Frankly, I have no idea what our “cruising” altitude is for this cross-country flight, but greater Baltimore is now a good hundred miles or so in the rear view and this plane is pointed West for the Grand Canyon State.
Anyway, I thought I would put this rickety seat tray to good use and summarize some thoughts on what turned out to be a wild semifinal Saturday in PIAA football. After all, I'm stuck in a tube for five hours.
LD SHOULD BE APPLAUDED: You might have read that Pittsburgh Central Catholic (15-0), the undisputed WPIAL champs, had a field day against the District 3 champs Saturday at Mansion Park Stadium in Altoona. The Vikings did, leveraging plenty of size and speed to essentially knock out the Falcons (13-2) with 24 second-quarter points. And that Vikings defense? Every bit as good as advertised. At one point, I thought I saw flames coming off LB Niko Thorpe's shoulder pads.
Naturally, the end of a very successful postseason run was difficult to digest for the 15 seniors scattered throughout Rob Klock's roster. When you reach the final four, it's very easy to imagine being the last team standing. You can almost taste it. But, regardless of size or speed or pure athletic ability, I'll remember this Falcons edition as one of the toughest crews in the Mid-Penn. And keep in mind the Hummelstown outfit ended back-to-back 1-9 seasons just 24 months ago.
MARSILIO TAKES CHARGE: Through social media outlets and a few emails that made it through our swiss cheese Spam filter, I'm hearing words like “instant classic” and “unbelievable” in regards to Bishop McDevitt's come-from-behind victory over Class A No. 1 Cathedral Prep. I'm sure the Ramblers and skipper Mike Mischler have other words to describe the Crusaders raucous 47-42 triumph in DuBois.
That said, one of my reasons for picking the Ramblers to win that Class AAA semifinal was the added pressure applied to McD QB Nick Marsilio. If you recall, the Crusaders weren't exactly hurried during the District 3-AAA bracket, and there were times in that four-game buffet when the junior had a dozen or so seconds to make his reads. That wasn't going to happen against Prep. Well, Marsilio was pressured, but his ability to extend the play by stepping up or outside a collapsing pocket paid off at Mansell Stadium.
After admiring the new, weeping cracks inside the Kittatinny Mountain Tunnel, I was lucky enough to catch a radio broadcast just seconds before Marsilio hit Bryce Hall for that 72-yard scoring strike in the third quarter. And while talented LB Nate Monroe helped close the deficit to 42-40 with his 32-yard pick-6 seconds later, the Crusaders don't qualify for the state finals without Marsilio's heave.
As it turned out, McD's QB had one more Houdini act left in him as he side-stepped more traffic before finding Hall in the back of the endzone with 56 seconds to play. If 16 of 27 for 291 yards and three touchdowns against the Prep doesn't impress you, check your pulse.
OLD FORGE DEFENSE LEGIT: It comes at Steel-High's expense, of course, but I'm very much looking forward to Friday's Class A finale, pitting Old Forge against WPIAL rep North Catholic. Stopping Steel-High's big-play offense hasn't been easy, but I'm glancing at the Rollers 177 total yards of offense from Saturday and thinking the Devils are as nasty as their resume would indicate. I just don't believe any Class A crew, other than Mike Schuback's of course, could have ran through Dunmore, Southern Columbia, Schuylkill Haven and the Rollers in successive weeks.
THE DEBATE WILL RAGE: I'm assuming we'll be hearing a lot more about the public vs. private debate while the big schools tangle this weekend in Hershey. I think I'd rather focus on the football and hope the action will be as entertaining as the season has been. I see plenty of young men expressing how they miss heading to practice in days after their team is eliminated from the postseason. They miss the grind. They miss the energy on Friday nights. We understand fellas.
See you in Hershey.
Epler on Twitter: @threejacker
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