Thursday, September 11, 2008

Across the PrepNation: Weekend Warmup 9-11-2008

Another week, and another hurricane adversely affecting high school football schedules across the Gulf region.

History -- or at least an attempt to make history -- will have to wait another week for No. 10 Houston North Shore.

The Mustangs were scheduled to play Cypress Falls tonight with the opportunity to set a state record with 73 consecutive regular season wins on the line. But with Hurricane Ike bearing down on the Houston area this weekend, administrators around southeastern Texas have
decided to call off all games and activities.

No. 15 Bastrop, which had its season-opener called off last week due to the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav, finally gets to take the field Friday night. The Rams will attempt to entertain an ESPNU audience when they take the field in Arkansas against Pine Bluff Dollarway. The game will be played at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Dollarway was runner-up in Class 4A (out of 7 classes) last season.

Sadly, there will be no television broadcast available when No. 20 Don Bosco Prep visits defending Prep Poll champ Cincinnati St. Xavier Saturday night.

This is the first of two long road trips in the first three weeks of the season that will either launch the Ironmen toward the top of the national rankings or relegate them to the Northeast Top 10 for the remainder of the year. On September 27, Don Bosco will be in the Bay Area to face No. 6 De La Salle on ESPNU. In between, the Ironmen host a tune-up game against Valley Forge Military Academy (Pa.), a team they clobbered, 36-0, a year ago.

Bosco enters the season on a 24-game winning streak. But I think a 3-0 start to this year is highly unlikely, 2-1 is possible, but 1-2 is probably my prediction. We'll see if they can prove me wrong.

The annual Backyard Bowl between No. 11 Jenks and Tulsa Union lost a bit of its luster when then-regionally ranked Tulsa Union was upset by Broken Arrow last Friday night.

For the first time in a long time, the two uber rivals won't enter the game with matching undefeated records.

Maybe that's why the game, which traditionally drew over 30,000 fans at Skelly Field, is not sold out. And that is despite the game being moved to the much smaller Jenks Sharp Center this season, due to renovations at Skelly.

This weekend's teams on Upset Alert include No. 19 Rockhurst (again) and No. 21 Mount Carmel.

It's the third time in three outings on this list for Rockhurst, which will probably make yet another appearance in this space next week if it wins. The Hawklets travel to Denver to play regionally ranked Mullen next Saturday.

On Friday, Rockhurst battles crosstown rival Blue Springs, who has combined with the Hawklets to win five of the eight Missouri large-school state championships decided this decade. Blue Springs has lost four of the last five in the rivalry, but features a lot talented players -- especially junior WR/DB Keeston Terry and sophomore RB Darrian Miller.

Mount Carmel will also play a longstanding and bitter rival when it visits Providence Catholic Friday night. These two Southside Catholic powers have combined to win 19 state championships in football since 1980.

The Celtics will attempt to play ball-control against the Caravan, running behind 6-7, 300-pound blue chip tackle Patrick Ward.

St. Anthony (Jersey City, N.J.), a three-time National Prep Poll champion in high school basketball, begins its first-ever varsity football season on Saturday.

The Friars, who are coached by vice-principal Bill Sullivan, open the year against Nazareth of Brooklyn, N.Y. The game will be played at Bergen Catholic in Oradell, N.J. Start time is 1:30, if you happen to be in the area.

St. Anthony is jumping in with both feet by choosing to compete at the varsity level in its first season even fielding a football team.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I was at the St. X vs Don Bosco game and I cant wait to here all the whining from NJ.
Was that the team that gives up less than 9 PPG and scores +35 PPG and kills everyone the east coast??.
At half time it was 17-0 St.X and
Don Bosco had only 24 yds total offense. Second half they scored TD on a interception. But they actually did kick a field goal in the 4th qtr.
Guess that is what legends are made of in NJ.
St. X lost their 1st game to Colerain without their QB and All State OT (only 2 starters from last year National Champs). This years team is not the calabre of last years team, but they are getting better every game. Good enough last week to beat Prattville (2 time Alabama State Champs)

Good Luck,Don Bosco for the rest of the year but the team I saw today would be consistantly in the lower half of the St. X league GCL.

5:49 PM

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