Heartland Fab Five Change

With Southern's 41-14 victory over Bloomsburg on Friday, there is a change to my Heartland Fab Five. The Top 3 remain the same with Lewisburg, Danville, and Southern.  Mount Carmel moves up to the 4th position and while Selinsgrove enters the #5 spot.  Bloomsburg drops out of the poll.

Friday's game for Southern could be described in three chapters; dominating, resting, and finishing. Southern came out and dominated the both sides of the line of scrimmage, but could not overcome some penalties to put the game out of reach.

The stumble at the end of the second and beginning of the 3rd allowed Bloomsburg to tie the game at 14.  The tie would only last for the kickoff.  On the first play from scrimmage following the kick, Tyrell Thomas went 70 yards for a TD and Southern never looked back.

With the win, Southern goes to 5-1 and will have another show down with undefeated Danville.  The good that came out of Friday's game was that the Tiger's running game got on track and were for the most part able to impose their will on the Panthers.

Defensively, Southern was able to cover most of the Bloomsburg receiver with man coverage and were able to keep the heat on Blake Rankin.

The only negative in the win were the penalties.  First, the Tigers committed 11 of them.  Second, they were not able to keep drives alive after they were committed.  More on penalties down below.

TV, Officials and Penalties

The Southern-Bloom game was televised live by WNEP16 (2).  Between TV timeouts, penalties and pass attempts the game lasted close to 3 hours.  The officials never seemed to be on the same page when the TV timeouts were called.  It led to Jim Roth questioning the officials whether coach Sones was allowed to bring his Panthers over to the sideline.

I'm all for TV coverage, but when it becomes more of a field distraction maybe some simple rules should be observed.

During the regular season, a game cannot be stopped by media.  Simple.

Getting back to the other side of officials,  I was a little surprised.  In Week 6, two teams were called for 21 penalties.  Friday was the third Southern game that I had the privilege to broadcast.  In the previous two with Line Mountain and Shamokin, the Tigers were not called for one illegal block.  On Friday, the were called for three from the line of scrimmage.   What did the officials see in Week 6 that wasn't seen in Week 1 or 2?

Bad Weekend for Local QB's

Dave Shinskie regained his starting spot on Saturday for Boston College.  One TD pass and two INT's, with the latter being returned 28 yards for a TD, Shinskie was pulled from the game.  Again, BC doesn't have a QB problem.  Their problem is lack of a running game and offensive line playing poor right now.  Boston College lost to NC State 44-17.

Shamokin Area graduate Marc Persing now sharing time at QB for Wilkes, suffered a broken leg that will require surgery.  Persing drove Wilkes 48 yards in the middle of a 22-point, 4th quarter comeback where the Colonels beat Lebanon Valley in 35-28 in OT.

Lewsiburg on top of the Fab Five

The Lewisburg Green Dragons ascended into the number one spot in the Heartland Conference Fab Five poll.  Lewisburg defeated Southern Columbia on Friday 28-21 to remain unbeaten at 5-0. Lewisburg has not defeated Southern Columbia and Mount Carmel on the road this season.

In the state championship era, looking through some records, I believe the 2000 Selinsgrove Seals were able to defeat both Southern and Mount Carmel in the same season.  The seals win against Southern did come at home. 

Danville moves up to the #2 spot while Southern drops to #3.  All of this will take care of itself on the field as Southern host Bloomsburg this week and will take on Danville later in the season.  The District IV 'AA" playoffs will sort out the rest.

Dave Shinskie and the BC Eagles

A little over a week ago, I was looking foward to seeing Dave Shinskie play against Notre Dame at home. Hell, I was considering taking the trip to Chestnut Hill or Syracuse later in the year.  Now a few days later, I have to wonder if Shinskie has taken his last snap at BC.

The Bleacher Report wrote this after the VA Tech game.

While the Globe has BC's season looking bleak.

On Saturday, the best place for Shinskie was on the sideline.  The offensive line was as bad as the Philadelphia Eagles and the play calling was a joke.  Anyone notice how much the Irish respected the BC quarterbacks when BC ran the spread?  Coming into the game, ND was 97th against the rush. With scheme insterted BC managed to net 5 yards and Montel Harris had 28 yards on the ground.

Chase Rettig wasn't all that impressive at the start. His TD pass came when an ND defender went for a junior move.

Right now, Rettig is wearing a boot, Marscovetra was ineffective and Shinskie waits and watches.

A veteran offensive line is playing bad, there are no go receivers, and coaches are throwing darts at questions hoping for answers.

Shinskie answers questions after VA Tech.  Strange irony my friend from Villanova, Trags posted the video