Around District 11 with Pam and Guy: Black Friday for D11 Teams

Tagged under: District 11, Gameday Hub, News

Guy Smith | November 21, 2023

“Black Friday” came a week early for District 11 football teams as all four teams that advanced to play schools from other districts last Friday lost and thus were eliminated from the playoffs.

The only teams from D11 still playing for state gold are 3A Northwestern Lehigh and 6A Nazareth, both of whom defeated in-district opponents to claim D11 championships. Congratulations to them. And special congrats to the NW Lehigh Tigers as the last remaining unbeaten team from the district.

Nazareth travels south to play the mighty Saint Joe’s Prep, while Northwestern Lehigh gets to stay home and hosts Scranton Prep. We will probably support our last two D11 teams standing as the Tigers play Friday and the Blue Eagles play Saturday, although we are not fans of Philly nor of Prep. Still a chance we may go the NCAA D3 National Championship Tournament playoff route on Saturday instead. We’ll see. We also plan to support the Schuylkill County Football Coaches Association All-Star Game on Wednesday evening at Schuylkill Haven High School.

The other three D11 teams still playing are Easton, Northampton, and Catasauqua. They will all conclude their seasons on Thanksgiving morning this Thursday. For Catasauqua and Northampton, it’s the historic 100th meeting, and from the rumors growing louder and louder, perhaps the last. Guy is planning on attending that one solo.

Dr. Pam headed to Boston last week to present at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association national convention. It was “Boys’ Night Out” and Guy’s pick all four days.

Tuesday was an easy one. Stick with District 11, but change sports to field hockey. At Hamburg High School, the Emmaus (Are they Green?) Hornets knocked off the higher seeded Lady Falcons from Lower Dauphin in the state semifinal. Friday morning was spent at Cumberland Valley High School for PIAA state soccer championships.

Friday evening was a tough choice. All six D11 games were on Friday night. The 3A game was enticing because it featured two unbeaten D11 teams. The 4A game was welcoming because it was at Catasauqua, and for years Guy lived within walking distance of Alumni Field. The 5A game was interesting because it was the one that was at a school Guy had never visited. And the 6A game was strongly considered because it was at the familiar confines of BASD, where Guy spent dozens of Friday nights while teaching in the district nearly 30 years. In the end, it was the lure of a new stadium that won out and Guy headed to Delaware Valley High School for the 5A game against Whitehall.

Saturday left Guy with another decision to make as there were several games of interest. He had followed Emmaus field hockey to all three of their state playoff victories. One: Saturday afternoon was the championship game. Two: How often do you get to see an NCAA national championship? The D3 cross country championships were less than three hours away. But Saturday is football day. There were still some choices. Kutztown D2, Susquehanna D3, or Delaware Valley D3 in the NCAA national playoffs. And in high school, Scranton Prep vs. Neumann-Goretti at Northern Lehigh was very enticing. In the end, Guy once again chose the never-visited stadium and headed to Susquehanna University.

On Sunday it was the third NCAA tournament game in eight days, as West Chester visited Kutztown in D2 women’s soccer. Pam missed some good sports! Kutztown lost the soccer game 1-0, but their field hockey team won the NCAA D2 national championship, their first ever, the same afternoon, knocking off the number one ranked Shippensburg Raiders in the final.

GAME 52. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2023. WHITEHALL ZEPHYRS @ DELAWARE VALLEY WARRIORS 5A STATE PLAYOFFS. The thought of visiting a new stadium convinced Guy that leaving home at 7:00 to drive over two hours from the Poconos past Harrisburg for soccer at Cumberland Valley, drive home and hit the gym for an hour, then drive well north of the Poconos to Milford in the evening for football, all solo, was a good plan. And so it was.

We wish we understood how the PIAA determines game sites. Of the six D11 games, four interdistrict and two district finals, five of the games were on neutral fields. Of the 12 teams involved, only Delaware Valley got to play at their home field. In fact, in three playoff games, Delaware Valley got to play at home for all three.

We had driven by this school many times while traveling on Route 84, but this was the first time stopping. They have a nice facility, and it’s a great one for state playoff games. Unfortunately, its location is too far north for it to be used more often by the PIAA for the playoffs.

There is plenty of paved parking and they had a number of people there to manage the lots. There were ample restrooms, and refreshment stands on each side of the field. Not only were there large stands on the home side, but the stands on the away side were well more than adequate. Guy liked this place a lot.

Whitehall came into the game as the D11 5A champion with a record of 8-4. However, their losses came to 6A 12-1 Parkland and Nazareth (who only lost to each other), 4A district champ Bethlehem Catholic, and 9-3 state ranked Allentown Central Catholic. Whitehall won the district 5A title by defeating Southern Lehigh.

Delaware Valley was the District 2 champion in 5A and did Whitehall one better, entering the contest at 9-3. Amazingly, they started the season with three straight losses, then ripped off nine consecutive wins. They handed 12-1 Scranton Prep, who faces Northwestern Lehigh this Friday in the 3A state quarter final, their only loss.

Guy was pleased to see an outdoor grill fired up, as he hadn’t had the time to eat during the busy day. That flame grilled burger and crinkle cut fries really tasted good, and the setup was such that there was no delay waiting in line.

With no common opponents and not having seen Delaware Valley, Guy really didn’t know what to expect. It didn’t take too long to see which was the better team. The Del Val offensive line dominated in the trenches. Ryder Machado rushed for over 250 yards against the overmatched Zeph defense, as the line opened gaping holes for him. That’s not to say Machado isn’t a stud, as he was an impressive hard hitter on defense too.

Guy thought Whitehall was outplayed in the first half, but they kept themselves in the game. It was only 7-0 after one, and 14-7 at halftime. But the floodgates burst wide open in the second half. Big time. Del Val took only two plays to score to open the second half, and they would score five more TDs for a total of 42 points in that half alone. They were in Mercy Rule before calling off the dogs. An extremely impressive performance by the Warriors.

Thus, Whitehall ends their season, while Del Val has to face Imhotep Charter. Incredibly, for their fourth playoff game of the year, they get to play on their home field for the fourth time. If they win two more, will the state final be moved to Milford? (Sarcasm).

GAME 53. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2023. GROVE CITY WOLVERINES @ SUSQUEHANNA RIVER HAWKS. NCAA D3 NATIONAL PLAYOFFS. Guy decided on this D3 national championship tournament game once again because it was a never before visited stadium.

Grove City, from the western end of the state, ran the table and finished with a perfect 10-0 regular season. Susquehanna ran the table and finished with a perfect 10-0 regular season too.

This was another very nice stadium for D3 football. Guy arrived an hour before kickoff, unsure about parking, but there was no problem getting a good spot. We still find it amazing that NCAA national championship tournament event admissions cost less than PIAA high school state playoff tickets and fees for any sport.

Susquehanna’s claim to fame in college football history is that the football program, which dates to the 1800s, was once coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg, both Senior and Junior. During his lifetime, Stagg Sr. was the all-time winningest coach in college football history. Knute Rocke once said: “All football comes from Stagg.”

Both sides had very good turnouts of supporters. Especially impressive was that visiting Grove City filled the away side stands with spectators dressed in Wolverine red. A good deal of tailgating was going on pregame.

Guy was surprised to see, for the second straight game, an outdoor grill fired up with burgers and dogs sizzling to well-done perfection. You don’t often see that at college games. And you couldn’t beat the prices. Four bucks for a burger and two bucks for a dog? I’ll take two of each, please!

We didn’t have a lot of background knowledge on these teams, but tried to do some research. On paper it looked like a pretty evenly matched game. Boy, was paper ever right this time.

Susquehanna scored first and led 7-0 at the end of the first quarter. Grove City tied it at 7s, and a late Q2 drive made it look like they would take a lead to the lockers. But then in one of the rarer plays in college football, Grove City had a field goal attempt blocked and Susquehanna took it to the opposite house for a 14-7 halftime lead.

Grove City scored a TD in Q3, but Susky hit a FG and at the end of the quarter it was 17-14 River Hawks. I was texting updates to my friend Don, and at the end of the quarter I texted him that after seeing three quarters where Susquehanna had led at the end of each of them, I was putting all of my (virtual) money on Grove City.

In the fourth quarter, the River Hawks added another field goal for a six-point lead. Getting ready to kick off to Grove City who were down by six and had no timeouts left, Guy was at the Wolverine sidelines. In a beautiful example of coaching confidence, the defensive coordinator addressed his players. “When we score, we’ll be up 21-20 and you might have to go back out on the field to preserve our victory. We can’t let them get back into field goal range.”

Grove City marched down the field with no timeouts, and with the clock winding down they found themselves inside the Hawk red zone. First down. Second down. Third down. All of a sudden it was fourth down from the 12. A pass to the end zone. Touchdown! And with only seven seconds left. Interestingly, on one of the plays the official threw a flag for what I’m pretty sure was offensive pass interference, but was talked into picking up the flag by the other officials.

The defensive coordinator got it right. Grove City actually did go down the field with no timeouts and took the lead 21-20. However, his defense did not have to go back on the field to preserve the win. The River Hawks used the final seven seconds trying to make something happen on the kickoff. That thought ended when one of their players fielded a lateral on his knee. Game over. But what a game!

Grove City advances to round two, and travels to New York to take on the once beaten Red Dragons of SUNY Cortland. An enticing trip, but we will probably stick to high school D11 and support Nazareth. Or maybe not. Stay tuned.

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GUY & PAM’S “BLOG YEARS” SCORECARD: 2021 – 2023 (84)

PIAA District 11 Schools (48)

1-48. All 47 D11 schools plus a second stadium for Executive Education, who played multiple home games at two locations (Muhlenberg College and Lafayette College) not already included for another team.

D11 Alternative JV Game Sites (7). 49. Allentown Central Catholic Vikings JV—Percy Ruhe Park (2023), 50. Bethlehem Catholic Golden Hawks JV–High School (2022), 51. Blue Mountain Eagles JV—East Field (2023), 52. Freedom Patriots JV—FHS Turf Field (2022), 53. Lehighton Indians JV–Old Football Stadium (2022), 54. Nativity BVM Green Wave JV—High School (2022), 55. Pocono Mountain West Panthers JV—Old West Stadium (Grass Field—2023).

D11 Related–Special Events, Sub Regional, or Former EPC teams (6). 56. Easton Red Rovers @ Lafayette College (Thanksgiving Day Game 2021), 57. 2021 New Hope-Solebury Lions: D1-3A (2023), 58. 2021 Abington Heights Comets: D2-5A (2023), 59. 2021 Wyoming Valley West Spartans: D2-5A (2023), 60. 2022-23 Hazleton Cougars: D2-6A, 61. Phillipsburg Stateliners—Former EPC (2023).

All Star Games with D11 Players (6). 62. Colonial vs. Schuylkill League All-Star Game (2022 @ Schuylkill Haven), 63. Lehigh Valley All-Star Football Classic (2022 @ Nazareth), 64. PSFCA East vs. West Small School All Star Game (2022 @ Bishop McDevitt), 65. PSFCA East vs. West Big School All Star Game (2022 @ Bishop McDevitt), 66. PSFCA Pennsylvania vs. Maryland Big 33 Game (2022 @ Bishop McDevitt), 67. Schuylkill League All-Star Game (2021 @ Schuylkill Haven)

Out of District Playoff Games with D11 Teams (4). 68. (G) Dunmore High School (Northern Lehigh Bulldogs 2022), 69. Bald Eagle High School (Allentown Central Catholic Vikings 2022), 70. Steelton-Highspire High School (Northern Lehigh Bulldogs 2022). 71. (G) Governor Mifflin High School (Pleasant Valley Bears 2023). 72. (G) Delaware Valley High School (Whitehall Zephyrs 2023)

NCAA D2 PSAC Colleges (9). 73. Bloomsburg Huskies (2022), 74. Clarion Golden Eagles (2022), 75. East Stroudsburg Warriors (2022), 76. Edinboro Fighting Scots (2022), 77. Kutztown Golden Bears (2022), 78. Lock Haven Bald Eagles (2023), 79. Millersville Marauders (2022), 80. Shippensburg Raiders (2023) 81. West Chester Golden Rams (2023), 82. Mansfield Mountaineers (former 2022).

NCAA Bowl Games or National Playoffs (3). 83. (G) D3 Delaware Valley Aggies (2021). D2 Kutztown University Golden Bears (2021), 84. (G) D3 Susquehanna River Hawks (2023).

Not Catagorized (11). NFL NY Jets (2022). NFL NY Giants (2023). NCAA D1 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (2022). NCAA D 1A Lehigh Mountain Hawks. WFA Harrisburg Havoc (2023). Selinsgrove High School (PIAA Playoffs 2022). Fleetwood High School Tigers (2022). GEFA Wilkes Barre Warriors (2023). GEFA Snyder County Spartans (2023), GEFA Dauphin County Comanche (2023), GEFA Lancaster Cyclone (2023).

D11 Related / PSAC Missing (9). WILKES-BARRE WOLFPACK: 2022-23 D2-6A Subregion team, WILLIAMSPORT MILLIONAIRES: 2022-23 D4-6A subregion team, PSAC CALIFORNIA VULCANS, PSAC GANNON GOLDEN KNIGHTS, PSAC INDIANA CRIMSON HAWKS, PSAC MERCYHURST LAKERS, PSAC SETON HILL GRIFFINS, PSAC SHEPHERD RAMS (WV), PSAC SLIPPERY ROCK THE ROCK.

D11 Related–Missed for Now (6). Nazareth Blue Eagles JV (Played a game at the middle school in 2021 when the main field was used for a varsity soccer playoff game), Cardinal O’Hara (North Schuylkill Playoff Game 2021), Berks Catholic (Pine Grove Playoff Game 2022), Trinity (Executive Education Playoff Game 2022), South Philly Supersite (Northwestern Lehigh Playoff Game 2022), Germantown Supersite (Whitehall Playoff Game 2022).

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