Wrapping up the weekend

Photos above are Mount Carmel's #1 fan, Bill "Winks" Carta with family. A young fan with "Bucky" at Community Day at Bucknell. Assitant Mount Carmel coach Bob Chesney and Shamokin Assistant Mike Gurski talk about their days in the broadcast booth.

With all the great weather over the weekend, I was able to watch three football games. The battle for the Coal Bucket with Shamokin and Mount Carmel, Richmond at Bucknell, and Juniata at Line Mountain.

BUCKNELL FOOTBALL

I got a chance to see Bucknell against Richmond this past Saturday and watch Southern Columbia grads Ryan Slater and Ian Fullmer in action. Slater made his presence known with back to back defensive plays at the end of the first period. The Bison couldn't match the talent of Richmond and lost 45-14. Tim Hightower set a school record for the Spiders with 295 yards on the ground.

A moment I haven't seen since the 70's was an inadvertent whistle by the officials. It felt like 10 minutes before they let the home side know why they blew the whistle. Could you say run and hide?

The Bison are back in action September 29th at home against Marist at 6pm.

LINE MOUNTAIN

Line Mountain ran their record to 4-0 on the season and quarterback Clark Morris guided an offense that rushed for over 300 yards in downing Juniata 32-14. The Eagles, barring any significant injuries, should be favored in their games the rest of the way with the exception of week 10 when they host Millersburg.

An interesting playoff scenario involves Bloomsburg, Southern Columbia, and Line Mountain in District IV Class A. Last season, Line Mountain put up 31 points against a good Southern defense in defeat in 2006.

PHILLIES

Although the Phillies went down to Atlanta tonight, I never thought they would be in this postion. With injuries to Freddy Garcia, John Leiber, Ryan Madson for the season and Cole Hamels and Adam Eaton missing starts and losing closers Brett Myers and Tom Gordon for some time that was just the pitching problem for the Phils. Position players that spent some time injured were Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Shane Victorino. Playing his way back from the scrap heap was Pat Burrell.

Win or lose men, my hat's off to you.

PENN STATE

In the recruiting process with Josh Marks of Southern Area, I really didn't know how bad Penn State's offensive line's situation was going into the season. They had two defensive converts starting and not a lot of proven depth. The Lions struggled the first three games to get the running game going. Usually it wasn't until the second half until they started to pile up the yardage.

Their offensive scheme kept Michigan in the game long enough to win it. Didn't they learn anything from Oregon? I'm not saying change to the spread overnight, but there might be a few things to work in. Speaking to schemes check, out the Dave Jones article about the JoePa's scheme over the years.

Unfortunately, this September loss will keep Penn State from shot at the national championship.