The Buckeye fans were waiting for this! They final got it and some redemption for the Big Ten. PSU hung on in the slop for a victory over LSU. Northwestern went to OT with Auburn.
The play of the game in the Rose Bowl was the coin toss. When your a scoring machine, why would you defer????
It has been two years since Terrelle Pryor walked off the hardwoods and gridiron and State College and Hershey a PIAA Champion. Today Pryor and the Buckeyes return to Happy Valley as 3.5 point underdogs and Pryor guilty of 9 interceptions on the season.
Take the Lions today who will make less mistakes than the Buckeyes. The Ohio State defense will keep them in it, but the Lions have been very stingy giving up less than 10 points a game.
With last week's PIAA Track and Field Championships and the local schools bowing out of District IV postseason baseball and softball. it is time for the readers to reflect on their favorite sports moment of the year. The moment could range from the hiring or firing of a coach, a team that came out of nowhere, or game with a dramatic ending. Here are two of my favorites to start:
1.) Shamokin Boys Bastketball winning the Schuylkill League title coming from behind in their final year in the league. Also losing the District IV semifinal with a half-court buzzer-beater.
2.) The recruitment of Terrelle Pryor of the Jeannette Jayhawk's and his decision to leave PA. We haven't seen recruiting in PA like this since Ron Powlus nearly 15 years ago.
Anything that happened in PA High School Sports is fair game.
Saturday may have been Pryor's last relaxing day at PSU for awhile
The winter sports season has come to end and Terrelle Pryor will be making his decision within a week where he will play football. He was gracious enough to sign some autographs for the young fans after yesterday's championship game. The Coal Region Voice wishes Pryor all the best in his decision.
Lost a little bit in Pryormania, was the fact that two more teams joined the football-basketball double in the same years. Last year, General McLane did it in AAA. This season Jeannette completed the double in AA, while Steel-High had a rare A-football, AAA basketball. Serra Catholic deserves a shout here getting their football team into the A final and winning the A basketball championship. To all the coaches out there, let your football players play basketball and you basketball players play football.
What's in a nickname? Mount Alvernia's nickname is the Lions. Talking to some of there fans, Moun Alvernia is an all-girls school.
State College vs. Hershey???? Hard to say who does the better job or which is the better place for high school. The Steel-High/Susquehanna Township game was probably a better Giant Center draw. PIAA attendance figures to me have always been inaccurate especially when is comes to football. My doubts go all the way back to the Mount Carmel vs. Bishop McDevitt game in 1996.
It always comes home. I was having a conversation with a young man in his 20's while we were waiting for an autograph of Pryor. He said he was from Pittsburgh by was of Mechanicsburg and his grandfather is from Shamokin. After exchanging names, I asked if he was related to a specific person with his surname. He indicated that I was referring to his great grandmother. I told him I grew up right across the street. Wow!!!
While waiting for the Jennette team to come out of Bryce-Jordan, I thought there would be a Joe Paterno or Tom Bradley sighting at the game. NCAA rule prohibit contact and they were not in attendance to my knowledge. I did one last double-check to make sure. Paterno nor Bradley were not driving the Jeannette bus.
The Jennette Jayhawks go for a rare double on Saturday. The will try to win a AA football and basketball championship in the same school year. General McLane did accomplish the same feat last season in AAA. I believe Terrelle Pryor will have something to do with outcome.
UPDATE: We almost forgot Steel-High will be trying to do a rare A in football and AAA in basketball.
Tonight the Shamokin Indian's begin their farewell tour of the Schulkill League taking on Marian Catholic at 6 pm.
Lourdes Regional will take on North Schuylkill in the finale. With wins by Shamokin and Lourdes the final will be an all-Northumberland County final. With a new league on the horizon for Shamokin area next season, this could be the only chance for a long time that the two storied programs get to meet in the postseason.
Back in 1992 heading into the PIAA finals' weekend was the hype of former Berwick and Notre Dame star Ron Powlus. In 1992, Powlus was the number one recruit in the nation. At the time, Powlus was speculated to go to Miami who at the time was coached by Dennis Erickson. Powlus surprised the football world in 1993 when he eventually picked the Irish. Kind of forgotten in all the mix were injuries, Beano's comments, and not much of a pro career.
Flash foward 15 years and the number one recruit in the nation is a player from Pennsylvania playing the quarterback position. Terrelle Pryor is coming to Hershey not to hype himself, but avenge last year's loss to Wilson in the AA title game. Much has changed in 15 years since the Powlus days.(NOTE: People like me could start a blog and do so.) Powlus didn't have to deal with cell phone calls, email, text messaging, and everything else that goes with being number one in the national recruiting. Pryor's autograph is now listed on eBay. (I chose not to provide a link. An autograph is a sign you got close to someone. Keep it for you collection and cherish it.)
Pryor is also a top basketball recruit and has expressed his interest to play in college. Just to throw this out there. Could Pryor be thinking of trying to rescue the Nittany Lion cagers from the depths of the Big Ten while leading JoePa to a title? Right now the recruiting game is Pryor's oyster to enjoy and the process will end in early February. After Saturday, Pryor will be on the hardwoods trying to bring the Jayhawks a title.
Powlus still wears the "can't miss" tag of college recruiting very well. When Powlus left Notre Dame, he owned 20 passing records. After a short-lived pro career, Powlus came back to Berwick, married his high school sweetheart and is now the quarterback coach at Notre Dame. Ron Powlus became a man. Would life have turned out different if Randy Moss made it to South Bend? Moss who intended on wearing the Golden Dome, signed with Florida State on the advice of Lou Holtz. Moss didn't play a down for the Seminoles and found his way to Marshall.
For Pryor and his team, I would like to extend the best of luck this weekend in Hershey. This is the last football game that you will be with your friends and most of the people you grew up with. It is for fun of the game and the pride of Jennette. Remember one thing, among the cell calls, emails and test messages, you may want to take a closer look if one comes from Ron Powlus. It may be the one message in new media to take time to answer while hopefully not violating the bizarre NCAA recruiting rules.
With some homecooking, I was able to watch the AA playoff games between Loyalsock vs. Delone and Loyalsock vs. Dunmore. Loyalsock was able to dominate Delone by cutting off the outside. Delone had beaten undefeated Trinity the week before. Dunmore was able to take away the vertical passing game of Loyalsock and limited the running of Austin Knighton. Do the Bucks have enough of a line to slow down Terrelle Pryor? The lines in this game will dictate if the west is all hype like Shady Side Academy in 1998 or will this be the coronation on the statewide stage.
