D5 playoffs Week 2

[thebrigade]

Week 1 of the playoffs had the number 2 seed NBC, the number 3 seed C.T., and the number 4 seed N.S. all moving on for games this week.

Friday nights game

4. North Star at 1. Berlin

This game is a rematch from week 3 in which Berlin won at home 25-7. Berlin comes off a first round bye and North Star off a convincing win over 5th seed Tussey Mountain 42-14. Ian Sayler leads the mountaineers with both a running and passing attack that has racked up 21 td's on the ground for sayler as well as 8 td's in the air. his counter Max Straisser is also impressive with 9 td's on the ground and 19 td's in the air. Both quarterbacks have a big man to go to in the air with Alex Will at 6'7 for berlin and "T" Tony Straisser at 6'5 for N.S.. earlier on berlin's Glotfelty went down and Dauphinais has stepped up since with 223 yards yds on the ground. North star will have to find a way to stop Sayler if they want to win this, for the year Ian is averaging 11 yds per carry and stockwell 8 yards per carry. Berlin will also have its hands full with a much improved Cougar squad, they will have to find a way to stop the straisser's run/pass offense as well as Friedline with his 847 yds and 8 td's. Both these teams have a very good defense with Zerfoss for N.S. leading with 105 tackles and Craig with 5.5 sacks for Berlin. I am expecting a shootout this time with N.S. having scored 48 td's this year and Berlin scoring 57. This game has 2 great impact players in Sayler and Straisser and should be a close game. I am picking Berlin with home field advantage
Berlin 42 North Star 35

Saturday Nights game

3. C.T. at 2.NBC

NBC is coming off a first round thumping over meyersdale last week 48-14, and C.T. with a 7-6 Mud bowl victory over windber. Both teams have gone with their go to workhorse this year with Preston Albright carrying the ball 281 times for 1748 yds and 32 td's and Brett Byers carrying 201 times for 1316 yds and 21 td's. Both these teams have been a run it down your throat team but both are able to go to the air when needed with with logan fluke completing 54 passes for 725 yds and 11 td's and C.T.'s Hayden Stumpo passing for 1066 yds and 12 td's. Both these teams have very good defenses as well with both teams racking up 20 sacks this year, D Sollenberger with 6 for NBC and Byers with 5 for C.T. leading tackler for NBC is J. Suter with 107 tackles and Byers for C.T. with 109 followed closely by Tanner Cahill with 92. The field is apparently in good shape and both teams will probably keep the ball on the ground going with their bread and butter that got them to this point. As i am partial to one of these teams i will not be picking one of these teams to win.
NBC 0 C.T. 0


Good Luck and congratulations to the final 4 teams left in the District 5 playoffs you have all showed great talent and played some great games this year. d5 championship game will be held at Somerset high school no matter who wins and should be a great game to see no matter who is in it. May the winner give the d7 winner a run for their money this year.

[Head Roadie]

Correction. The State Quarterfinal between the WPIAL Champ and D5 Champ is locked into Somerset but the Championship Game will be on a field as neutrally in-between as possible.

Two Somerset County teams would go to Somerset....an NBC win will put the game at Bedford according to D5 committee sources.

[bbsocceralumni]

This is what I don't get. Why was the CR-NS D5 boys soccer game held in Somerset?

[thereplacement2]

Head Roadie, if its NBC and Berlin, couldnt Windber hold the game? its 37 miles from NBC to Windber and 30 from Berlin to Windber. dont know much about Bedfords surface, but Windbers field when they played Berlin week 9 was outstanding.

[bbsocceralumni]

Head Roadie, if its NBC and Berlin, couldnt Windber hold the game? its 37 miles from NBC to Windber and 30 from Berlin to Windber. dont know much about Bedfords surface, but Windbers field when they played Berlin week 9 was outstanding.

Yeah it that matchup would happen, I wouldn't doubt that Windber would have something to say about hosting it.

[Crimson09Crazy]

Windber Stadium hosted a state playoff game last year, I think it should be alright.


I know in years past Trojan stadium was the site for state playoff games for D5, How come that is no longer the case?

[GreenMachine]

WoW someone actually would WANT or CHOSE to play a game at Windber Racetrack err uhh Stadium? lol

[thebrigade]

Correction. The State Quarterfinal between the WPIAL Champ and D5 Champ is locked into Somerset but the Championship Game will be on a field as neutrally in-between as possible.

Two Somerset County teams would go to Somerset....an NBC win will put the game at Bedford according to D5 committee sources.

i may have said that wrong, the final between the district 5 teams will be held at somerset, the winner from d5 against the d7 has not yet been picked but will be close to the d5 winner since d5 went to pittsburgh last year.

[dragonfootball2001]

Being an outside observer and not connected to any of the teams:

North Star @ Berlin

North Star rolled over an easy Tussey Mountain team that really had no business competing for the D5 Championship in the first place. Tussey was able to eek out a decent record with a very poor ICC schedule, alowing their playoff birth. North Star was able to dominate in Saturday's ICC/WestPac battle and confirmed what everyone already knew, the WestPac is much stronger than the ICC.

Berlin had a nice week off which allowed them to rest Saylor and will look to roll in this one as they did earlier in the season vs the boys from Boswell. Berlin is the class of D5 and will look to take momentum from this game into the D5 Finals vs the winner of CT/NB

Berlin 35 North Star 14

Conemaugh Township @ Northern Bedford

Conemaugh Township obviously had the tougher opponent in Week 1 of the D5 playoffs with Windber and were able to squeek out a 1 point victory on a terrible playing surface. CT will look to slow down the NB rushing attack and should have a lot of success doing it, coming from the tougher schedule all season. Look for CT to be the first team to be able to dictate the tempo vs the Panthers, and take away the time of possession advantage NB has had all year against their weak ICC schedule. Just as Myersdale looked strong in the beginning of their match with NBC, I look for CT to come out, set the tempo early, and make the Panthers play catch up.

Northern Bedford rolled over Myersdale, obviously the weakest team out of the WestPac in their first round playoff matchup. Conemaugh Township will not be so easy. Albright has had success following the dominant Panther O-Line all season, but CT should be able to use their size and experience to shut down the huge running lanes to which Albright has become accustomed this year.

In what others are calling a close matchup, I look for Conemaugh Township to prove the WestPac dominance in D5 and roll to a fairly easy "upset" at Panther Community Stadium.

Conemaugh Township 28 Northern Bedford 10

[abpk2903]

The Westpac really didn't have an overly dominating week last week either. CR who, plowed their way through the entire upper half of the Westpac (other than Berlin) got their butts kicked by a very average LHAC team in Bedford. I'm not sure where everyone has this idea that the Westpac is better than the ICC. NS may have dismantled Tussey but NBC beat Tussey but over 40 points in Saxton (pretty impressive for a rivalry game). I think NBC will be playing Berlin for the championship next week.