Class 4 State Championship: 14-0 Phoebus Vs 13-1 Salem
- Thread starter Phoebus Fan
- Start date
Salem will:
1. Run inside
2. Will pitch
3. Will run play action
4. Will play good defense.
Same game plan for 40 years. Will not change.
That’s the JV QB playing for Phoebus right now. JV is stacked. A couple 8th graders that will be big time contributors on varsity next year.
Well good luck. Definitely not a good game plan for this Phoebus defense.
We have had a team and city wide vote and we have decided unanimously that In spite of your valued opinion, Salem will show up next Saturday in Lynchburg and run inside, pitch, run play action, and play good defense.
Im Peninsula District through and through but I'd be foolish to think Salem won't show up AND compete. I do think Phoebus will win but I don't see a 21+ point beating.
Salem's best chance is to keep the score low. Phoebus gets 21 and that's enough to win. Don't see Phoebus giving up more than that
Watching Salem Vs Tusky on NFHS right now. First thing that pops out on tape is how small Salem is…especially in the trenches. Reddick and Stevenson will live in the backfield but the LBs have to be in position because Peyton Lewis is as good as advertised. Those hb toss plays won’t work on Phoebus tho. On offense Phoebus should be able to move the ball but we have to execute.
I don’t have a score yet but trenches will win this game for Phoebus. 3 peat loading…
I don’t have a score yet but trenches will win this game for Phoebus. 3 peat loading…
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I stated at the beginning of the season that it will come down to the trench play. Against the top programs. Salem through the yrs has had excellent line play. This unit has improved since the LCA game.
Something to consider, Salem offensive line has been small all year. Especially in the playoffs Salems offensive and defensive line has been much smaller than Handley, Glass, and Tuscarora.
Just out of curiosity, what were the 4 things Salem did?
Weren't they
1. Run inside
2. Pitch
3. Run play action
4. Play defense
Won't change for Phoebus.
I do there’s a lot of reasons why. Salems gameplan is pound pound pound play action pound pound pound, that is Phoebus’ main strength on defense always has been, strangle the running game & punch you in the mouth when you try to pass. Granted it’ll be close for a half but the Phantoms gonna live in that backfield. Salems condensed splits makes it even worse because of how aggressive Phoebus is in the run game. They’re going to have to find a way to score in other facets of the game because I don’t think their offense will have much success. I don’t like either team because both are the reason why Dinwiddie doesn’t have 5 State titles right now, but from what I’ve seen I’d make Phoebus the overwhelming favorite. 31-6 Phantoms 🙄
No offense to those teams you named but they’re not Phoebus. It’s just not a good matchup for Salem to be honest. Phoebus still has to show up and execute though.
No Virginia high school football fan could ask for more than to have the 10x champion Salem Spartans playing against the 9x champion Phoebus Phantoms. The programs and fans deserve this game. For the sake of repeating myself I picked Salem to defeat Lake Taylor in 2015 and the Virginiapreps editor went on to compare my intelligence to that of a 4 year old child. I received no support from Salem’s fanbase, as they were determined to go into that game labeled as underdogs, refusing to see themselves as national writers were calling them; the favorites or acknowledge that they were, in fact, the #1 ranked team in the state of Virginia at the time. What’s changed? With no apologies the Salem fans now see themselves as an unbeatable force when they are having a great season just as Phantom fans believe that we are unbeatable. Both sets of fans might want a 3-4 touchdown victory but it will only take a 1 point difference to secure #10 for Phoebus or #11 for Salem. I am a Blue and Gold Phantom through and through. Good luck to Salem but we win 17-16.
That’s bad honestly. This will be the fastest, strongest and most physical team that Salem has seen all year.
When Salems playing/coaching their best, they will give Phoebus a game!! Not saying Salem will own the trenches, but if we can call a complete game and move away from the 1 dimensional stuff, we can compete. We will just have to wait and see who shows uo
I don’t believe your question is relative to my comment. But, I have not seen 99% of the teams in Virginia play a live football game this season. I am left to stats, reports and video evidence. To be certain, Salem is still running the same scheme that has won them 10 titles. But, when I picked them over Lake Taylor in 2015 I had not seen Lake Taylor or Salem. I followed the evidence. When I picked Phoebus to win the 2001 and 2002 titles I had only seen 1 Phoebus game and that was the first one of the season. Technology has advanced so far that you no longer need to see teams live anymore as performance clips and stats tell complete stories. It is related to government mind reading techniques that civilians don’t believe in but is completely true. If I want to know what you are thinking I only need to ask enough of your fellow local citizens what they are thinking and they will tell me all of your secrets.
For clarity. Did you know that when a football fan goes to any football game they spend the majority of their time in the stadium not watching actual football not being played? You can actually test this theory by using a stop watch. Note the time upon arriving in the stadium. You can only run the stopwatch while the plays are in action. You might be in the stadium 3-4 hours but you can be certain that it only takes 5-10 minutes of evidence to tell you everything you need to know about both teams.
Seems to be a foregone conclusion by the "experts" that Phoebus will win rather easily. So the only question is, will Phoebus win by 4 td's or less? Or will they win by 5 td's or more?
I do think this game will be closer than a lot of people think. Phoebus dline will be different than anything Salem has seen this year. Posters have already said, it’s gonna be trench warfare and I got Phoebus winning in a close one.
Phoebus will control the trenches — Salem will have a similar problem that had against LCa except Phoebus has better athletes and more dogs across the board upfront. Salem has the advantage in the skill positions and second level so it’s going to be an exciting matchup but the old montage says “if we score we might win if they don’t score they won’t win” give me the phantoms by 7 or less in a 21-14 or 14-7 barnburner game.
That was my point. Running the same offense for 40 years and winning 9/10 titles off of said offense is nothing to dismiss. Even when the game changed, they stuck to their script and it's remained successful. Even though you are a Phantom, I appreciate you providing an unbiased (as possible) perspective on the game.
There is just sometimes where a team is just a bad matchup for you and that’s exactly what Phoebus is for Salem. Phoebus overall team speed, strength and size will overwhelm Salem.
Salem has two studs who deserve all the recognition they get but the drop off from them to the other 9 players on the team is where Phoebus takes their advantage. And then the offensive gameplan has to switch up if y’all want to win because the OL isn’t big enough to play that style of offense and be serious about winning against a DL like Phoebus. Best shot is quick pass plays and pray your blockers execute right. Or catch Phoebus sleeping because it won’t be many long runs especially out the i formation
You gave a score prediction of 17-16 so i asked have you seen Salem play? Please answer without the essay about picking Phoebus in 01 and Salem in 15. It’s the same thing every post
Jaelyn Allen is the best LB in Class 4 (a very good Tight End as well) and he is among this large "drop-off to the other 9"?
Willis White built a program and fashioned an outstanding career off of that saying. I am interested to watch both teams Saturday. Lynchburg has 4 good teams with some contrasts in styles and ability. Should be an entertaining day of football.
Salem has the advantages in skill positions and second level? lol what??? No they don’t.
On offense they have better Hb and that’s it. And on defense Cole is individually better than our dogs I’ll admit but it’s a team thing. I honestly think it’s such a bad matchup for Salem that if we did a top 10 players for this game list 7 of them would be from Phoebus. Now will it play out the field? We will see. I’m confident it will.
Yeah even Phoebus was stuck in the mindstate but because it’s teams like the one Salem plays Saturday out there we switched up a long time ago. The 40 year history won’t help on Saturday lol
We will see if your knowledge is accurate and your team can cover the checks your mouth has written come Saturday.
I’m assuming that’s #7? In a more recent post i said if we ranked the 10 best players in this game Phoebus would have 7. The 3 players i like the most for Salem are 2, 7, and 9 with 23 being right on the outside of 10.
Side note I don’t think he’s the best LB in Class 4…that would be El Toro Tillery of Phoebus but size wise #7 definitely looks the part better.
Facts over feelings with me. Only teams in the state that can line up and match up with Phoebus trenches are Freedom, Springs, and Maury. Having the trenches is number 1 when beating Phoebus. Just ask Kg fans…i remember one up here saying something like “wow no one told us how physical Phoebus OL was” after Phoebus first drive. Phoebus coaches put a big emphasis on the trenches after that bad loss to Lafayette in the Covid season and it has shown in the past 3 years since.
Yes, Allen is #7 and he has had a better year than even Chris Cole #9 at LB.
I assume the only game you watched Salem play was Tuscarora, right? #22 Josiah Persinger has had a fantastic season and had an uncharacteristically bad game yesterday, which I expect him to recover from. #4 Cohen Logan, sophomore safety, I believe will have offers from major schools by the end of next summer. #6 Josiah Moyer is also very talented and has been a great starter for three years, just a bit undersized.
Tuscarora is not the most talented team in the world but they coach and gameplan on a college level. They were able to use some very good/unique concepts (and a TON of different formations) to create openings in Salem's zone coverage.
In fact, that is something I have noticed about the schools in northern VA, they seem to be pretty advanced compared to the teams I regularly watch play from a scheme perspective. A lot of the teams I watch try to do a few things well and execute them well, as opposed to trying to outscheme and overwhelm mentally with unique formations, motions, etc. I am legitimately amazed that a HS team can do that many unique things and have the players learn, remember and execute that well.
That being said, this Phoebus team might be the best team in the history of Class 4. Speaking of that, how do you all think this year stacks up with others as far as overall talent and quality of teams in Class 4? I can't think of a year when they had six teams that were this good... talking about Phoebus, Salem, King George, Tuscarora, Varina and Dinwiddie. I think all 6 of these same teams playing in many different years could have brought home championships.
I’ve seen Salem play LCA which was first game of season so i don’t put much in to it. Also watched them play Tusky and some of EC Glass. Doesn’t take much watching to see the trenches are small. I definitely plan to watch atleast 5 more games if available this week.
Are we really the best team in history? Because last year we were better with Jordan Bass and Florida McMullin added to this year’s team. I’ll say we turned the corner at a good time and are playing the best football we’ve played all season.
