PFNDan570FB’S Schuylkill/Colonial League Review: September 2nd thru 5th @SchLeague @Colonial_League

Tagged under: District 11, News

Daniel Reed | September 7, 2021

The Schuylkill/Colonial League teams were back in action this last weekend after Hurricane Ida threatened the area with heavy rain Wednesday thru Thursday morning causing major flooding and postponements, in certain areas.

To start the week off, I was able to catch the game between the Class 4A Northwestern Lehigh Tigers, Honorable Mention in the PFN rankings, against the home team, Class 2A Northern Lehigh Bulldogs, who would also be Honorable Mention in the PFN rankings. Northern Lehigh made a statement they came to play that Thursday evening at Bulldog Stadium when they scored on their first possession of the game with senior RB Trevor Amorim, who had 53 yards on the drive, scored from 2 yards out. Northwestern Lehigh wasn’t afraid as they have a senior QB Justin Holmes who would lead the Tigers down the field on their first drive for a score from the 1 yard line to tie the game at 7. The Bulldogs would show down quickly however and fumble on their next drive and the Tigers would take control of the game until the Bulldogs made a comeback only to fall short on a failed 2 point conversion, and lose 34 to 33. The Tigers are now 2-0, will play Southern Lehigh(0-1) on Friday night, and the Bulldogs fall to 1-1, will travel north a bit to take on the Tamaqua Blue Raiders(0-2).
VIDEO BY: @PFNDan570FB

My next game was supposed to be good close game, I thought at least, when the 2020 Class 3A State Runner-up Wyomissing Spartans, ranked in the 2021 PFN rankings at #2, against the home team, Class 4A Pottsville Area Crimson Tide, who are also ranked in the PFN rankings at #7. The first quarter would play out as I expected with both teams feeling each other out, neither team would score. The Spartans would start to take over and run through the Tide’s very good defense. The Spartans would score first, and score once more in the half to lead 14 to 0. In the second half, the Spartans took control of game with controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, eventually winning 42 to 14. The Spartans, now 2-0 will host Boyertown on Saturday afternoon, while the Crimson Tide(1-1) will stay home and host Saucon Valley Panthers(1-1), winners last game over Salisbury Twp. 31 to 14.
VIDEO BY: @PFNDan570FB

The final game I attended this past weekend was Catasauqua Rough Riders at Pen Argyl, another game at which many thought would be a much closer battle than it really was. That said, it was nothing even close to what I had thought. Pen Argyl would get the opening kickoff and after a couple plays, the Green Knights offense would start to fall apart, with turnovers, and penalties, which lead to a blowout pretty quick, as Catasauqua would use a balanced offense and stiff defense to score pretty much at will in the first half, leading 42 to 0. This is the only time I’ve ever got to see the Rough Riders play, but if Saturday afternoon’s performance is what this team is going to do on a weekly basis, Catasauqua is going to make some noise in league and district play come playoffs. Catasauqua(2-0) for the first time since I believe 2016, will host Marian Catholic(0-2) in their next game, while Pen Argyl(0-2) will host (0-2)Palisades.
VIDEO BY: @PFNDan570FB

Other games around the Schuylkill/Colonial League I will talk about today are as follows, but first, let me give a shoutout to my colleague and friend @BPtashinski, who also covers Schuylkill/Colonial League matchups. Brian will be doing a weekly wrap on the games he covered during the week, as well as the teams from the Colonial League that played at home that week.

Now, back to the Schuylkill League…
There was another big game happening in the northern section of Schuylkill County, at Ghosh Orthodontics Field @ Spartan Stadium with District XI Class 3A defending champions, North Schuylkill Spartans(1-0), ranked #1 by PFN staff for 2021, and winners of 13 straight league regular season games, and 11 straight vs Division 1 teams, hosting the Blue Mountain Eagles(1-0). The Eagles came into the game following a very impressive victory over Jim Thorpe 30 to 20 in the season opener. The Spartans came into the game, firing on all cylinders, whipping a very good Mount Carmel Red Tornadoes team 33 to 14. Eagles HC Tom Gallagher, a former student and player of the Spartans, now had the chance to beat his former coach. As expected though, the very talented and loaded Spartan offense wouldn’t waste any time, and scored on their first possession when RB Josh Chowansky took the ball 9 yards for the games first score. both teams would exchange interceptions after that score and then North Schuylkill would find their rhythm once again senior QB Jake Hall called his own number and rumble in from 6 yards out to put his Spartans in the lead 14 to 0 in the first quarter. Then something happened, things took a turn for the worse as Jake Hall would suffer an injury and would sit out the rest of the game. The Eagles, who put up big numbers in their opening game, would struggle for yardage in the first half of this game, only netting 37 total yards, ending the game with 163 total yards according to a local media source. North Schuylkill racked up 280 total yards with Josh Chowansky leading the way with 113 rushing yards on 24 carries. Next up for the Eagles is a very talented squad in Bangor(2-0), and for the Spartans, will host Jim Thorpe(1-1).
VIDEO SUBMITTED BY: Justin Reed/SkookNews

Schuylkill Haven Hurricanes would have one heck of a week trying to find an opponent when their scheduled opponent Panther Valley would have to cancel their matchup, Haven would get a game scheduled on Thursday morning with Riverside Vikings only to have that game canceled as well, later in the evening. Next, stepping up was Executive Education Charter, and in stunning fashion, the Hurricanes would suffer the loss, giving EEC its first win 24 to 13 lead by WR Jyhmiek Roman who would end up with 230 yards receiving on just 4 receptions and 3 touchdowns. Hurricanes would be lead by Aiden Myers who had 136 yards rushing on 21 carries. The Raptors overcame 14 penalties for 120 yards. The Hurricanes will travel to Williams Valley to take on the 2-0 Vikings who defeated Pine Grove 26 to 14.
*NO VIDEO SUBMITTED*

Other Notes:
Tri-Valley would blank Mahanoy Area 21 to 0, for the Bulldogs, it was the defense that was the star in this game, allowing the daunted Mahanoy Area Bears running game just 12 total yards on 33 carries. The star on offense for Tri-Valley would be the quarterback, Jonas McGrath, who would end the game with 9-16-1 for 121 yards and 2 touchdowns, both to WR Layne Yoder, who would end with 92 yards on 7 receptions and 2 touchdowns. Mahanoy Area suffered their 2nd straight shutout loss.

Minersville got its first victory of the season taking down Marian Catholic 20 to 0, Miners were lead by QB John Adams who would throw for 266 yards and 3 touchdowns, and Miners WR’S Jared Graeff(8-111 yds/1 TD), and Brock Polinsky(5-126 yds/2 TDS).

Williams Valley got by Pine Grove 26 to 14, Vikings were lead by RB Alex Achenbach who rushed for 235 yards on 28 carries and 2 touchdowns, Pine Grove was lead by Freshman QB Carson Lengle, who came into to replace junior QB Mason Kroh in the 4th quarter, and racked up 180 yards on just 5 completions.

Other Scores:
Lehighton and Tamaqua played in a shootout with Lehighton winning 55 to 42
Jim Thorpe defeated Palmerton 17 to 14
Nativity BVM got back to its scoring ways, beating Kutztown 46 to 24
Shenandoah Valley game vs Renaissance Academy was PPD. to November 5th
Panther Valley game canceled for 2nd week in a row.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews