District 12 6A Playoff Preview
Tagged under: District 12, Gameday Hub, Playoffs
Anthony Franklin | November 2, 2022
The Public League 6A Playoff field is down to the final 4. The defending Champs Northeast Vikings fended off a pesky Academy of Palumbo team with a 42-0 shutout. The Lincoln Railsplitters earned their semi-final berth with a rather convincing 42-6 rout over neighborhood rival George Washington. The Olney Trojans stomped over the South Philadelphia Rams 55-6 and the Central Lancers knocked off Kensington 27-16. The final 4 matchups will be Central @ Northeast and Lincoln @ Olney (NE Supersite).
Thursday @3pm: Central (3-6) @ Northeast (7-2): The Lancers used a strong defense and utilized their running attack to keep Kensington’s offense off the field for long stretches. What a turn around for Central considering in Week 1 they were outscored 80-0 to Chester High and now they’re one win away from a league title game appearance. To win this game they’ll need to stack the box defensively and dare NE to throw the ball while having the ability to cover the dangerous WR/TE’s for NE one on one. They also will need to use their running game to keep the NE offense off the field.
Northeast capitalized last week off turnovers from Academy of Palumbo and turned them into TDs to propel them to victory. Their offense drove the ball fairly well at times while other times forced throws that were intercepted. Against the Lancers they’ll need to eliminate the turnovers while allowing their playmakers like their trio of RB’s Kahmir Prescott, James Bermudez & Andre Staley to do what they do best offensively which is run the ball. What adds intrigue to this game is Central and Northeast are the active longest Thanksgiving Day rival in the country and once again will meet on Thanksgiving morning at Northeast High so winning the playoff game between the two rivals with a championship game berth on the line is added motivation for this semifinal matchup.
Prediction: Northeast 28 Central 7
Friday @3pm: Lincoln (7-3) @ Olney (6-3) (NE Supersite): The RailSplitters come into this game riding high off a big comfortable win over George Washington last week. They’re led offensively by Jr. QB Khani Knight who in the regular season finished with insane numbers. 106-133 for 1717 yards & 27 passing TDs. Also rushed for 4 more on the ground. The 27 TD passes are a school single season record. Defensively last week they were led by Jr. WR/DB who had 2 interceptions both returned for TDs as well as a TD reception and a forced fumble. The Railsplitters are a team that feasts on causing havoc on defense for opposing QB’s. They are stocked deeply in the secondary and have a great pass rusher in Jr. Abdul Kamara to force bad decisions from the opposing QB.
The Trojans enter the game at 6-3 with a lopsided win over South Philly who played without star Razan Parker. They have the capability to score in bunches but also have shown against better competition they struggle offensively to consistently sustain drives and put points on the board. To their credit they do have 4 wins this season over teams who qualified for the playoffs in their leagues however those teams currently have a combined 16-28 record and only Simon Gratz is at .500 or better right now. They’ll need to be able to score points, limit penalties and not turn the ball over against Lincoln to be successful.
Prediction: Lincoln 34 Olney 12
Friday @6pm: Father Judge (3-7) @ LaSalle College High (Wissahickon): The Crusaders will battle fellow CL Red member La Salle College for the right to advance to the CL 6A championship game against St. Joes Prep. The two teams met last week with La Salle winning in convincing fashion 27-6. The Crusaders have been up and down this season with a loss to Olney but then winning over neighborhood rival Ryan. They are fairly young which is partially the reason for them struggling offensively against the better teams on their schedule. They’re led by Jr. QB Tyler Yerkov who has thrown 7 TDs and also rushed for 5 scores on the ground. Leading their rushing attack is Sr. RB Jake Marquis who has 5 rushing TDs along with Jr. Eric Smith who also has 5 scores (4 rushing, 1 receiving). Defensively they’re led by Jr. DB Nymeir Appling who has 3 interceptions on the season so far.
The Explorers come into this game in similar fashion as Judge having an up and down season with a fairly young team. They had a huge opening night win over North Penn before falling flat the next few weeks to Malvern Prep, Bishop McDevitt & Haverford School. Like Judge they’ve had issues scoring this season only scoring over 20 points 3xs this season (North Penn 37, Judge 27, Calvert Hall 21). Freshman QB Galvin Sidwar leads the team in passing with 651 yards & 7 TDs. His big target is Sr. WR Nole Henry (309 yds & 2 TDs). Defensively they’re led by Sr. DE Darold Dengohe who has 6 sacks on the season and has committed to D1 program James Madison. Sr. DB Mekhi Johnson leads the team with 2 interceptions.
Prediction: La Salle 21 Judge 16
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