Around District 11: The Travels of Guy & Pam Week Fourteen: 100th Game Together

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Billy Splain | December 2, 2022

Around District 11: The Travels of Guy & Pam

Week Fourteen:  100^th Game Together

2022.16.  The week didn’t quite work out as planned.  Pam returned from the ASHA Conference in New Orleans with a souvenir: COVID 19.  Guy asked her why she just didn’t get an “I Heart Zydeco Music” coffee mug like everyone else, but Pam said she had no room in her suitcase.  The COVID caused a schedule shuffle for both Wednesday and Thursday.

The sports week started on Tuesday with Kutztown University Women’s Basketball vs. Chestnut Hill.  The plan on Wednesday was to see the Penncrest Lions host the Marple-Newtown Tigers.  But with Pam quarantining at home, Guy decided to make a return visit to Schuylkill Haven for the Schuylkill County Coaches Association All Star Game instead and save the trip to see a new field for another time when Pam could go as well.

The plan on Thursday was not for football, but to bring our two 95-year old parents together with us for Thanksgiving dinner.  With Pam having to bow out, Guy got take-out turkey dinners, went to the Catasauqua vs. Northampton morning game, had Thanksgiving dinner with his mom in the afternoon, then another Thanksgiving dinner with Pam in the evening.

Pam was back on outdoor activity duty on Friday, and we looked at playoff options.  Two D11 teams were playing, and we determined Allentown Central Catholic had the best chance to win.  So we headed for a first-ever visit to Bald Eagle High School in Bellefonte, where Pam had briefly lived after finishing grad school at Ohio University, for the ACC match up against Meadville.

Four D11 teams played Saturday and again we assessed which team had the best chance.  To be honest, it looked like Northern Lehigh was the team with just about the only chance, so we headed to Steelton-Highspire for another first-ever visit.  If not for COVID, we would have seen a trio of new high school fields this week.

Sunday was supposed to be Day 3 of the Turkey Derby races at the Wall Stadium Speedway in Belmar, NJ; but it was rained out.

GUY & PAM’S 100^TH “PA FOOTBALL NEWS” GAME.  Since we were invited to join the “PA Football News” team last season, we have been to 100 football games together.  Here’s the breakdown.  2021 High School Varsity: 41; JV: 10; College: 2; TOTAL: 53.  2022 High School Varsity: 27, JV: 11; College: 8; NFL: 1; TOTAL: 47.  2021-22 SO FAR: 100.

NOTE: During that time Guy went to nine additional games.  Five in 2021, three on Tuesdays/Thursdays when Pam taught night class and two while she attended the ASHA conference.  And currently four so far this year; two ASHA, two COVID.

GAME 48.  WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2022.   SCHUYLKILL COUNTY COACHES ASSOCIATION ALL-STAR GAME @ SCHUYLKILL HAVEN HIGH SCHOOL.  Guy decided not to head solo to Penncrest for a new stadium without Pam able to accompany.  But “PA Football News” was live streaming the game at Schuylkill Haven, and we formulated a plan where Guy would head to the game, Pam would watch the live stream, and we would text comments back and forth throughout the game so it was like we were there together.

With no ties to any Skook teams, we were just looking for an entertaining game.  Last year the game was not close, but this year was different.  The South scored the first two touchdowns, and Guy started thinking blowout and an early exit.  But the North had other ideas and got on the board.

Next up was something you don’t see often, back-to-back kickoff returns for touchdowns.  It was tied at 21 at the break.  Haven has good food, and during the break Guy feasted on those great burgers made on the outdoor grill, pierogies, and pizza.  The home side refreshment stand, where we had the great potato soup during the regular season, was not open for this game.

Billy Splain and Hollywood Brian Ptashinski surprised and flattered Pam by wishing her a speedy recovery during halftime of the live stream broadcast.  She thanks them so very much for thinking of her.  We have made some good friends at PA Football News.

The South scored first in the second half, but after that it was all North, who scored twice more, missing a PAT, but winning by a final score of 34-28.

Before this game last season, we had never been to Schuylkill Haven High School.  In one year, this was the fourth visit.  Absolutely not the last.

GAME 49.  THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2022.  CATASAUQUA ROUGH RIDERS @ NORTHAMPTON KONCRETE KIDS.  Last year we went to Easton v. Phillipsburg, the year before that was the COVID cancellation, and the year before that was a family Thanksgiving gathering.  So it has been a while since Guy saw one of the longest Thanksgiving Day rivalries in the country.  Pam was still home in COVID quarantine.  This was the 99^th meeting of the two schools.  Next year will be the Centennial.

The game means so much to the two communities, and still attracts a big crowd and is thus a moneymaker for the schools.  Besides the football game itself, there are a number of other related community activities centered around the game.

Unfortunately, the game itself may have run its course.  Northampton is a 6A school and they continue to grow.  Catasauqua is a 2A school and are landlocked and enrollment is down.  According to the PIAA enrollment numbers used to determine this year’s classifications, Northampton enrollment is 756, Catasauqua 161.  That’s over four and a half times larger.  The mountain for Catty to climb is very steep, and it keeps getting steeper.  Heck, it looked like Northampton had twice as many cheerleaders as Catty had players.

Northampton entered the game with an 11-1 record and their win in this game ended their season at 12-1.  But the record does not tell the whole story.  They are a 6A Lehigh Valley school that does not face the South Division Leviathan during the regular season.  They don’t play Emmaus.  They don’t play Freedom.  They don’t play Nazareth.  They don’t play Parkland.  All but one of the teams they beat was either from lower classifications (8), or 6A teams with losing records (2).  The ONLY 6A team with a winning record they defeated during their entire 12-1 season was Stroudsburg, who barely had a winning record at 6-5.  Twice.  As soon as they played one of the South powerhouses, a lower seeded team eliminated them before the district final.

Catasauqua started their season 0-3 but improved to qualify for the district playoffs as the last seed, knock off the number one seed in the semi finals, came within five seconds of winning the district championship, and finished with a winning record.

By measuring wins and losses, Northampton had a much better season, with 12 wins to Catty’s 7, and one loss to Catty’s 5.  But using the metric of who advanced farther, Catty made it to the district championship game, while Northampton played their first 6A South team of the season and was eliminated in the semi final.

No surprise that the school four and a half times larger in eligible football enrollment rolled to an impressive 41-12 win in the game, still firing passes in the last minute to add more to their margin of victory.

Catty hasn’t won this game since 2013.  Since then, Northampton hasn’t scored fewer than 33 in any game, with a high of 63.  In the same stretch, Catty hasn’t scored more than 26 in any game, with a low of zero.

We love high school football, and cherish the Thanksgiving traditions.  As a small boy, Guy’s dad took him to Allen vs. Dieruff.  Pam grew up in Catasauqua going to the game.  But we believe it might be time to rethink this one.  There are three possible scenarios that we envisioned.

One.  Continue as is.  There is a lot more to this game than the game.  Activities include things like decorating the school, pep rally, bonfire, powder puff game, bury the hatchet dinner, selling special event shirts, etc.  All those great activities for the students and community may make the actual outcome of the game basically moot to the majority.

Two.  End the Thanksgiving Day tradition.  It’s not a competitive game, so let the students move on to the next portion of their school year, be it a winter sport or whatever.

Three.  This one requires thinking a bit outside the box.  Keep the Thanksgiving Day tradition going, but find new opponents.  Guy thinks the key is to find schools with strong existing Thanksgiving Day traditions and do what’s necessary to get them back on board for a turkey day game.  His thinking is Catty should play Panther Valley (Coaldale vs. Lansford was huge), and Northampton should play Stroudsburg or East Stroudsburg (The Little Brown Jug Game meant everything to them).  Pam says bad idea.  She believes that key to Thanksgiving rivalries are adjacent communities playing.  Those schools are too far apart.  Pam thinks Northampton could play Nazareth, but a practical opponent for Catasauqua is tougher to find.  Whitehall is 5A, with no 2A or 3A school that close.  She mentioned the possibility of Salisbury, Pen Argyl (played Bangor at one time), or Notre Dame.  Guy thinks it will be tough to get the teams with no Thanksgiving tradition to begin one in this era, when the number of turkey day games seems to shrink annually. Pam agrees, but thinks that until the actual game outcome becomes as important as the other school/community spirit and financial aspects of Turkey Day, the Catty-Northampton tradition is likely to continue.

We certainly hope to be able to attend the 100^th game next year, although if parents are still able, family would take precedence of course.

GAME 50.  FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2022.  ALLENTOWN CENTRAL CATHOLIC VIKINGS VS. MEADVILLE BULLDOGS @ BALD EAGLE HIGH SCHOOL.  We figured that ACC had a better chance to advance than EEACS, and with both games about two hours away, knew the Friday rush hour traffic would be much easier heading to Bellefonte than around Harrisburg.  Pam emerged from COVID Jail, and Bald Eagle was another new stadium for us to experience together.

ACC entered the game with five losses, but three of those were to 6A powerhouses Freedom, Nazareth, and Emmaus.  Another was to 5A district champ Whitehall.  Once they began playing in their own 4A classification, they beat Bangor by Mercy Rule, gained revenge for the regular season rivalry game loss to Bethlehem Catholic to win the D11 4A title, and then went on the road and knocked off unbeaten Jersey Shore.

Meadville was 12-1 and during the regular season had two consecutive games scoring over 75 points, including a 77-0 victory over a winless team, which perhaps was a bit excessive.  They also scored over 60 in three other games.

We thought ACC had a real good chance, despite having five losses to Meadville’s one, as they seemed to have played a tougher schedule and thus were more battle tested.

Meadville had first possession and moved methodically down the field.  Faced with a fourth and 12 in the red zone, it looked like ACC might get out of the early jam, but Meadville converted a TD to take a 7-0 lead.

After that, it was all ACC.  We thought they had a good shot in this one, but never in our wildest dreams did we think they would shut out the high scoring Bulldogs the rest of the way, while putting up 50 straight points.  This was a blowout.

We picked the right game, and ACC ended up being the only one of the six D11 schools to advance to Week 15.  They will return to Bald Eagle to face top ranked Aliquippa.

GAME 51.  SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2022.  NORTHERN LEHIGH BULLDOGS VS. STEELTON-HIGHSPIRE STEAMROLLERS.  The other four D11 teams that didn’t play Friday were all in Saturday afternoon 1:00 action, and we picked Northern Lehigh to have the best chance to win, despite the fact that they were playing the top rated 1A team in the state.  Indeed, it was another first time visit for us.

Bad traffic on Route 81 caused us to fall behind schedule, but we got great parking and still had time to hit the concession stand before the game.  Guy gave the $4 burger a thumbs up, Pam the same for the $4 sausage.  Buck each chips and drinks gave us a nice lunch for just $6 per.

This was one of those games where brawn and strength was matched against speed and agility, with the result being an almost even game.  Northern Lehigh was slightly ahead for most of the first three quarters, but never had more than a one score lead.  In the third quarter they had a chance to go up two scores but were stopped on a 4^th and two.

“Protime” is known as the reigning King of Prognosticators in PA high school football.  Not only did he nail all six D11 team games correctly, he correctly predicted that the winner of this game would be the last team with the ball.

Northern Lehigh ran the ball for over 300 yards, and their passing game was decent as well.  Bulk and strength worked to the Bulldogs’ advantage for three quarters, but they looked really gassed on defense in the fourth.  After giving up only two scores through three, the Bulldogs could no longer stop the speedy Rollers in the final quarter, giving up four more TDs in the final stanza.

In a back and forth classic, Northern Lehigh scored in the final minute to retie the game at 35, then had nothing left to stop the Rollers, who took over with only 27 seconds left but covered the field in just five plays, to score the winning TD with just four seconds remaining.

In our lone visit there, we thought the Williams Valley fans probably most obnoxious in D11.  Perhaps we caught them on a bad day.  We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.  But the Steelton-Highspire fans are right up there as well.  Cheering your team is one thing, but adults taunting the kids from the opposing team is another.  Northern Lehigh, whose adult fans can cross the sportsmanship line as well, were a positive force this time.  Strong attendance and positive vocal support for their team negated much of the home field advantage.  Still, we think that NO interdistrict state playoff game should ever be played on the home field of either of the teams.

Although our team didn’t win, this one is certainly in the running for the game of the year for us this season.  We definitely picked the right game to attend, as none of the other three games with D11 teams were close.  Congrats to the Bulldogs on a great season.  We will likely see the Rollers again in two weeks at the state finals.

Unfortunately, not only did all four D11 teams lose, but we hit a deer on Route 81 and totaled Guy’s car on the way home. Thankfully we were both uninjured.

THIS WEEK.  Only one game planned this week.  We have a 5:30 alarm on Saturday, as Guy will be covering an indoor auto race in Syracuse, NY for Area Auto Racing News, an event that begins at 11:00 a.m.  With that in mind, we are opting for Trinity vs. Southern Columbia at Selinsgrove, a new stadium and also closer to home, over a return to Bald Eagle to see ACC play for the fourth time in six weeks vs. the unbeaten state #1 Aliquippa Quips.  Sunday we are set for college ice hockey.

We enjoy the feedback at RTRYFBAR@aol.com

D11 TEAMS STILL PLAYING IN WEEK 15 (1)

Allentown Central Catholic Vikings

UNDEFEATED IN PENNSYLVANIA (7)

Going in to Week 14, there were 9 undefeated teams left in the state.  Two of those teams lost, thus seven remain.  They are: Garnett Valley (6A), State College (6A), Upper Dublin (5A), Aliquippa (4A), Wyomissing (3A), Westinghouse (2A), and Steel Valley (2A).

GUY & PAM’S 2022 FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD (2021-2023)

CURRENT OVERALL TOTAL: 65 OF 85

PIAA District 11

–Varsity or JV Home Game in 2021/2022 with Varsity All-Time (47 of 47)

–Active Alternative JV Game Sites (4 of 7)

–Special Events/Related Stadiums (1 of 2)

–Outside Teams that Played in D11 as Sub Regional Teams (0 of 6)

–All Star Games with D11 Players Participating (6 of 6)

NCAA

–D2 PSAC 16 Schools + One Related School (6 of 17)

Varsity or JV Home Game in 2021/2022 with Varsity All-Time (47 of 47)

1. Allentown Central Catholic Vikings (2021), 2. Bangor Slaters (2021), 3. Bethlehem Catholic Golden Hawks (2021), 4. Blue Mountain Eagles (2021), 5. Catasauqua Rough Riders (2021), 6. Dieruff Huskies (2021), 7. Easton Red Rovers—Cottingham Stadium (2022), 8. East Stroudsburg North Timberwolves (2021), 9. East Stroudsburg South Cavaliers (2022), 10. Emmaus Hornets (2021), 11. Executive Education Raptors (2021), 12. Freedom Patriots (2021), 13. Jim Thorpe Olympians (2022), 14. Lehighton Indians (2021), 15. Liberty Hurricanes (2021), 16. Mahanoy Area Golden Bears (2021), 17. Marian Catholic Colts (2021), 18. Minersville Battlin’ Miners (2021), 19. Nativity BVM Green Wave (2021), 20. Nazareth Blue Eagles (2021), 21. Northern Lehigh Bulldogs (2021), 22. Northampton Konkrete Kids (2021), 23. Northwestern Lehigh Tigers (2021), 24. North Schuylkill Spartans (2022), 25. Notre Dame Green Pond Crusaders (2021), 26. Palisades Pirates (2022), 27. Palmerton Blue Bombers (2021), 28. Panther Valley Panthers (2021), 29. Parkland Trojans (2021), 30. Pen Argyl Green Knights (2021), 31. Pine Grove Cardinals (2021), 32. Pleasant Valley Bears (2021), 33. Pocono Mountain East Cardinals (2022), 34. Pocono Mountain West Panthers (2021), 35. Pottsville Crimson Tide (2022), 36. Salisbury Township Falcons (2021), 37. Saucon Valley Panthers (2021), 38. Schuylkill Haven Hurricanes (2022), 39. Shenandoah Valley Blue Devils (2021), 40. Southern Lehigh Spartans (2021), 41. Stroudsburg Mounties (2021), 42. Tamaqua Blue Raiders (2021), 43. Tri-Valley Bulldogs (2022), 44. Whitehall Zephers (2021), 45. William Allen Canaries (2022), 46. Williams Valley Vikings (2021), 47. Wilson Area Warriors (2021)

Active Alternative JV Game Sites (4 of 7)

48. ALLENTOWN CENTRAL CATHOLIC VIKINGS JV—PERCY RHUE PARK, 49. Bethlehem Catholic Golden Hawks JV–High School (2022), 50. BLUE MOUNTAIN EAGLES JV–EAST FIELD, 51. Freedom Patriots JV—FHS Turf Field (2022), 52. Lehighton Indians JV–Old Football Stadium (2022), 53. Nativity BVM Green Wave JV—High School (2022), 54. POCONO MOUNTAIN WEST PANTHERS JV—OLD STADIUM

Special Event or Related Stadiums (1 of 2)

55. Easton Red Rovers—Lafayette College Thanksgiving Day Game (2021), 56. PHILLIPSBURG STATELINERS (FORMER EPC SCHOOL)

Teams that Played in D11 as Sub Regional Teams (0 of 6)

57. 2021 NEW HOPE-SOLEBURY LIONS (D1-3A), 58. 2021 ABINGTON HEIGHTS COMETS (D2-5A), 59. 2021 WYOMING VALLEY WEST SPARTANS (D2-5A), 60. 2022 HAZLETON COUGARS (D2-6A), 61. 2022 WILKES BARRE WOLFPACK (D2-6A), 62. 2022 WILLIAMSPORT MILLIONAIRES (D4-6A)

All Star Games with D11 Players Participating (6 of 6)

63. Colonial vs. Schuylkill League All-Star Game (2022 @ Schuylkill Haven)
64. Lehigh Valley All-Star Football Classic (2022 @ Nazareth)
65. PSFCA East vs. West Small School All Star Game (2022 @ Bishop McDevitt)
66. PSFCA East vs. West Big School All Star Game (2022 @ Bishop McDevitt)
67. PSFCA Pennsylvania vs. Maryland Big 33 Game (2022 @ Bishop McDevitt)
68. Schuylkill League All-Star Game (2021 @ Schuylkill Haven)

–NCAA D2 PSAC 16 Schools + One Related School (7 of 17)

69. Bloomsburg Huskies (2022), 70. CALIFORNIA VULCANS, 71. Clarion Golden Eagles (2022), 72. East Stroudsburg Warriors (2022), 73. Edinboro Fighting Scots (2022), 74. GANNON GOLDEN KNIGHTS, 75. INDIANA CRIMSON HAWKS, 76. Kutztown Golden Bears (2022), 77. LOCK HAVEN BALD EAGLES, 78. MERCYHURST LAKERS, 79. Millersville Marauders (2022), 80. SETON HILL GRIFFINS, 81. SHEPHERD RAMS (WV), 82. SHIPPENSBURG RAIDERS, 83. SLIPPERY ROCK THE ROCK, 84. WEST CHESTER GOLDEN RAMS, 85. Mansfield Mountaineers

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