Mount Carmel Regains Top Spot in Heartland Fab Five

By coming from behind from two touchdowns down in the last 10:58 to pull out the win over Southern, Mount Carmel regains the top spot in the Heartland Fab Five.  Southern drops back to number two.  Lewisburg remains in the third spot. While Mifflinburg who will close out the season with the Green Dragons remains number four.  Bloomsburg with the win over Danville is back in the countdown at number 5.

Games of interest this week will be Mount Carmel at Shamokin. The Coal Bucket Game always is a draw for the fans and homecoming for some.  Lewisburg and Mifflinburg tangle for a part big part of the AA playoff picture and the winner of the Milton and Shikellamy should decide who the number one seed will be for the District IV AAA playoffs.

Week 9 Will Have Teams in Playoff Mode

Shamokin Area comes into Week 9 losing three in row since a 42-0 win over Loyalsock at home in Week 5.  In losses to Montoursville and Danville, the Indians allowed the playmakers of those teams respectively to beat them.  In fairness to Shamokin's "D", not too many teams in the Heartland were going to stop Danville last Friday.

District IV AAA is still wide open with Shikellamy on top and will remain there if they could win out. They will be tested against the Indians and next week against a surging Milton squad.  The formula is easy for Shamokin. Keep Tyler Pratt and Benny Delgado from making big plays and they have a chance to win the game and make the playoffs. This will be a big "if".

In other big game around the Heartland, I like Southern over Mount Carmel, Milton over Jersey Shore and Mifflinburg to rebound over Selinsgrove.  The think I like about Southern of the Red Tornadoes are turnover.  Southern has stayed away from them most of the season.  The other thing I don't like is in Week 9, the Red Tornadoes will only be in their second week of a set offense.  I'm sure Coach Carm isn't going to be too happy about two hour bus ride to Northern Tier with a loss to Southern.  Mount Carmel will be ready.

Playoffs start now!!!!

Shamokin in for Tough Game at Danville.

The Shamokin Indians find themselves at 2-5 going into week 8 at Danville this Friday.  Although only down 6-0 going into the 4th quarter against Montoursville, the Indians fell short on a 26-7 score.  Shamokin failed to capitalize on 3, 1st quarter Warrior turnovers.

Danville played a good first half on Saturday at Southern, but the offense was shut down in the 2nd half.  What did impress me about Danville was that the defense was able to stop Southern's straight offense rather easily and were a littler undersized.

Interesting stat last weekend for Shamokin was rushing defense.  Take away the 30-yard TD run late by Montoursville and the stat was 32 rushes for only 29 yards.  Could they keep Dressler in check like Southern?  We will find out on Friday night.

All the Right Moves

This past week Mount Carmel Area had a chance to get their 800th win in school history. Like with their first attempt for win #700 against Selinsgrove, this attempt fell short against North Schuylkill.  The senior class of the Spartans have become the only one to beat Mount Carmel three in a row. Hats off to the Spartans.

Off the field, 3 players returned to the field after serving suspensions for off field incident involving alcohol and marijuana.  The story keeps garnering top press and was the lead in last night's WNEP 16's 11 pm news.  One of main things keeping this story alive were that charges were filed just on Friday with the incident occurring late in September.  According to published reports, tests had to be done and the officers was away.  With Mount Carmel losing last night, hopefully everyone involved can learn from this and move on.

On the field for Mount Carmel, they had a hard time moving the ball against North Schuylkill.  The Red Tornadoes have a two-quarterback system that isn't working. They have run spread, option and wildcat.  Do they really need for all that???  Mount Carmel needs to get back to work and be Mount Carmel.  Another home showdown looms in Week 9 with Southern Area coming to town.  An 8-2 Red Tornado team in District IV AA faces some long bus rides in post season.

************

Shamokin Area once again couldn't take advantage of three first quarter turnovers in losing to Montoursville on Friday, 26-7.  The Indians trailed the game 6-0 entering the 4th quarter.  The Shamokin "D" has been stellar against run the last few week.  Take a later 30-yard TD run off the board, the Indians hold the Warriors to 30 yards on 33 attempts.  

Shamokin will have trouble against Danville and needs a win against Danville or Shik to make the playoffs.  

************

The Heartland Fab 5 has a few changes this week.  Danville comes in at #5 with a great first half against Southern.  Defensively, the Ironmen were able to stop the Tigers straight up stuff.  It wasn't until Southern made some adjustments that they were able to pull away.  Also, Southern takes the #1 spot away from Mount Carmel.  They will play for #1 in Week 9.

Heartland Fab Five

The only change in the Heartland Fab Five is Mifflinburg moving up to 4th and Bloomsburg dropping to 5th.  Other than that the top 5 remain the same.  Mount Carmel stays number one, followed by Southern and Lewisburg with Mifflinburg and Bloom rounding out the Fab Five.

Yonk and the Voice Go Down

Last week a blog that I like to follow called the Lulac Political Letter's author took a fall, but his blog kept on going.  This past week, I was put on the four-day DL. Bursitis that reared it's ugly head in my knee put me in the hospital with surgery to boot.

I am home now, but missed my first high school broadcast since 2002 with illness.  By the way, the Phil's lost.  I didn't watch one pitch and saw it coming.  More later on the Phillies.

Hospital stays are never fun, but my roommate (cellmate) was a man from my old neighborhood.  I got to reconnect with his family who I haven't seen in awhile.  Not everything was that bad.  For the reunion, I am grateful.

What is the Correct Suspension?

This past week several football players from Mount Carmel have been suspended for two games for violating teams rules with an underage drinking incident.  As a local broadcaster and covering high school sports for 21 years, it seems like this issue is a topic of discussion. 

Selinsgrove Area chose to suspend 9 players for the season with a similar issues.  Shamokin is a less publicized event lost a few players for code of conduct issues.  Finally, it is Mount Carmel's turn to be in the spotlight. Drinking and high school football in this area have around since high school football started.  Does that make it right?  Once I read the late George Homiak's account of playing in the 1927 state championship game against the Western Conference.  He did say it was cold at the game that players drank some whiskey at half time.

When did it become a problem?  Often times before modern DUI laws came about in the early 1980's, the problems wear looked the other or swept under the rug.  In the 1970's, officers would ID offenders and tell them to get the hell home and get ready for their next game.

Now we live in a society were if the first call by the student is to the parents, the second phone call being made in the equation would be to lawyer.  I really don't have skin in this game at all.


For the most part all schools can do is define a policy.  But for the most part, it is a policy of "ask no question, and I won't tell you any lies."

The bigger question to ask every year is why does only the football team get singled out. Is it because it is the first sport on the school calendar?  You never hear of mass trouble for basketball, wrestling, baseball, softball, band, golf, cheerleading, cross country and track?

Good luck!!!

Heartland Fab Five Remains the Same

Even with Lewisburg's one-point loss to Southern on Friday, the Fab Five remains the same.  The Green Dragons are simply the third best team in the conference with 2 losses.  They are also an eyelash away of being undefeated at 5-0.

Here is the Fab Five as follows:

Mount Carmel
Southern Area
Lewisburg
Bloomsburg
Mifflinburg