A FACE IN THE CROWD – WEEK 5
Here in the mobile FITC command center, located this week in Factoryville, right next to the tiny publisher that printed the 500 copies of It’s Complicated – My Lifelong Love Affair With the Wing T, a graphic novel by Coach Steve Jervis, Sparky and I are in intense preparation for these week’s slate of games. Regarding Coach Jervis’s magnum opus, I have a copy opened to the chapter titled “Don’t Pass – Don’t Ever Pass”. It’s truly riveting. Enough about that. Sparky is waiting attentively in the FITC classroom. He even brought his Charlie’s Angels lunchbox. Time to learn our lessons.
LESSON 1
Scranton Prep is the best football team in District 2. Period. The win in Milford on Saturday sealed it for me. It is my belief that Delaware Valley will not lose another game in the regular season. Prep did all that it needed to do on Saturday, mixing in big plays with a withering ground game. While I do believe that the defense will need to improve in order for the Jesuit Giants to make a run at a state title, there is time for that. No team in the area has run the gauntlet the way Prep has in the first four weeks. A date with Scranton Knights looms on Friday. More about that in the Fistfight Picks.
LESSON 2
Riverside is unbeaten, untied, and untested. The Vikings, who are led by an outstanding senior quarterback in Chase Taddonio, can only play the teams on their schedule. Otherwise, the immutable laws of physics would be violated. This much is true. Still, looking down the list of opponents remaining on their schedule, I half-expected to see a few middle school chess teams hidden in there. Riverside will cruise unbeaten to Week 10, where their head-to-head with the Lackawanna Trail Lions, coached by the aforementioned Steve Jervis, will certainly decide Division 3 of the Lackawanna Football Conference. Without a doubt, this is a talented group of Vikings. But will they get better against this schedule?
LESSON 3
In the Wyoming Valley Conference where the middle of the pack is actually close to the top, there are three 2-2 football teams that can potentially extricate themselves from the vice-like grip of mediocrity. Pittston Area and Hazleton Area are both winners of 2 in a row. Lake Lehman, also 2-2, got bounced at Riverside on Friday. Wyoming Area is the only team in the Wyoming Valley Conference with a winning record at 3-1. The Patriots, Cougars, and Black Knights all have opportunities to climb the ladder to respectability and ready themselves for the district playoffs. Because of their respective remaining schedules, I will venture to say that Lehman is the most likely to get to 6 wins before all is said and done.
LESSON 4
Only two of last weekend’s results can actually be labeled surprises. Nanticoke’s win on the road at Tunkhannock, their first without Coach Scott Dennis, was a pleasant surprise. The Trojans needed something good to happen on Friday, and it did. I also think North Pocono’s loss at Wallenpaupack was a head-scratcher. Credit goes to new coach Matt Nawrocki who has his young Buckhorns sitting at 3-1. The rest of the weekend was ruled by the chalk. It is a sign of the times in all sports in our area, but particularly on the gridiron, that there is a growing gap between the have’s and the have not’s. There were 16 games involving District 2 teams. Fully half (8) of those games were decided by three touchdowns or more. YAWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNN,
LESSON 5
This Face in the Crowd Character can sure pick winners. The Fistfight picks went 5-0 last week, running my season totals to 16-4. Those picks, mind you, are for entertainment purposes only. I have cautioned Sparky that wagering on high school athletics is less than savory, I do think that I heard him putting in a prop bet that pertained to how many times Prep Coach Terry Gallagher will throw his headset on Friday night. The over under is 3 ½. Wisely, Sparky bet the over.
Here we are at the season’s midpoint. Heroes have been born (see Lidge Kellum), the once mighty have been humbled (see Dunmore and Berwick), and the court orders have been issued (see the Lackawanna County court blotter – Sparky’s girlfriend, Eunice, dropped the hammer). Let’s get to the Fistfights for Week 5.
FISTFIGHT #5 Carbondale Area (3-1) at Dunmore (0-4)
While it’s not generally FITC protocol to put an 0-4 team in this space, I believe that this one warrants special attention. First of all, the Fighting Jeff Arthur’s are standing tall at 3-1. While it’s true that their three wins did not come over juggernauts, or cosmonauts, or even garlic nauts (I stretched the joke – sorry), the Chargers come into V.J. Gatto Stadium like King Kong. The Bucks, conversely, need a win. The residents of the #9SQUAREMILES need a win almost as badly as 570 Sports needed a spell checker. But I digress. The Bucks get this one on Friday, but not without a tussle.
FISTFIGHT #4 Dallas (1-3) at Pittston Area (2-2)
Hey, I had to put a WVC game in here somewhere. Otherwise, the guys who hang out at Agolino’s might not look so kindly on my robust bar tab. It’s still too early to tell what to make of Mannello’s Mountaineers. My guess is that the ship gets righted, and all is right with the world again in the Back Mountain. Still, Pittston Area is an interesting group. They’ve found something in the offensive side of the football. 102 points in two games is impressive, even if you’re playing the Globe Store Mannequins. I think that 1st year coach Joe DeLucca is building something in Yatesville. But this Friday, I’ll stick with the Mounts in an entertaining affair.
FISTFIGHT #3 Abington Heights (2-2) at North Pocono (3-1)
In this weekend’s suitcase game, where the loser boards the bus for the Last Chance Saloon (don’t ask for a pickled egg – trust me on this), two LFC Division 1 foes will go at it in Moscow with a lot riding. Both are coming off disappointing results in Week 4. Abington was a whisker away from dropping Valley View in Blakely, while North Pocono led all night before being bested at the Lake by the Wallenpaupack Buckhorns. The skid will continue for one of these two, while the other can look to the last five games with some optimism. Give me the Comets and a Virgin Daquiri at the Olde Brook. I’m driving.
FISTFIGHT #2 Mid-Valley (4-0) at Lackawanna Trail (3-1)
“Let’s get this one started before your pappy comes home and finds you a-swillin’ his Aqua Velva”. Keith Jackson said stuff like that. In a game that ol’ Keith would have loved, the undefeated Spartans travel up to Tunnel Hill to scrap with Trail. Jakob Lesher is a playmaker par excellence. His exploits make the Throop Titans a must-watch. Still, I’m a believer in tradition. And in the existence of mermaids. But I digress. Trail, alliteratively, is tradition personified. The Lions, in the Wing T, know how to win these games that matter. In a real, old-fashioned hackle-raiser (don’t know what it means, but Keith would), I like Trail on a late touchdown.
FISTFIGHT #1 Scranton Prep (3-1) at Scranton (4-0)
I’ve got this one at #1 because it’s the Friday Night Rivals Game of the Century of the Week. And that has to mean something, doesn’t it? If Jan Cechak and Bob Ide say it’s a big game, then, by golly, it must be. As you will notice in my Power 5 a bit later in this piece, Prep is numero uno, while the Knights are not in the group. Scranton is, to be sure, undefeated. But they haven’t faced the caliber of the group that will arrive at Jake McCarthy Field at Memorial Stadium at Mike Munchak Boulevard at Tony Battaglia Plaza at Paige Gebhardt Cognetti Park. And they will arrive, rest assured, in a foul humor. I like the Prep here because, as stated earlier, they are the best team in District 2. Friday will be more proof of that.
So, as I kick back with in the Mobile Command Center under my LL Cool J night-light (it plays the soothing tones of “Goin’ Back to Cali”), I open my Steve Jervis novel to the next chapter, entitled “Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Coaches”. The best teams in NEPA are listed below.
THE POWER 5
1. Scranton Prep (3A) (3-1)
2. Western Wayne (3A) (4-0)
3. Wyoming Area (3A) (3-1)
4. Delaware Valley (5A) (0-4)
5. Valley View (4A) (3-1)
