PIAA Class 5A Playoff Preview – Cathedral Prep at Pine-Richland

Tagged under: District 10, District 7, News, Playoffs

Phil Myers | November 24, 2022

Cathedral Prep Ramblers 8-2 @ Pine-Richland Rams 10-3 on Friday Nov. 25 at 7 P.M. –

This game features two of the real heavyweights in PA high school football.  Cathedral Prep comes into the game having not played since the end of October.  They are the de facto D-10 Class 5A champs and are riding a 5-game win streak in which, they’ve outscored their opponents 220-27.  Pine-Richland has won 10 straight after starting out 1-3.  They won the D-7 crown last week by clobbering Upper St. Clair 34-3.  In fact, no one has gotten closer than 11 points during the Rams’ current 10 game win streak.  The winner of this game will meet the District 3 representative, either Exeter Township or Cocalico.

Offensively, Prep averages 39 points per game.  Since taking over for the injured Carter Barnes, QB Luke Costello has thrown for 1,062 yards and 14 TDs.  Wakeem Page has 41 pass receptions for 463 yards and a couple of scores.  WR Camariyon Bridges has 21 grabs for 389 yards and 8 touchdowns.  Damario Crawford has hauled in 5 TD tosses.  RB Dajoure Hollinsworth has filled in nicely for the injured Suhtaun Lewis.  Hollinsworth has yards 572 rushing and 11 scores.  On defense, the Ramblers allow 14 points a game on average.  John Koshan leads the Ramblers in tackles.

After a slow start to the year, Pine-Richland turned things around.  The Rams average 31 points a game, but only averaged 16 through their first 4 games.  The main reason for the turnaround is Ryan Palmieri who became the starting QB after the 4^th game.  He has scurried for 1,569 yards and scored 22 touchdowns with his legs.  He has 4 TDs and 632 yards passing.  WR Andrew Mellis is the favorite target and has 25 catches for 315 yards.  RB Ethan Pillar has rumbled for 1,039 yards and 15 TDs.  On defense, Max Heckert has 132 tackles for the Rams.  Pine-Richland’s defense gave up 15 points a game for the year, but only 10 in the last ten games.

Keys to Victory – For Cathedral Prep, it’s pretty simple, do not allow Palmieri room to run.  Pressure him and hem him in.  Having said that, it will be hard to do as ten teams before Prep have tried and all failed.  The Ramblers will also be playing before a rowdy Ram fan base and must block that energy out to concentrate on what they need to do, especially on offense.  Finally, Prep must not make costly turnovers.  They have to protect the ball at all times.

For Pine-Richland to come out on top, they have to find ways to free Palmieri and let him do what he does best and that is run.  Some new wrinkles in the offense may be enough to throw Prep’s defense off-balance for a while.  They need to control the clock when they have the ball too.  Defensively, the Rams will have to keep the Ramblers’ offense in check.  Playing positional defense is vital as is preventing big gainers from Prep’s playmakers.  This should be a really good football game decided in the last quarter and maybe in the last minute.

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