Around District 11 with Pam and Guy: Are There Too Many Teams in the Playoffs?
Tagged under: District 11, Gameday Hub, News, pfn
Guy Smith | October 28, 2025
This past week we again attended four games as the regular season ended after ten weeks of football. That meant the final game for some teams, as well as for all of the JV squads.
In District 11, the vast majority of teams make the playoffs. Some say too many, and we tend to agree. There is an annual post heading into the final regular season week that for the majority of seniors, it will be their final game ever. Not in District 11. Of the 50 teams (47 + 3 1A Subregion), 40 are in the district playoffs with two additional teams in Eastern Conference championship games. That seems excessive, especially when a winless team, 0-10 Bangor, qualified for districts. Overall, a dozen teams with losing records made the playoffs. In both 3A and 4A only three of eight teams have winning records. And in 5A and 6A, only half the teams have a winning record. Of the 42 teams still playing, only 22 have a winning record in the regular season. Something doesn’t seem right when top seeded teams have their easiest game of the season in the first round of the playoffs. Perhaps a “playoff eligible” threshold of five wins like in college football should be considered? That is unlikely and we will continue to see 9-1 teams play 0-10 teams on the road to the championship.
We feel bad for Pocono Mountain West. They went 5-5 in 6A and are the only team in the district with more than three wins that didn’t make the district playoffs, but two teams with losing records in their class, Emmaus and Northampton, did. Computer Power Rankings trump actual on-the-field wins. Because they are the only team with four or five wins not to make districts, we decided to pass on district playoff games on Friday and go support the Panthers in their Eastern Conference game.
The only teams finished at this point are Mahanoy, Shenandoah, Pine Grove, Wilson, East Stroudsburg North, Dieruff, Allen, and Old Forge from District 2.
PA Football News Polls. At the end of the regular season, the following District 11 and related teams were ranked by PA Football News. Easton and Minersville moved up again. Northwestern Lehigh remained unbeaten through the regular season, knocked off the previously unbeaten number one team in the state in a higher classification, is the defending state champion, have won 26 in a row, and won 41 of their last 42. But they were dropped to second earlier in the season and remain there. Thank goodness these things will be decided on the field of play.
6A) Parkland–5 (+/- 0)
6A) Easton–6 (+1)
4A) Southern Lehigh–4 (- 3)
3A) Northwestern Lehigh–2 (+/- 0)
3A) Notre Dame–3 (+/- 0)
2A) Schuylkill Haven–3 (+/- 0)
2A) Williams Valley–6 (+/- 0)
2A) Minersville—8 (+ 1)
1A) Lackawanna Trail (D2 team, but combined with D11 for playoffs)—6 (+1)
D11 has seven teams ranked in the top half dozen in the state.
District 11 Power Rankings (After Ten Games)
For the first time all season, there were no changes in the top three.
1A. 1) Lackawanna Trail (D2). 2) Marian Catholic. 3) Tri-Valley.
2A. 1) Schuylkill Haven. 2) Williams Valley. 3) Minersville.
3A. 1) Notre Dame of Green Pond. 2) Northwestern Lehigh. 3) North Schuylkill.
4A. 1) Southern Lehigh. 2) Bethlehem Catholic. 3) Allentown Central Catholic.
5A. 1) Whitehall. 2) Pocono Mountain East. 3) Pleasant Valley.
6A. 1) Easton. 2) Parkland. 3) Nazareth.
Eastern Football Conference
Pocono Mountain West jumped over Governor Mifflin in the final week, so the big school championship matchup will be at the home of the Panthers, instead of them traveling to Berks County. In the small school championship, the Holy Cross Crusaders, D11 subregion team from D2, travel to Upper Dauphin.
AFCA National College Football Polls. Kutztown remains the highest ranked PA college in fourth, while Lehigh is in the top ten in seventh. Both are undefeated. Villanova is back in the top 12. Carnegie Mellon dropped out, but they lost to Muhlenberg, who is back in. The number of ranked teams remains at five.
FCS. Lehigh: Rank–7 (+/-0)
FCS. Villanova: Rank–11 (+1)
D2. Kutztown: Rank–4 (+/- 0)
D2. Slippery Rock: Rank–22 (+2)
D3. Muhlenberg—25 (NR)
OUT. Carnegie Mellon
District 11 vs. the State. The only game scheduled for outside the district was again Executive Education. The won easily over the Lions of The Academy of the New Church. Exec started out 1-3, but have not lost since. The Raptors are on a roll! But this week the party is likely over as they travel to Williams Valley for the first round of the playoffs. The season record for the D11 teams vs. the state is an impressive 35-14. Can any other districts top that?
Undefeated in District 11. Someone had to lose when unbeaten Northwestern Lehigh squared off against unbeaten Southern Lehigh. It was Southern Lehigh falling from the ranks of the D11 unbeatens. Five other teams ran the regular season table. Still unblemished: Easton, Northwestern Lehigh, Notre Dame Green Pond, Parkland, and Schuylkill Haven. That’s 26 straight for Northwestern Lehigh. Only four teams were winless going into the weekend. All four lost and three of them finished 0-10. Bangor gets a chance to go 0-11.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23. Nativity BVM Green Wave (1A) @ Marian Catholic Colts (1A). GRASS. For almost the entire season, there were no District 11 Thursday games listed for the last week of the regular season. Then up popped this one. We were planning on going to Nazareth @ Pleasant Valley for girls’ volleyball but quickly changed our plans to football. We both like going to Marian Catholic so were very happy to see this date change.
The teams are two of our three D11 1A schools that sponsor football programs. Since four teams make districts, it’s why we are combined with the three 1A schools from District 2 to form a subregion. Marian, at 6-3, were solidly in the playoffs. Meanwhile Nativity was 4-5 and battling Holy Cross for the last playoff spot.
Looking at the records, it looked like it might be a close game. But digging deeper, the four Nativity wins were against teams with a combined record of 5-35. They had not beaten a team with more than two wins all season. Meanwhile, Marian had beaten a couple of teams that ended with winning records.
Marian is yet another Skook team with a great refreshment stand. Guy rated his chicken, stuffing, and gravy bowl as the number two D11 food item of the year so far. The fresh cut fries are first rate, as is the pizza.
It was Pottsville Maroons night at the game, as it was the 100th anniversary of their won-on-the-field but lost-in-the-league-office NFL championship. For those unfamiliar with the story, the Pottsville Maroons won the 1925 NFL championship by having the best record and defeating the Chicago Cardinals. As the top team in the league, they earned the right to play an exhibition game against the Notre Dame All-Stars. Since the Maroons stadium held only 5,000, the team owner booked Shibe Park in Philadelphia for the game. However, that was outside their league territory and the Frankford Yellow Jackets complained to the league, as Shibe Park was in their designated territory. The league warned Pottsville not to play there or they would be suspended, but they saw the potential for large profits and played anyway. They won the game in front of a disappointing crowd of 8,000 and were suspended, thus not awarded the title. The Cardinals declined to accept being recognized as champions. Nearly a decade later the Cards were sold to the Bidwell family, who were quite happy to claim the 1925 title. Good thing too, as in the past 100 years the Cards have only managed one additional championship.
Marian Catholic cruised to a 41-0 lead, yet another Mercy Rule game in the 2025 season. Marian hosts Tri-Valley this weekend in the first round of the playoffs, while Nativity travels to state-ranked number six Lackawanna Trail
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24. MAHANOY AREA GOLDEN BEARS (2A) @ SHENANDOAH VALLEY BLUE DEVILS (2A). GRASS. We were on the fence as to which game to attend on Friday, finally narrowing it down to two. Should we go to Nazareth to see if Easton could run the regular season table and go 10-0? Or should we go to Shenandoah Valley to see if the Blue Devils could prevent going 0-10? The latter won out, and it just goes to show that winning records do not always mean better football games.
The Blue Devils stadium had been looking tired, as the steep wooden home side grandstand was well past its prime. Thus, we were happy to see that for this season, the old wood was jettisoned and replaced with new, much nicer, metal grandstands.
The game was between an 0-9 team on one side, and a 1-8 team on the other. What made it intriguing is that Mahanoy earned their lone victory by two over Pine Grove, and Shenandoah lost to Pine Grove by, you guessed it, two.
Shenandoah is another great Skook stadium to eat dinner before the game. Shenandoah was our first “District 11 Snack Bar of the Year” school in 2021. The “pork chop on a stick” that year retains the all-time greatest single food item title, beating all challengers for the next four seasons. As veterans of the dinner at the stadium game, we made a rare strategic error. The fries there are so good at Shendo that we started with them, then both the chili and ham & bean soup were sold out before we got back down to the refreshment stand. Rookie mistakes by a couple of snack bar veterans. The horror.
This was a great game to watch if you like offense. The teams traded scores and the lead multiple times. With porous defenses, the Golden Bears running back looked like an All-American, as did the Devils passing game. Shendo scored midway through the fourth quarter to make it 44-43, but their kicker missed the PAT that would have tied it, his second miss of the night.
The Blue Devils had the ball near the end and drove into enemy territory. In the last minute, they were still playing for the win. However, the Golden Bears stepped it up on the pass rush during the last series, and held on for the one-point win. If you’re the defense that gave up 44 points you certainly don’t point a finger at the kicker for the two missed PATs, you point it squarely in the mirror. A shame Shendo couldn’t get a win too, but it wasn’t meant to be.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 25. EXECUTIVE EDUCATION RAPTORS (2A) @ ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH LIONS (NON-PIAA). GRASS. This was a real tough call. Guy really wanted to go to three different Saturday afternoon events. One being the Freedom vs. Liberty rivalry game for the Bethlehem City championship.
Our enjoyment of seeing different high school football venues for the first time won out, and we again used the Raptors independent schedule to latch on to them for a chance to see a new one.
The Academy of the New Church is one of about ten non-PIAA teams. Their field is located in Bryn Athyn, right next to the college. This was about as far from a Freedom/Liberty packed house matchup as you could get. There was no fence around the field and thus no admission charge, no announcer, no restrooms, no permanent refreshment stand, no cheerleaders on either side, nor any bands.
When the game started there were 13 fans in the bleachers on the Executive side, making one wonder where they are going to find an additional 3,987 for the new 25 million dollar, 4,000 seat stadium they are building.
While there were a lot of things this facility was not, it certainly was still a hard-nosed varsity high school football game. The Lions were 4-4 entering the game, with wins over Jenkintown, Capital Prep of New York, Morrisville, and Delaware County Christian. The Raptors were 5-3, but a deceptive 5-3. They lost by two to one-loss Belmont Charter, to two-loss Bristol by seven, and to state top ten ranked Berks Catholic. They could easily have been 7-1.
We fully expected Executive to win this game fairly easily, but were given a cold dose of reality when the Lions took the opening kickoff, drove down the field with ease, and scored in less than a minute and a half. The Raptors scored, the Lions kicked a field goal to go back up. After that it was all Executive, and by the time they pulled their aces they were up a dominating 41-10. New Church scored at the end against the subs, with the final being 41-16.
In a strange coincidence, since there was no refreshment stand at the game, we stopped on the way home to try Dave’s Hot Chicken in Quakertown. And who did we see in line? Raptors’ Junior starting QB Shawntez Whitsitt’s mom, their family also trying Dave’s Hot Chicken for the first time. Small world. Shawntez played his freshman ball at Liberty before transferring to Executive Education Academy, where he is doing much better academically with the smaller class sizes there. He plans to run track for Liberty this spring, as Executive doesn’t offer that sport. Good ballplayer. We look forward to seeing him play for another season.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 27. EAST STROUDSBURG SOUTH CAVALIERS (JV) @ EAST STROUDSBURG NORTH TIMBERWOLVES (JV). TURF. Interesting that the three varsity games we saw this weekend were on grass, while the lone JV game was on turf.
This was the final week of the JV season, and sorting out the ever-changing game schedules and times gets tedious and frustrating. After five seasons of JV, we are about ready to pack it in on JV football, at least for going weekly. We made it through the five years of the blog era and Guy topped 50 JV games in that time.
Once again, we had to go to Plan C to find a game. Plan A was the Pocono Mountain East vs. Pocono Mountain West JV rivalry game. Game on as of Monday morning, by the time we returned from our morning Tai-Chi class, it had been canceled. Time to hop on the computer, by now almost a weekly occurrence, and scramble to find an alternative. Guy being an Allentown boy thought of the Allen vs. Dieruff JV rivalry game, but that was also cancelled. Guy can’t even fathom the thought of canceling rivalry game matchups, even JV, when he was in school. Times have changed.
Plan C ended up being East Stroudsburg North vs. South. Originally scheduled for 5:45, since the 4:00 middle school game was canceled the JV game was moved up to 4:00, becoming the deciding factor. This was our third time at ESN. The first was an ESN vs. ESS varsity rivalry game in the rain, a blowout win for South. The second time was to see Dieruff pull out a last second win over the Timberwolves. This was the first time for JV.
East Stroudsburg North has been down for a number of years. They went 0-10 this year, losing to both Allen and Dieruff. They did play stout in their rivalry game against South, losing by just six. However, playoff bound South’s only other win was against Allen. For the past nine seasons, they have only won more than one game just one time. They do have one championship; a 2006 Eastern Conference title earned with a 41-19 win over Blue Mountain. With the varsity season over and winless, it would have been easy to cancel this game and stack away the equipment until next season. But the Timberwolves played. Gotta respect them for that.
We were surprised to see the refreshment stand opened for the game. At kickoff, there were ten people in the home side stands, and more than four times as many on the away side. ESN had almost as many security guards as they had fans.
This was our second week in a row to see South play JV, and for the second week in a row they won handily. Look for the South varsity to rebound from an unusually down season come fall. It was another Mercy Rule shutout, with the Cavs winning it 38-0.
We felt bad as several couples arrived late in the fourth quarter to see their kids play, still expecting the 5:45 kickoff originally scheduled.
Saquon Watch. Saquon Barkley from Whitehall High School finally had a breakout game this season, rushing for 150 yards in the Eagles’ victory over the New York Football Giants. His season total is now 519 for the season, still only 10th most in the NFL. His career total jumped to 7,735, and he passed both Terrell Davis and Chris Warren last week, currently residing in the 57th slot. Next up is James Brooks, but that will take at least a couple of weeks, as Brooks is over 200 yards ahead of Saquon.
Horizon. Looking at Thursday (D11 Team #29 Blue Mountain), Friday (#30 Pocono Mountain West), Saturday Afternoon (#31 Liberty Hurricanes) and Saturday Evening (#32 Northern Lehigh).
2025 District 11 Varsity or JV Teams Seen at Home or Outside D11. 1) Minersville Battlin’ Miners. 2a) Freedom Patriots (varsity field.) 2b) Freedom Patriots (JV field.) 3) Stroudsburg Mountaineers. 4) Whitehall Zephyrs (both varsity and JV). 5) Pocono Mountain East Cardinals. 6) Pleasant Valley Bears. 7) Holy Cross Crusaders (D2: Subregion team with D11). 8) Allentown Central Catholic Vikings. 9) Pen Argyl Green Knights. 10) Jim Thorpe Olympians. 11) Saucon Valley Panthers (both varsity and JV). 12) Bangor Slaters. 13) Pine Grove Cardinals. 14) Wilson Warriors (both varsity and JV). 15) Schuylkill Haven Hurricanes. 16) Executive Education Raptors. 17a) Bethlehem Catholic Golden Hawks (JV field). 17b) Bethlehem Catholic Golden Hawks (varsity field). 18) Parkland Trojans. 19) Panther Valley Panthers. 20) Southern Lehigh Spartans. 21) Catasauqua Rough Riders. 22) North Schuylkill. 23) Nativity BVM. 24) Minersville Battlin’ Miners. 25) East Stroudsburg South Cavaliers. 26) Marian Catholic Colts. 27) Shenandoah Valley Blue Devils. 28) East Stroudsburg North Timberwolves. 2025 Pennsylvania College Teams. 1) Keystone College Giants. 2) Kings’ College Monarchs (JV & Varsity).
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