The Funding Zone
 
SAFR: Safer Through Science
 

Around District 11 With Pam and Guy: Add the Subregion Teams

Tagged under: District 11, District 2, Gameday Hub, News

| October 23, 2024

2024 Episode 24.  Five football games out of a six-sporting event week.  Racing on Sunday was the only other sport besides high school football Thursday, Friday, Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening, and Monday.

This year three 1A teams from District 2 were combined with the three 1A teams from District 11 for a Subregion come playoff time.  As they are now merged with D11 for the playoffs, those three D2 teams were added to our HitList.  We tried to visit Lackawanna Trail a couple of weeks back, but unbeknownst to us before arrival their game had been moved to Saturday.  As it was getting late in the season, if we were going to go to see the three D2 single A teams, it was time to get started.

But first, the weekend began with the final Thursday game of the regular season in District 11 as Mahanoy Area visited Panther Valley.  On Friday, we headed north to see state ranked Riverside at Old Forge.  Saturday afternoon it was another state ranked team, Lackawanna Trail at Holy Cross.  That evening, we were in Bethlehem for the second game of the City Championship with Bethlehem Catholic hosting Liberty.  And on Monday, Plan C was the charm with East Stroudsburg South at Stroudsburg for JV.

With us both having been teachers, we still have some concern over weekly Thursday games and how late students get home with the next day being a full school day.  Last year, at the Nativity BVM Thursday game, they started at 6:00 instead of 7:00.  We thought this was a good idea.  Earlier this season, Guy had spoken about this with a school official, who said that 6:00 starts were not possible because parents who work could not get there in time to see their kids play and that wasn’t fair.  Yet the freshman and JV games often start at 4:00 or 4:30. In fact, nearly all the other fall outdoor sports start much earlier than 7:00.  Even the indoor Pocono Mountain West varsity volleyball game we went to started at 5:00.  It appears this isn’t at all about working parents getting there in time to see their kids play, does it?  Hmmm.

2024 GAME 45.  THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17.  MAHANOY AREA GOLDEN BEARS (2A) @ PANTHER VALLEY PANTHERS (3A).  Panther Valley is among our favorite D11 stadiums to visit, and also the only one with a roof over the home side stands.  It is also right up there at or near the very top for pre-game eats.  Pam had to miss this one as she had a Thursday night meeting.

On paper it looked like it should be an evenly matched contest, with both teams entering the game with an identical 2-6 record.

Guy arrived early and enjoyed a feast that is the norm at the Schuylkill County stadiums.  The decision between stuffing and gravy, buttered baked potato, and fresh cut fries was so tough he decided on all three before some homemade chili and fresh popcorn.

Band Booster Refreshment Stand: Hot Dog $2, Hamburger $4, Cheeseburger $4.50, Popcorn Chicken Bowl $5, Walking Taco $5, Stuffing & Gravy $4, Chili $4, Beef Vegetable Soup $4, Mac & Cheese $4, Buffalo Chicken Dip $5.  And the fresh popped popcorn was just a buck!

Cheerleading Refreshment Stand: Buffalo Chicken Dip $3, Mac & Cheese $3, Nachos $3, Buttered Baked Potato $3, Loaded Baked Potato $5, Pizza $3.

Football Booster Refreshment Stand: Hot Dog $2, Cheeseburger $6, Hamburger $5, Pizza $3, Walking Taco $5, Mac & Cheese $2, Chili $3.

Smitty’s Fry Truck: Fresh Cut Fries $5, $6, $9.  Pierogies $5, Chicken Fingers $8, Chicken and Fries $12.

Guy said his only regret is that his stomach couldn’t hold any more.  What a fantastic selection!

With equal records, both teams shared a number of common opponents.  The only differences were that Mahanoy beat Marian Catholic while Panther Valley lost to them.  Panther Valley beat Shenandoah Valley while Mahanoy has them this coming week.  They both beat Pine Grove.

With this being a Thursday night game and both teams having a losing record, there was a pretty small crowd on hand.

Unfortunately, the game did not turn out to be a close one.  It was basically all Mahanoy Area as they cruised to a Mercy Rule win 35-0.  Still, we love going to Panther Valley for football.  No regrets.

2024 GAME 46.  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18.  RIVERSIDE VIKINGS (2A) @ OLD FORGE BLUE DEVILS (1A).  The first of our three trips to see the District 2 single A teams that will be playing with our guys in the playoffs.  Riverside, which was not combined with D11, is a 2A school that is state ranked.  They have a perfect record and are slotted number 3 in the state.  Old Forge, one classification lower, had an even 4-4 record.

We absolutely loved Old Forge.  This is a great football town, and a large and enthusiastic crowd was on hand.  This was our 7th trip to see different District 2 schools in the past two years, and we are becoming quite the fans of the football in this area. “Let’s do ‘em all!” says Guy. “Hmmmmmmm” says Pam, knowing that we will probably end up eventually doing just that.

Once again, outstanding concessions at again no fewer than three separate stands.  Sausage & Peppers $5, Pulled Chicken $5, Walking Taco $5, Chili $5, Mac & Cheese $4, Pierogies $4, Hot Dog $2 (add cheese or chili $1), Nachos $2 (add Chili $1), Fries $2 (add cheese $1), Devil Fries $3, Buffalo Bites $5, Devil Bites $5 ($6 at another stand), Chicken Bites $5, Mozzarella Sticks $5, Risotto $5, Haluski $5, Pretzel $2 (add cheese $1), Pizza $2, Waffle Fries $2.

In addition, they also had a separate Devil Desserts stand, which had Apple Cobbler ($4) easily the dessert of the year so far (especially since we did not make it to Pine Grove this season for the Apple Dumpling a la Mode).

With Riverside being state ranked and playing a .500 team from a lower classification, we didn’t really expect the game to be too close.  And it was not.  Riverside’s defense clicked a lot better than their offense, and only gave up a late score while cruising to a four-score lead.  Final was 28-6 Vikings.  They need to clean up their penalties before they face the elite 2A teams in the state.

We will not hesitate to return to Old Forge.  It ranks above quite a few D11 facilities in our favorite places to watch a game.

2024 GAME 47.  SATURDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 19.  LACKAWANNA TRAIL LIONS (1A) @ HOLY CROSS CRUSADERS (1A).  The second of the three teams caucusing with D11 in the 1A playoffs to visit.  For the second time this week, Pam stayed home as we had workers doing home repairs at the homestead.

This one was as Old School as they come.  When Guy pulled into Monsignor Crotti Field @ Saint Anthony Memorial Park, he was asked to pay $5 before entering the parking lot.  He thought he was paying just for parking, but that included the game admission.  The entire park was not fenced in, so walking in without paying at all would have been quite easy.

In District 11, we have two schools (Wilson and Pen Argyl) whose fields have no lights.  But at least they have grandstands.  At this one, there are only stands on the home side, and they were cordoned off as the insurance company has deemed them unsafe for spectators.  A couple of sets of tiny metal bleachers were dragged to each side.  However, there were plenty of spots to set up lawn chairs to watch the game.  It had a GEFA vibe (sans the profanity of course) with a park field and many watching via lawn chairs.

They did have a refreshment stand with the following items: Hot Dog $2.50, Hamburg $4 (why do some places in this area spell it this way?), Cheeseburger $4.50 (add cheese and they also add the “er” to burger), Sausage $5 (add peppers $.50), Fries $3 (add cheese .50), Nachos $3.50 (add peppers $.50), Pepper Sandwich $4 (man do they ever like their peppers here).  Guy went with a “burg” and fries.

This was a matchup of biblical proportions (Crusaders vs. Lions) but no one was expecting a close game.  Lackawanna Trail was ranked 5th in the state at 8-1, while Holy Cross was 3-5.  Trail had this one set up for second half Mercy Rule long before halftime.  They were up 27-0 one minute into the 2nd quarter and 42-0 at halftime.  Eleven seconds into the second half it was 49-0 and at that time they called off the cats, and cruised the rest of the way to a 56-13 win.

Guy really enjoyed the throwback atmosphere.  Of the over 110 different places we have gone for football in our past four “blog” seasons, Pam has only missed six of them.  Guy can’t wait until next year to take her to see Holy Cross as so often, it’s the same two Wilson and Pen Argyl that are our only Saturday afternoon game choices.  Nice to have another fun one in the mix.

2024 GAME 48.  SATURDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 19.  LIBERTY HURRICANES (6A) @ BETHLEHEM CATHOLIC GOLDEN HAWKS (4A).  This was the second game in the Bethlehem City Championship and we plan to see all three this season.  Earlier, Freedom had defeated Becahi 24-3.

This was a Becahi home game, so the restrictive policies of the Bethlehem Area School District were not in effect.  Guy thanked the ticket seller for accepting our cash and not charging us a fee to hand us our change.  He also forgot something in the car, and the Becahi ticket taker had no problem letting him go out to get it and return.  That sort of common courtesy would not happen at a BASD home game.

Liberty had started off the season like gangbusters, jumping out to a 6-0 record.  But they had faltered the past two weeks, losing to both Nazareth and Easton by at least three scores.  Becahi was 4-4, but they have no wins against an EPC team with a winning record.

This was our first time seeing Liberty all year and thus first time to see the exquisite Grenadier Band.  We usually see several amazing high school bands perform each season, and while some get close, we can’t think of any that top Liberty.  They truly live up to their slogan of “Second to None.”

This was a long, long, long game.  Fraught with incomplete passes, penalties, injuries, more incomplete passes, and punts, it even included the first “Drone Delay” that we have never experienced.  Liberty fans told us that it is a weekly occurrence.  Apparently, their deterrents aren’t working.

The BASD runs the concession stands, so for a menu and prices, see our earlier blog when we attended the Freedom home game.

Liberty held a 6-0 lead at the end of the third quarter.  However, they had missed their PAT and a fairly short field goal at the end of the first half.  That opened the door for Becahi, who scored in the fourth quarter and took a precarious 7-6 lead.  It looked like the Canes may be on their way to “losing out” after the strong start, but they came through with a 70-yard catch and run TD with under three minutes to play.  Again missing the extra, Liberty held onto their 12-7 win to end the two game sked.  Becahi was hit with more than a dozen accepted penalties.  They really need to work on that before district playoffs start.  And the Hurricanes need to hone their run game as passing all the time is not going to take them too far into November.  The better defensive secondaries will feast on those passes like a turkey on Thanksgiving.

After a combined 100 point spread in our first three games of the weekend (119-19) it was nice to see a competitive one-score game.  But three hours for a high school game with 12-minute quarters and no TV timeouts is really pushing the envelope.

This sets up the annual Freedom vs. Liberty game this coming Saturday.  With a combined record of 15-3 that’s one Saturday afternoon game not to be missed, even with the forced added fee to buy tickets online.

2024 GAME 49.  MONDAY, OCTOBER 21.  EAST STROUDSBURG SOUTH CAVALIERS (JV) @ STROUDSBURG MOUNTAINEERS (JV).  We love the Monday JV games and love supporting the kids that are not the stars of Friday Night Lights.  However, as more and more games get canceled, it’s becoming more of a hassle to plan our Monday.  Take this past Monday for example.  We always look for JV games for schools we haven’t been to yet during the season for varsity games.  Thus, Plan A was Dieruff.  Canceled.  Plan B was Palmerton.  Canceled.  Finally, we selected a game we were almost sure would take place, and the third time was the charm.

It was East Stroudsburg South @ Stroudsburg for a 5:45 game at The House that Artie Built.  Admission was free, as have been six of the seven JV games attended so far.  This was the only one of the free admission games to have any hot food, although that was limited to hot dogs and pretzels, each $3.

In the four blog years, we counted that we have seen 24 of the 47 District 11 schools with football play a JV game.  Not bad, eh?  And by our unscientific recollections, no JV team has a bigger fan following than East Stroudsburg South.  Even when they are playing outside of The Pit, the crowd on the visitor side often outnumbers that on the home side when the Cavs come to town.  Impressive.  Not sure why, but the away team was wearing the dark tops and the home team the whites.

For the most part, the JV games we have been to this season have been closer than the majority of the varsity games.  This one was a back and forth.  Stroudsburg scored first to take a 6-0 lead.  Then while at the opponent 12-yard line in a drive that took almost the entire ten-minute third quarter, the Mountie QB fumbled and the Cavs picked it up and took it 88 the other way, in part thanks to fantastic blocking by the player following the ball carrier.  With the extra deuce, ESS took a 8-6 lead.  As that play was a defensive score and they kicked off back to Stroudsburg, we don’t recall ESS running a single offensive play in the third quarter.

Stroudsburg game back on their next possession and retook the lead 12-8.  ESS had one last chance and drove down the field.  They had the ball first and goal with only a couple of minutes remaining, but the Mountie defense held and in four plays the only direction the Cavs moved was backward.  Stroudsburg took a knee and secured the victory.  Real good game, that one.

This week we might sneak back up to District 2 on Friday for what looks like a great showdown between Riverside and Lackawanna Trail before The Battle of Bethlehem on Saturday afternoon.  Monday’s final JV game of the season is still up in the air.  Weighing options for that one.  Feedback always welcome at RTRYFBAR@AOL.COM.

DISTRICT 11 TOP RATED TEAMS.  1A) Lackawanna Trail (D2 Subregion team).  The top ranked true D11 team is Tri-Valley in second.  2A) Williams Valley.  3A) Northwestern Lehigh.  4A) Southern Lehigh.  5A) East Stroudsburg South.  6A) Easton replaced Freedom who replaced Liberty the week before.

 

DISTRICT 11 UNDEFEATED TEAMS (9 GAMES).  Northwestern Lehigh is now the lone unbeaten team in the district, Freedom having lost to Easton.  Four D11 teams are still winless.  None of them play each other, so it very well could end that way.

 

PA FOOTBALL NEWS D11 STATE RANKED TOP 10 TEAMS

 

  1. Northwestern Lehigh (3A–Same)
  2. Schuylkill Haven (2A—Same)
  3. Lackawanna Trail (1A—D2 in Subregion with D11, Same)
  4. Easton (6A—UP! Was HM)
  5. Williams Valley (2A—Same)
  6. Freedom (6A—Down. Was 5th)
  7. Notre Dame Green Pond (3A—Same)
  8. Parkland (6A—Down. Was 10th. Dropped with a win?)
  9. Southern Lehigh (4A—Up! Was NR)
  10. Minersville (2A—Up! Was NR)

 

 

EASTERN FOOTBALL CONFERENCE

 

District 11 teams in line for an Eastern Football Conference Championship Game as of the end of Week 9.

 

5A/6A. Dieruff would host Reading

4A. None (North Pocono v. Crestwood)

3A. Saucon Valley would host Berks Catholic

1A/2A. None (Old Forge v. Wyalusing Valley)

 

 

GUY & PAM BLOG ERA TEAM SCORECARD

(Additions: Old Forge, Holy Cross)

 

  1. PIAA District 11 Schools (2021-). Varsity home games for all District 11 schools that have football. (47/47)

 

  1. D11 Alternative JV Game Sites (2021-). Seven of eight that we know of for schools that played JV games at fields other than where their varsity plays. Missed a 2021 Nazareth game when they played a JV football game at the middle school due to a conflict with soccer playoffs. (7/7 Active)

 

  1. D11 Related–Special Events, Sub-Regional, or Former EPC Teams (2021-). Easton vs. Phillipsburg @ Lafayette College (Thanksgiving Day Game), Old Forge Blue Devils: D2-1A (Sub Regional), Holy Cross Crusaders: D2-1A (Sub Regional), New Hope-Solebury Lions: D1-3A (Sub Regional), Abington Heights Comets: D2-5A (Sub Regional), Wyoming Valley West Spartans: D2-5A (Sub Regional), Hazleton Cougars: D2-6A (Sub Regional), Wilkes Barre Wolfpack: D2-6A (Sub Regional), Williamsport Millionaires D4-6A (Sub Regional) Phillipsburg Stateliners (Former EPC). (10/11)

 

  1. All Star Games with D11 Players (2021-). Colonial vs. Schuylkill League, Lehigh Valley Football Classic, PSFCA East vs. West Small School, PSFCA East vs. West Big School, PSFCA Pennsylvania vs. Maryland Big 33 Game, Schuylkill League (6/6).

 

  1. Out of District State Playoff Game Sites with D11 Teams (2021-) (G) Dunmore High School (Northern Lehigh Bulldogs), Bald Eagle High School (Allentown Central Catholic Vikings), Steelton-Highspire High School (Northern Lehigh Bulldogs), (G) Governor Mifflin High School (Pleasant Valley Bears), (G) Delaware Valley High School (Whitehall Zephyrs), Northeast High School Supersite (Nazareth Blue Eagles), Kutztown University (Northwestern Lehigh Tigers), Cumberland Valley (Northwestern Lehigh Tigers).  Made this one retroactive and missed five from 2021-2022 before adding this category.  They were: 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). (8/13)

 

  1. NCAA D2 PSAC Colleges (2022-). Eleven teams so far including former PSAC school Mansfield Mountaineers who now compete in Sprint Football.  Still have six PSAC and two former PSAC colleges on the Hit List.  (11/18).

 

  1. NCAA Bowl Games / National Playoffs / or NFL (2022-). (G) D3 Delaware Valley Aggies, D2 Kutztown University Golden Bears, D2 Slippery Rock The Rock, (G) D3 Susquehanna River Hawks, New York Jets, New York Giants.  D1 Military Bowl. (7)

 

  1. GEFA 8-Main Semi Pro (2023-). 2024 Eight of 11 teams at home.  2024 three neutral fields: Kickoff Classic, Keystone Bowl, All-Star Game.  2023 three additional home fields. Note: 2023 Wilkes Barre Warriors (The Bog), 2024 Wilkes Barre Warriors (Exeter Panther Junior Football Assoc. Field) (14)

 

  1. NEW FOR 2024! D11 Teams Playing Regular Season Games Outside D11 (2024-). Shenandoah Valley @ Columbia Montour Vo-Tech Rams.  Executive Education Academy @ Central Columbia Blue Jays (3)

 

Other.  NCAA D1 Rutgers Scarlet Knights, NCAA D 1AA Lehigh Mountain Hawks, WFA Harrisburg Havoc (Harrisburg High School & Palmyra High School), Harrisburg Stampede (PA Farm Show Complex), Selinsgrove High School (PIAA Playoffs), Fleetwood High School Tigers, Scranton Lions City vs. County Dream Game (Valley View High School), North Pocono Trojans.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
QwikCut
 
GoRout
 
Sports Paradise
 
 
x