URBANDALE, Iowa -- A weekend filled with playoff upsets ushered six teams into this week's National Prep Poll's Top 25 rankings.
Miami Central tops the list of squads new to the rankings. The Rockets re-entered the national poll at No. 6 after they defeated then-No. 11 Miami Northwestern, 29-16, and avenged their only loss of the year.
Abilene (Texas) makes its debut appearance of the season in the poll at No. 17. The Eagles stunned then-No. 3 Cedar Hill, 41-17, in the third round of the 5A/II playoffs over the weekend.
Newnan (Ga.) is No. 19 after edging then-No. 15 Grayson (Loganville), 9-7, in the 5A quarterfinals.
No. 20 South Panola (Batesville, Miss.) is back in the national rankings for the first time since its 89-game winning streak ended in last year's 5A championship game. The Tigers upset then-No. 12 Madison Central, 36-21, in this year's 6A semifinals.
Cardinal Mooney (Youngstown, Ohio) is ranked No. 21 this week after throttling Steubenville, 45-7, in the Division III semifinals.
Finally, two-time defending Texas 5A/II champion Katy is back in the poll at No. 24 after breezing to three playoff wins by an average margin of 36 points. The Tigers were ranked No. 4 in the nation to start the season.
5 comments:
Hey, thank you for the excellent coverage and rankings by your website. I wanted to know your thoughts on Springdale Har-ber, AR. I think they should be in your regional rankings. They have been injured at key positions all year long and still have managed to only lose one game to conference rival Bentonville. Arkansas HS football is getting better every year. Especially in the west. Har-ber has been healthy for only three games this year. Greenwood 35-0 Win (opening game of season), Russellville 30-7 win (playoffs) and Cabot 14-10 win (semifinals). During the vype gridiron classic @ Tulsa Union, Har-ber beat Union, where I played and went to school, 21-0 in a scrimmage and Bentonville went toe to toe with Union losing on the last play of the game. Union 16 Bentonville 14. Har-ber had 8 starters out for their only loss to Bentonville and had 4-8 starters injured throughout most of the year including starting RB Tre Tyler, 5-9 180 lbs. 4.4 40 who is USC's and Springdale graduate Damian Williams cousin and starting WR Josh McKinney, 6-1 190lbs 4.4 40, who is the best receiver in the conference and one of the best in the state. Just thought I would bring this to your attention in hope that Har-ber gets some national recognition from your poll. Also, they are returning most starters next year and will be loaded with talent. 6-7 300lb OL Brey Cook will be returning and he will possibly be the first 5 star OLineman recruit in Arkansas HS history. He has offers from OU, AR, Tulsa, Auburn and Miami so far. Har-ber has tried to play Evangel, LA next year, but it didn't work out because they are playing Union and did not want to play both. Currently, Har-ber has Cabot on the schedule, who is the best team on the East side of the state and Har-ber is still trying to play Allen, Tx. Har-ber coach Chris Wood knows that this brand new program of 4 years is ready for the national scene and trying to put together respectable schedules. In 4 years of existence, this will be the second appearance at state. Har-ber is the only team out of Springdale to ever have three 10 win seasons in a row. And Springdale High was always dominating before the split with a 2005 top 10 national ranking in several polls. That was the year Springdale had Malzhan as head coach, Chris Wood (Har-ber's current coach) at O coordinator and 5 star Mitch Mustain at QB and WR Damian Williams. So that is an impressive accomplishment for a new program like Har-ber to do this for the first time in a tradition rich city.
Keep up the good work and thank you for the hard work and effort you put into your polls. Please keep an eye on Springdale Har-ber and the continuation of growing competetiveness and depth in Arkansas HS Football. You can reach me at cliff.pittman@us.army.mil.
Cliff Pittman
Between Lowdnes and Camden County, they have won 5 out of the last 6 Georgia 5A championships. Camden beat Lowdnes a week ago, 10-7, and Friday night, Camden beat North Gwinnett, 35-0, a previously unbeaten, high scoring Atlanta area school in their house. Camden lost two preseason games by 3 points in each and came close to winning in both. Now, this team is NOT the same team that it was in the beginning of the year, a new, much taller QB has made a big difference in the offense, and the defense must be pretty good to basically shut down two good programs in the past two playoff games. Camden graduated 35 seniors last year, 21 received scholarships. They have a topnotch program - lets see how they do in the state semis on Friday. Thanks for doing this poll, we enjoy it every week. Jim
Talk about schizophrenic. If readers don't suffer from whiplash they will need a mental health check after reading Miami going from NR to #6 in the nation after beating a #11 ranked team. Someone needs to have their water source tested.
I think Abilene Tx should be ranked higher, being undefeated and holding Cedar Hill, the number one team in the great state of Texas all year long, to only 17 points. Cedar Hill has had an amazing offense all season long, averaging 58 ppg over 5 games in a row. You put Miami Central, a team with a loss this season, up to number 6, but they just beat a team that was prev ranked number 11, who also had a loss. Undefeated Abilene beats an undefeated Cedar Hill, ranked #3 in the nation, and they only get pushed up to #17 in your polls? While a team with a loss beat another team with a loss and jumped over them.
Cedar Hill was no joke on offense, they were lighting up every game, Abilene deserves more credit I believe.
I am sick of the pity you guys give to the little states who don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath with the fooball powers in cali, texas, and florida. There is no way any team in nevada, arizona, oklahoma, or maryland should be ranked anywhere close to a top southwest region ranking mush less in the top 25. The season is brutal in texas and if you are so lucky to advance to the fourth round you have beaten some quality teams and you still have to win three more games to call yourself a state champion. Most states have a three to four week playoff and do not play quality teams and win their state championship and automatically get placed with the upper echelon teams of the nation. The champions of the aforementioned states would find it hard to make it to the third round of the 5A AND 4A playoff brackets in texas. I would dare to say that some regions in texas are tougher to play in than most states' brackets. It just makes me ill to see Tulsa Union and Jenks constantly in your rankings when they don't dare cross the red river for a game. When they do that then I will believe that they belong among the top teams in the nation.
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