can pull everything together.

OK, picks. I had another great week at 20-3 (0.870), missing Groton, Maine Endwell, and Athens winning. For the season I am now at 110-35 (0.759). I’m creeping up toward 0.800 like a tight pair of Fruit of the Looms (or is it Fruits of the Loom?). This week I’m going with Guilderland, Geneva, Corning East, Forks, Waverly, Unatego, Sidney, Greene, Lansing, Watkins Glen, Bainbridge (should be a great one), Candor, Newfield, Vestal, Horseheads, Oneonta, Windsor, END, Whitney Point, Spencer, Tioga, Walton, Maine Endwell, and UE (had to go loyal to section IV for one of them).