Here we are almost to November and it seems like yesterday the season was just starting in the 90 degree August heat. Who knew at the time that here in the Shenandoah we would be talking about the possibility of two 9-0 teams meeting on the final night of the regular season for all the marbles?
For all practical purposes, Stuarts Draft has clinched its spot in that epic game, which they will be hosting. Yes they have to play Staunton at home this coming Friday but there is no way the Storm stays on the field with them. So that leaves just one obstacle here in this next-to-last weekend of the regular season..........can Buffalo Gap knock off Riverheads and spoil that perfect final-night match-up?
We will get to that question in a moment. But since I have already touched base on the SD/Staunton game, let's get that part of the discussion out of the way first, along with the remaining game (Wilson at Fort) and then wrap up with some thoughts on RHS/BG.
Staunton at Stuarts Draft: The Staunton game at Riverheads Friday night was much more of a runaway than anyone expected and I have a hard time believing that the Storm is really as weak a team as they appeared to be. On offense they showed some promise but their defense did absolutely nothing right all night long and against another potent team in Stuarts Draft, it will likely be more of the same. I will go with the Cougars in another blowout, with the home team easily hitting the 40s or 50s and Staunton scoring maybe once or twice.
Wilson at Fort Defiance: A few weeks ago I might have considered this one a toss-up but Fort has proven itself to be a playoff contender and the Indians did not back down from either Riverheads or Stuarts Draft in their two most recent games. Wilson however could not stay on the field with either of the district co-leaders, so those four games is enough to tell me that the Indians will coast in this one. Maybe not a "running clock" kind of coast, but a comfortable win by 4 TDs or so. Let's say FD 35-7.
And now for this week's main event............
Riverheads at Buffalo Gap: We have always heard that you can throw out the record books any time any two county schools get together and on more than one occasion that has been true of these two. However.............I don't see how anyone can ignore the huge disparity in the scores they have had against their three common opponents. To review, Riverheads traveled to East Rock and destroyed the Eagles 52-6. The next week East Rock came to Buffalo Gap and beat the Bison 47-20. That is a 73-point difference. As for the other two common opponents, BG beat Staunton 23-8 but Riverheads rolled 56-14 (27 point difference); and against Wilson the difference was 24 points (48-0 to 66-42.) Average those out and you have over a 40 point differential. Now do I REALLY think Riverheads is 40 points better than the Bison? Probably not. But at the risk of giving the home team some bulletin board material, I just have to say (and I would feel this way even if I was objective as opposed to being a diehard Gladiator fan) that something will have to go terribly wrong for the Big Red to lose this game. Yes penalties and turnovers can cost any team any time but barring some kind of disaster, the red team will take this one, but probably somewhere in the 21-28 point range. I am more inclined to think a lower-scoring game than the shootout the Bison had at Wilson Friday night. Assuming the Bison go for two each time as they did Friday, I predict RHS 42-16.
For all practical purposes, Stuarts Draft has clinched its spot in that epic game, which they will be hosting. Yes they have to play Staunton at home this coming Friday but there is no way the Storm stays on the field with them. So that leaves just one obstacle here in this next-to-last weekend of the regular season..........can Buffalo Gap knock off Riverheads and spoil that perfect final-night match-up?
We will get to that question in a moment. But since I have already touched base on the SD/Staunton game, let's get that part of the discussion out of the way first, along with the remaining game (Wilson at Fort) and then wrap up with some thoughts on RHS/BG.
Staunton at Stuarts Draft: The Staunton game at Riverheads Friday night was much more of a runaway than anyone expected and I have a hard time believing that the Storm is really as weak a team as they appeared to be. On offense they showed some promise but their defense did absolutely nothing right all night long and against another potent team in Stuarts Draft, it will likely be more of the same. I will go with the Cougars in another blowout, with the home team easily hitting the 40s or 50s and Staunton scoring maybe once or twice.
Wilson at Fort Defiance: A few weeks ago I might have considered this one a toss-up but Fort has proven itself to be a playoff contender and the Indians did not back down from either Riverheads or Stuarts Draft in their two most recent games. Wilson however could not stay on the field with either of the district co-leaders, so those four games is enough to tell me that the Indians will coast in this one. Maybe not a "running clock" kind of coast, but a comfortable win by 4 TDs or so. Let's say FD 35-7.
And now for this week's main event............
Riverheads at Buffalo Gap: We have always heard that you can throw out the record books any time any two county schools get together and on more than one occasion that has been true of these two. However.............I don't see how anyone can ignore the huge disparity in the scores they have had against their three common opponents. To review, Riverheads traveled to East Rock and destroyed the Eagles 52-6. The next week East Rock came to Buffalo Gap and beat the Bison 47-20. That is a 73-point difference. As for the other two common opponents, BG beat Staunton 23-8 but Riverheads rolled 56-14 (27 point difference); and against Wilson the difference was 24 points (48-0 to 66-42.) Average those out and you have over a 40 point differential. Now do I REALLY think Riverheads is 40 points better than the Bison? Probably not. But at the risk of giving the home team some bulletin board material, I just have to say (and I would feel this way even if I was objective as opposed to being a diehard Gladiator fan) that something will have to go terribly wrong for the Big Red to lose this game. Yes penalties and turnovers can cost any team any time but barring some kind of disaster, the red team will take this one, but probably somewhere in the 21-28 point range. I am more inclined to think a lower-scoring game than the shootout the Bison had at Wilson Friday night. Assuming the Bison go for two each time as they did Friday, I predict RHS 42-16.
