The high school football playoff season is upon us with interesting matchups in the PIAA District 2\/4\/11 sub-regionals.<\/p>\n
First, a quick plug.\u00a0 For the next two weeks, we\u2019ll be spending most of our \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d programs (Thursdays, live, 7-8pm), breaking down ALL of the football sub-regional playoff games, along with thoughts on the Eastern Conference post-season as well.\u00a0 Feel free to contact us before\/during the show to weigh in with your thoughts and questions about the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Now, some observations and details on the 4A contests involving District XI teams (we\u2019ll look at the 2A\/3A playoff teams in our next blog entry).<\/p>\n
Easton\/Freedom<\/strong> (BTW:\u00a0 Freedom was our pre-season #2 team in our \u201cSportsTalk\u201d poll, ranked just ahead of Easton).<\/p>\n I was very impressed with the way Freedom played last Saturday against their traditional rivals, the Liberty Hurricanes.\u00a0 Andres Santos, who came into the season as the number-two back, finished the regular season with 136 carries, 625 rushing yards, 12-touchdowns and a 5-yards per carry average.\u00a0 He took on a Liberty defense that was determined to try to stop him, and responded with a 200-yard rushing day (a personal best\u2014his previous high was 117) and two scores.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the senior leaders\u2014Brennan Reinert, Cordell Cotto, Alkiohn Dunkins, Joeshua Ortiz\u2014to name just a few, have been outstanding and have made key contributions on both sides of the ball.\u00a0 Teamed with junior Brady Hornbaker and sophomore Alec Huertas, I really believe this team is special.\u00a0 The Patriots have already won a share of their first league\/division title, but I believe they have the potential for even greater heights this post-season.<\/p>\n Nasir Minney-Gratz had another awesome performance last week against Nazareth, and before that game I thought that Easton might have had the best, all-around defense in the EPC-South.\u00a0 I\u2019m no longer sure of that opinion, but I do feel it will be a great game (Friday, live, 7pm on RCN-TV).<\/p>\n Del Val\/Parkland<\/strong> Del Val boasts senior running back Austin Cernek (156 carries, 920 yards, 9-TDs) and sophomore wide receiver Dylan Kelly (13 catches, 271, 4-TDs).\u00a0 Junior QB Matt Cavallero 68-128 passing, 975 yards, 8-TDs, 12-INTs) does a good job orchestrating the offense.\u00a0 However, I don\u2019t think the Warriors are as strong as some of the previous years\u2019 DV-teams that Parkland has faced.<\/p>\n The Trojans themselves are an interesting team.\u00a0 The one time I\u2019ve seen them in person (against Freedom), they looked flat-out phenomenal.\u00a0\u00a0 They have, in my opinion, the best athlete in the area (QB Devante Cross) and are loaded with depth at nearly every position, along with players (Kenny Yeboah, Eric Digirolamo and others) who have appeared quite a bit on the \u201cSportsTalk\u201d highlight reels this fall.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve talked to some of my colleagues who\u2019ve seen them more often and they opined that the team sometimes plays to the level of their competition and\/or lacks emotion.\u00a0 I feel that will not be the case now that the post-season is here, and I\u2019d say that Parkland heads into the playoffs as the favorite in this game\u2026if not the entire sub-regional tournament.<\/p>\n The Parkland\/Del Val game will be broadcast on RCN-TV, tape-delayed, Friday at 9:30 pm.<\/p>\n Stroudsburg\/Liberty<\/strong> However\u2026<\/p>\n Over the last two weeks, the Liberty defense has surrendered a whopping 89 points.\u00a0 They\u2019ve had issues with tackling and have committed untimely penalties at times throughout the season.\u00a0 They feature some great individual performers, but the team overall has lacked consistency.\u00a0 If Liberty plays to its potential on Saturday night (live, 7pm, RCN-TV), the game could be a blow-out.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t see the Mountaineers going away quietly.\u00a0 If the Canes take Stroudsburg lightly, look ahead to a possible second-round contest against Parkland, or if they lack consistency and focus for an extended period, this game could be much tighter than people are expecting.<\/p>\n Wyoming Valley West\/Nazareth<\/strong> Nazareth can build on a strong showing last week against Easton, and, regardless of this Friday\u2019s outcome, has exceeded expectations this fall\u2014with many of these players returning next year.\u00a0 However, I believe this will be a close ball game with lots of scoring, and an all-out shootout could translate to the Eagles coming home with a round-one victory.<\/p>\n Feel free to email your comments on our District XI 4-A football teams to RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com<\/a> and tune in to this Thursday\u2019s \u201cSportsTalk\u201d for your comments, along with more insights, predictions, players to watch and keys to victory on this weekend\u2019s contests.\u00a0 If you miss our live show, don\u2019t forget to check out the program\u2019s podcast <\/a>available on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The high school football playoff season is upon us with interesting matchups in the PIAA District 2\/4\/11 sub-regionals. First, a quick plug.\u00a0 For the next two weeks, we\u2019ll be spending most of our \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d programs (Thursdays, live, 7-8pm), breaking down ALL of the football sub-regional playoff games, along with thoughts on the Eastern Conference…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[605,178,196,314,401,504],"class_list":["post-77549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-the-sportstalk-shop","tag-delaware-valley","tag-easton","tag-freedom","tag-liberty","tag-parkland","tag-stroudsburg"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nIf this was almost any other year, I would say the Red Rovers have the advantage\u2014if for no other reason than Freedom already defeated Easton once this year\u2026and Easton RARELY loses to the same team twice in one season.\u00a0 In fact, even though I thought Freedom was the favorite heading into the first game between these two schools, I might have given the Rovers the nod.\u00a0 But that was before last weekend.<\/p>\n
\nWhen District XI puts the schedule together before the season starts, they should probably just schedule these two teams to play each other, as these schools have run into each other\u2014at least once\u2014for several years in a row.<\/p>\n
\nThe Hurricanes may have the best quarterback (Doug Erney) in the area.\u00a0 They have, in my opinion, one of the best junior running backs (Gunner Anglovich) in the region.\u00a0 They have an outstanding offensive live and a great collection of receivers.\u00a0 On paper, they have the advantage in every offensive aspect of the game.<\/p>\n
\nThere are some really great athletes at Nazareth right now\u2026perhaps, a few of their future \u201call-time greats.\u201d\u00a0 The Blue Eagles have to be cautious heading into their first round match-up.\u00a0 It\u2019s not uncommon for District XI teams to face a team with a great regular season record, only to mercy-rule them before halftime.\u00a0 It\u2019s doubtful this will be the case.\u00a0 The Spartans have played some good teams this year, and have a number of playmakers who will have to be contained.\u00a0 Junior QB Aaron Austin has passed for nearly 1,500 yards, and running back Sean Judge has rushed for over 1,100 yards.<\/p>\n