Week 10 will be crucial for many teams
A handful of rivalry games headline this week’s slate, and some have major postseason implications.
No. Lehigh at Palmerton
Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.
What you need to know:
LAST CHANCE… The Bulldogs matchup with rival Palmerton will be their last chance this season to pick up a “W.” Anything can happen in a rivalry game, and head coach Joe Tout will be looking for his football team to put together a full four quarters of football. Northern Lehigh has shown some flashes this season, and offensively against most opponents, it has moved the football with success. The Bulldogs just haven’t been able to stay consistent throughout the course of a full game. “We’ve been able to do some nice things offensively, and defensively, I think we’ve gotten better, especially over the past two weeks, but we have to be able to play that way for four quarters,” said Tout. “Consistency is the key for us right now, so this week I’m looking for us to take that next step forward and put a full game together, not just a half.”
PROTECTING THE BALL… The Bombers have had some turnover woes in the last three weeks of the season, which is something they need to cut down on as they head into the rivalry game with the Bulldogs and the District 11 AA postseason. Just last week against Salisbury, the Bombers turned it over four times with three interceptions and a fumble lost. Palmerton head coach Chris Walkowiak knows that turning the ball over like that this week against a hungry Northern Lehigh team could certainly spell trouble. “Offensively, we’re looking to do what we always do, which is spread people out and get the ball to our athletes in space, but a key this week, something we’ve really emphasized, is protecting the football,” said Walkowiak. “We’ve just turned the ball over way too much lately, and in a rivalry game, you can almost always throw out the records and the past. We need to be better at protecting the football this week.”
BACK AND FORTH… Since the turn of the decade (2010), this rivalry has been close to identical in the wins and losses department. The Bulldogs won four straight from 2010-2013, while Palmerton has won the last three from 2014-2016. The Bombers will be looking to match the Bulldogs early run of four consecutive wins in as many years if they pull off the victory this season.
Marian at Tamaqua
Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.
What you need to know:
LAST WEEK FOR MARIAN ... After posting 40-plus points over the last three weeks, Marian dropped a SLF Division 2 game to Minersville, 26-20. The Miners’ blanked the Colts in the second half. “Too many missed opportunities,” said Marian head coach Pat Morgans after last week’s loss to Minersville. “We let them stay in the game, and that came back to burn us. We just couldn’t come up with the big play when we needed it on offense, and we had some costly penalties that really hurt us as well.”
LAST WEEK FOR TAMAQUA ... The Raiders dropped their fourth in a row against North Schuylkill, 27-14. Tamaqua has lost its last three games by only a combined 23 points. “We’ve got to keep hanging in there,” said Bonner after last week’s game. “But we’ve got to start making plays on our own, too. We have to find a way to make our own breaks. We did a lot of nice things on (offense) in the first half, but then we started to unravel somewhat.”
PLAYOFF OUTLOOK ... Tamaqua is basically locked into the sixth seed in class 3A. It looks like the Raiders will play the loser of the Jim Thorpe-Lehighton game. Marian has clinched a playoff berth in 1A, and will likely remain as the fourth seed, with a future date against Williams Valley.
RECENT ADVANTAGE ... Tamaqua has won five of its last six meetings with Marian. The Raiders shutout the Colts last year, 27-0.
TAKING CARE OF THE BALL ... The Colts and Raiders are just two of the four TN area teams with a positive plus-minus.
FINALLY ... The Colts threw their first touchdown pass of the year against Minersville last week.
Panther Vy. at Minersville
Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.
What you need to know:
A LOT AT STAKE ... Panther Valley is currently holding the fourth and final playoff spot in class 2A. Minersville is right behind them in fifth. It’s possible that the two could flip-flop spots if Minersville pulls out the victory. This is essentially a playoff game for both teams. “I just think our kids get down on themselves and lose confidence, and I just want them to know that they’re a better football team than how they performed tonight,” said Price after last Friday’s game against Mahanoy Area. “We have some talented guys, we just need to play with more confidence.”
SPLIT ... Over the last four meetings, Panther Valley and Minersville have each won twice. Minersville won last year, 27-6.
A JOLT ... The Panthers are averaging just 3.02 yards per carry. But Rene Figueroa has averaged 5.69 yards per carry across 51 attempts since he has joined the backfield.
NEW QB ... The Minersville starting quarterback was injured during last week’s win against the Colts. Gehrig Hossler came in and took over.
Pleas. Vy. at Stroudsburg
Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.
What you need to know:
ROUGH PATCH ... Last year’s 26-22 loss to Stroudsburg started a string of losses for Pleasant Valley. The Bears lost to Easton the following week in the District 11 Class 6A playoffs, and also dropped their first three games this season, before ending the five-game streak with a 31-6 win over Allen.
RECENTLY ... Stroudsburg (7-2) has held an edge in the series in recent years. The Mounties have won the last five regular season meetings.
DOUBLE DIP ... In 2012, the teams played twice. Stroudsburg won the regular season finale, 27-21. But Pleasant Valley got a measure of revenge the following week with a 24-21 victory in the district playoffs.
SLOW START ... Pleasant Valley did not score in the first quarter of last week’s 28-19 loss to Pocono Mountain East. It was the first time the Bears failed to score in the opening period since Week 3 against Northampton.
PEAKS AND VALLEYS ... After going 8-2 last season, Pleasant Valley is 2-7 this year. It is the Bears worst record since a 1-9 campaign in 2008.
Catasauqua at N’western
Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.
What you need to know:
THE SILVER LINING... If every cloud has a silver lining, the injury cloud that hung over Tiger Stadium early in the season has had a true touch of silver. Early in the season, Northwestern was missing starters Dan Burke, Anthony Colucci, Phil Dangello, Ryan Haas, Tyler Lobach, Jack Moloney and Cameron Sanchez. Players had to be shifted out of their usual positions and players with little or even no varsity experience were now starters.
“We’ve gotten our running game going, especially now that we’ve got a healthy line to work with,” reported coach Josh Snyder. “The other thing is that we’ve seen guys like Henry [running back Nick Henry] and Rodda [wide receiver Justin Rodda] and Jayden Allen, who have all stepped up. Those are freshmen and sophomores who are suddenly playing really well and contributing to the team.”
THE TIGERS ARE ROARING AGAIN... With a win over Northern Lehigh last week, the Northwestern Tigers have themselves in position to finish the regular season at 5-5 if they can beat Catasauqua in the final game of the Colonial League season. While hopes at the beginning of the season were centered higher than five wins, the fact that the Tigers are at that point is impressive considering an 0-3 start. Snyder is looking at the last six games of the season and is enthused at how his team has pulled themselves together to go 4-2 in those last six weeks.
“Things could have just spiraled out of control, but we kept working, and once we got healthy and got guys back, we started to see the type of football that we expected coming into the season,” he said.
PUTTING THE ROUGH IN ROUGH RIDERS... Catasauqua has had a tough season and stands at 2-7 coming into Week 10. What the Rough Riders have going for them is an experienced offensive team led by quarterback Andrew Brett, who has completed 66 percent of his passes, throwing for 1,492 yards and eight touchdowns. Catty also has two strong running backs in Derrick Rodriguez (741 yards, six touchdowns) and Wil-Quon Clemons (697 yards, seven touchdowns) who can do damage.
Brett and many of the skill position starters on Catasauqua are all three-year starters.
NOT A WRINKLE-FREE ZONE... “The other thing we’ve done this week, like we’ve been able to do the past couple of weeks, is put some new wrinkles in on offense,” said Snyder. “Now that we’re healthy and have more experience for our younger guys, we can put some of these things in that we’ve had to keep in our back pocket for a lot of the season.”
LET’S PLAY TWO... While the game against Catasauqua is the last of the regular season, there’s one more for the Tigers to play after Friday night’s finale. The Tigers have clinched a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs and will also have home field advantage. Depending what happens in other games, the Tigers will host either Bangor, Columbia Montour VT or Blue Mountain at Tiger Stadium next weekend. Northwestern shutout Bangor 14-0 three weeks ago and faced Blue Mountain last season in the Eastern Conference, losing 51-30 on the road.
