I may be a little late getting started with this, but hopefully some of you will have the time to chime in. We can even make it a little contest if you want, albeit a loosely-organized one that might only end up with an unofficial winner.
There are three playoff games in our area Friday night, Lee hosting East Rock and Gap hosting Draft on the 2-A level and Riverheads hosting Altavista in 1-A. So let's see who can come the closest to predicting the winners and scores of those three games. Here we go:
East Rock at Lee: As we have touched upon in other threads, this one looks on paper to be an offensive explosion. So if I were you guys, I would not predict a defensive struggle. Instead expect a ton of scoring in this one. I say R E Lee wins 51-35.
Stuarts Draft at Buffalo Gap: These teams met earlier, also at the Gap, and the Bison won by one score. I am not sure how healthy the Cougars were at that time, but when they played RHS in the season finale, they had both running backs break a big one. I expect this to be the closest of the three games and I will go with the Bison by a 34-28 count. But another playoff road upset by the visitors would not surprise me.
Altavista at Riverheads: This is of course the harder one to predict because we don't have any common opponents. It is easy to be influenced by RHS' perfect record compared to Altavista's losing record. But then until proven differently, the Colonels are the state champs and that says something. We also don't know how one team's schedule might compare to the other. For all we know, Riverheads may have struggled as well against AHS' schedule. I am of course biased, but I think the first half will be tight but that Riverheads will make whatever adjustments they need to at the break and will pull out a 42-19 win. (I don't even know if Altavista kicks PAT's as opposed to going for two every time.)
There are three playoff games in our area Friday night, Lee hosting East Rock and Gap hosting Draft on the 2-A level and Riverheads hosting Altavista in 1-A. So let's see who can come the closest to predicting the winners and scores of those three games. Here we go:
East Rock at Lee: As we have touched upon in other threads, this one looks on paper to be an offensive explosion. So if I were you guys, I would not predict a defensive struggle. Instead expect a ton of scoring in this one. I say R E Lee wins 51-35.
Stuarts Draft at Buffalo Gap: These teams met earlier, also at the Gap, and the Bison won by one score. I am not sure how healthy the Cougars were at that time, but when they played RHS in the season finale, they had both running backs break a big one. I expect this to be the closest of the three games and I will go with the Bison by a 34-28 count. But another playoff road upset by the visitors would not surprise me.
Altavista at Riverheads: This is of course the harder one to predict because we don't have any common opponents. It is easy to be influenced by RHS' perfect record compared to Altavista's losing record. But then until proven differently, the Colonels are the state champs and that says something. We also don't know how one team's schedule might compare to the other. For all we know, Riverheads may have struggled as well against AHS' schedule. I am of course biased, but I think the first half will be tight but that Riverheads will make whatever adjustments they need to at the break and will pull out a 42-19 win. (I don't even know if Altavista kicks PAT's as opposed to going for two every time.)