Johnstown vs. Bethlehem Catholic Open Thread/AAAA Playoffs

[SPORTSGURU814]

It sounds like you guys are all but writing Johnstown off or Johnstown doesn't have athletes that can compete at a AAAAA or AAAAAA level. What ever happened to a persons will to win or the never give up mentality ? oh let me guess they don't have it because the don't play an above mentioned schedule

[Kvothe0]

It sounds like you guys are all but writing Johnstown off or Johnstown doesn't have athletes that can compete at a AAAAA or AAAAAA level. What ever happened to a persons will to win or the never give up mentality ? oh let me guess they don't have it because the don't play an above mentioned schedule

I don't think they are writing Johnstown off, they are just stating facts. As a matter of fact I bet the previous posters hope Johnstown wins. Becahi plays a ridiculously hard schedule. Johnstown does not. Common sense dictates that will help Becahi. 
I really hope Johnstown wins. I really do. I just don't see it happening. I watched some Becahi clips from the past few weeks.  The only word that comes to mind... yikes!

[SPORTSGURU814]

I saw tape of two of there games the past 2 weeks I'm not saying they arnt good but I didn't see any so spectacular that has me saying wow don't think they are any better than BG or Clearfield

[Kvothe0]

I hope you are right, I really do.

[Crimson's Ghost]

Nobody is writing Johnstown off, doug is the biggest Johnstown supporter on this site.  We're just both being level-headed. Nobody is saying Johnstown is incapable of winning, but Bethlehem Catholic is the favorite to win this game.  I don't think anyone can dispute that. 

[knowitall]

Way too much is made about schedules on here.  If Johnstown loses it won't be because they played Richland and Bishop Carroll, it will be because Bethlehem Catholic had the better team or played the better game.

[Crimson's Ghost]

And maybe they have better players because they've been tested more against better competition or played the better game because they've been in more competitive games. It goes hand and hand.

[knowitall]

No, it doesn't.

See Ligonier Valley 35 Johnstown AAU 7

[dougkeklak]

Couple of things:

By no means do I believe Becahi is a can't miss, dominant force.  If you look at rankings, heck PG doesn't even have them in their top five.  Like Crimson said, I'm just being level headed in my analysis.  Has nothing to do with my support of the team!  If you want weaknesses of Becahi based on what I see, here:   I don't think their defense is that great.  In much of the footage I saw, teams were able to run on them with various amounts of success, granted some of those teams didn't close the deal in scoring and those lost games due to squandered opportunities.  I also think their special teams show some weaknesses.  I've seen more than a few blocked PATs and if a game is close, that could be a problem at the end.  Also, they like to squib kickoff and if Johnstown can handle those bounces, well, you see what their return game can do.  Lastly, I am not too impressed with their QB as a runner, my guess is he'd rather hand off in the read option game (I eluded to this in my initial post).  He had some nice runs, but overall not too impressed with him in that regard.

As to the classification thing, look, I normally find myself in the camp of "who cares, it's 11-on-11" and shy away from this sort of thing.  I've had arguments where people have thought I was crazy because I said really good A teams could beat poor AAAA teams.  However, this fact is hard to ignore:  two of the teams they beat are still alive at this quarterfinal round in Whitehall (5A) and Parkland (6A).  

Take that for what it's worth, and knowing next to nothing of the District 11 landscape I still think it's somewhat impressive they have victories over two district champions in higher classifications.

[SPORTSGURU814]

Nobody is writing Johnstown off, doug is the biggest Johnstown supporter on this site.  We're just both being level-headed. Nobody is saying Johnstown is incapable of winning, but Bethlehem Catholic is the favorite to win this game.  I don't think anyone can dispute that. 

Maybe that's the best thing gives the kids more motivation and more of a chip on there shoulder to go out and handle their business all that means is it's time to go to work . I can promise you this those kids are competitors their not bowing down to anyone !!