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Mountain League - Playoffs Week 2

Posted: November 5th, 2018, 9:08 pm
by DragonsDoExist
Last Week 4-0 (Overall 47-9)

D6-AA Semifinal, Friday 7pm @ Richland

Penns Valley (8-3) @ Richland (11-0)...PV has been one of the pleasant surprises this year and the program is headed in the right direction having picked up their first ever win at Central along with their first ever win vs Tyrone this year. Junior QB Aaron Tobias continues to impress as he leads a potent Ram offense. Tobias has thrown for 2864 yards while completing 63% of his passes to go with 33 TDs and 8 INTs. Tobias is also a threat with his legs adding an additional 357 yards and 5 TDs on the ground. While PV only averages 161 ypg on the ground senior Ryan Ripka is still a threat. Ripka has rushed for 1114 yards to go along with 554 yards receiving and 25 total TDs. Tobias's favorite target is junior Logan Snyder who leads the team with an impressive 72 receptions, 995 yards and 10 TDs. The Richland offense while more balanced is also led by a stud QB in senior Joe Hauser. Hauser has thrown for 2437 yards to go with 29 TDs and 7 INTs and a completion rate of 56%. A couple of senior backs lead the ground game behind one of the best OL's in the area. Teon Reed has 779 yards/8 TDs while Zack Vogelsberger has 565 & 15 TDs. The difference in this one I believe is on the defensive side of the ball where I think the Rams of Richland hold a significant advantage. Richland has given up 21+ points once this year (56-27 win over FH) while Penns Valley has done so 6 times. PV is definitely battle tested being the only AA school in the league and having played well against the 2 teams playing for the D6/9-AAAA title, beating Bellefonte and having given undefeated Clearfield their toughest game all year. Richland's best wins have been a 29 point win over 3A title contender Forest Hills, 42-0 shutout @ BG and a close 24-20 over Chestnut Ridge in the mud. I'll be rooting for PV to pull the upset and continue their breakthrough season but think Richland wins it fairly comfortably in the end. Richland 41 Penns Valley 20

D6-AAA Championship, Friday 7pm @ Mansion Park

Forest Hills (9-2) vs Bald Eagle Area (9-2)...Like PV the Eagles are also led by a junior QB having a breakthrough season. Jaden Jones has thrown for 2456 yards, 27 TDs and 13 INTs to lead BEA to the #1 seed. While the Eagles lost 800 yards of offense and 7 TDs when they lost RB Gage McClenahan to injury in week 8, senior Blake Roberts ran for 207 and a TD last week vs Huntingdon. BEA's 2 losses have come at the hands of the 2 teams playing this weekend for the D6/9-AAAA title in Clearfield (42-7) and Bellefonte (10-9). The Eagles are averaging 35 ppg while defensively giving up 17 ppg. BEA is strong up front and the defense racked up 33 sacks during the regular season. The target of those sacks this week will be do everything senior QB Adam Cecere. The Rangers signal caller has thrown for 2276 yards, 19 TDs and 4 INTs to go along with 671 yards on the ground and another 15 TDs. Cecere's top targets are Shope(38/756/5) and Wolfhope (34/706/6) who have almost identical stat lines. Forest Hills 2 losses have come at the hands of Chestnut Ridge (28-12) and Richland (56-27), 2 teams alive and well in the playoffs. It could be argued that the Rangers best wins have been a 30-10 win over BG and a couple of wins of Westmont Hilltop. Neither of those teams provide much when it comes to a passing attack which is what they will be forced to stop Friday night. I like the speed of the Eagles on the Mansion Park carpet but think this could be the best game of the weekend. Bald Eagle Area 34 Forest Hills 27

D6/9-AAAA Championship, Friday 7pm @ DuBois HS

Bellefonte (9-2) vs Clearfield (11-0)...These 2 teams met in week 6 of the regular season with Clearfield winning 49-21 and I find it hard to believe this one will end much differently. The Bison are likely the balanced offensive juggernaut in the area averaging 45 ppg with 209 ypg passing and 241 ypg rushing. The individual statistics are impressive led by QB Isaac Rumery and his 2268 yards passing, 25 TDs and only 3 INTs to go along with a completion rate of 70%! Throw in the additional 505 yards rushing and 10 TDs and his stats alone would make an offense tough to stop but it doesn't stop there. The RB duo of senior Caleb Freeland (854 yards/18 TDs) & junior Brett Zattoni (879 yards/11 TDs) and WR duo of sophomore Jake Lezzer (40/943/9) & senior Taye Lynch (38/839/12) make the Bison almost unstoppable. Penns Valley was the only team this year to stay within 3 scores of Clearfield. For the Red Raiders to stay in the game they will need to control the ball with their ground attack led by junior RB C.J. Funk who has rushed for 1475 yards and 19 TDs and QB Kyle Myers who has rushed for 639 and 5 TDs. Defensively, senior DL Caleb Rockey and his 17 sacks will need to cause havoc in the Bison backfield. In the end I see more of the same from Clearfield's high powered offense. Next week....defending state champ Cathedral Prep looms. Clearfield 49 Bellefonte 21

Re: Mountain League - Playoffs Week 2

Posted: November 5th, 2018, 9:13 pm
by Earl34
Dragon, any idea what happened at the end of PV game with SH? Heard a SH player was ejected. Was anyone from PV ejected? Just heard second hand stuff today.

Re: Mountain League - Playoffs Week 2

Posted: November 5th, 2018, 9:19 pm
by DragonsDoExist
Earl34 wrote:Dragon, any idea what happened at the end of PV game with SH? Heard a SH player was ejected. Was anyone from PV ejected? Just heard second hand stuff today.
No clue, first I heard of it.

Re: Mountain League - Playoffs Week 2

Posted: November 6th, 2018, 8:36 am
by Manfred
Great stuff as usual, DDE.

Re: Mountain League - Playoffs Week 2

Posted: November 6th, 2018, 7:31 pm
by youngbuck
Totally agree, the local papers or WPA won't cover these games as thoroughly. Great job.

Re: Mountain League - Playoffs Week 2

Posted: November 6th, 2018, 7:40 pm
by DragonsDoExist
Appreciate it fellas!


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Re: Mountain League - Playoffs Week 2

Posted: November 6th, 2018, 9:24 pm
by billmurray
youngbuck wrote:Totally agree, the local papers or WPA won't cover these games as thoroughly.  Great job.
really?? https://westernpafootball.net/centre-county-report/  we've covered every Centre County game this year. That also means we've covered a majority of the Mt League games also. For reference, since June there are over 250 articles covering all of district 6 and 61 articles for D5 teams. 

Re: Mountain League - Playoffs Week 2

Posted: November 7th, 2018, 7:53 am
by Manfred
GOD I hate to admit this, but youngbuck sounds like he's in a similar situation as me: Limited to no access to all that coverage Bill mentions, i.e. the Altoona Mirror and/ or remembering the highlighted website mentioned. Bill, appreciate all you do, but this side of the ridge doesn't receive the same coverages.

Re: Mountain League - Playoffs Week 2

Posted: November 7th, 2018, 1:16 pm
by billmurray
Manfred wrote:GOD I hate to admit this, but youngbuck sounds like he's in a similar situation as me:  Limited to no access to all that coverage Bill mentions, i.e. the Altoona Mirror and/ or remembering the highlighted website mentioned.  Bill, appreciate all you do, but this side of the ridge doesn't receive the same coverages.
we're getting there. I took ownership of both sites this year because I had a different goal than the previous owner. I wanted to be more aggressive and get more backing so I'd be able to hire more reporters. In my first year I have 50 reporters and photographers covering the state. there are definitely more areas I'm going to concentrate on getting coverage with. One area I need more coverage is definitely from Altoona south and west of the ridges. I'm also looking for more people to cover D7 and a few more in D9/10.  I really pushed and concentrated on the Centre County teams for obvious reasons (CDT). A few small papers have jumped on for them but they are limited. 
I've also some eastern areas I need to concentrate on expanding coverage for. Things are looking good though, and next year you all should see a marked improvement in coverage. Bookmark our site, WesternPAFootball.net. Check it out.  Tonight on PAFootballNews.com we have our weekly show A Fresh Set of Downs at 8 pm. We are the only show that covers the entire state of PA Football. It's gotten a nice following. We are also bringing back the Title Game preview show on Wednesday, Dec 5. (something PCN no longer does).  My hands have been untied and i'm reaching for the stars. My goal is blanket coverage of the state.