Marian Catholic is next in what has become a long line of teams forced to forfeit games

Tagged under: News

Billy Splain | October 17, 2019

The list keeps getting longer. Forfeits due to injury. This week we reported that Philipsburg-Osceola was forced to forgo the rest of their season due to injuries depleting their roster size, Conemaugh Valley was next forfeiting their final game to Portage. Now, after an injury during practice this evening put them over the threshold, Marian Catholic was forced to cancel their season for the same reason.

The Colts had already clinched a playoff spot, but don’t have enough healthy players to compete. Their game tomorrow at Mahanoy Area was to be the Bears senior night. Shenandoah Valley hosts the Bears next Friday and has agreed to host senior night for both teams. Tamaqua now has an opening that same night as they were scheduled to play the Colts.

One can speculate the reasons as to why so many teams have been forced to cancel games due to injury. The reasons could be many. The offering of more sports, the lack of interest in sports in today’s world, concussions, coaching, conditioning, an unusual amount of injuries.  It could be a combination of some or all of the above.  But to us, the trend may be sending high school football into a spiral and a myriad of changes.

The season started with Holy Cross out of District 2 cancelling their entire season before it began leaving 9 teams scrambling. Millersburg out of District 3 cancelled their final game with Susquenita. WPIAL teams have also been affected. Bishop Canevin had to forfeit to Our Lady of Sacred Heart. Shady Side Academy, who could actually win their conference, was snake bitten for a week. District 10 saw 2 more, but it was District 6 that was hit the hardest with Philipsburg, Bishop Carroll and Conemaugh Valley all ending their seasons early while United had 2 forfeits this year.

Here is the list we compiled:

Bishop Carroll to Bellefonte
P-O to Penns Valley
P-O to Clearfield
United to Homer Center
Unitd to Ligonier valley
Bishop Canevin to OLSH
Fairview to Mercyhurst
Millersburg to Susquenita
Seneca to Greenville
Shady Side to Apollo Ridge
Conemaugh Valley to Meyersdale
Conemaugh Valley to Berlin
Conemaugh Valley to Portage
Marian Catholic to Mahanoy Area
Marian Catholic to Tamaqua
Millersburg to Susquenita

Holy Cross in D2 cancelled all 9 games, most teams were able to fill the spots. They were counted as no contest for those who didn’t.

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