NND rankings after week three - 4 teams shift up or down...

[uvacavs1]

NND Top 3

1) Essex 1-2
2) Northumberland 2-0
3) Colonial Beach 1-1

NND Bottom 3

4) Lancaster 1-1
5) Washington and Lee 1-1
6) Rappahannock 0-3

Notes:
1) Essex solidified its usual spot at #1 with a convincing win over rival 2A King William.

2) Northumberland looking good with a whipping over an improved Northampton. NHS seems to focusing on improving team unity and chemistry. I would rank NHS and CB as tied at #2 for now, but will give tie breaker to the undefeated team.

3) CB has had a tough opening two games. Always difficult to play down at Franklin...the Drifters came close...

4) Lancaster whips a back and forth (good and bad) Mathews team to retain 4th spot.

5) W&L saves their season with win at home over a much improved WP. Someone please give us some details of how game played out in a wild high scoring affair over in Montross.

6) Rappahannock drops to 0-3 and is danger of a lost season if the Raiders do not turn it around soon. ArtfulOne said it was a crazy ending to game last night, can someone elaborate on exactly what happened?

Feel free to disagree on the rankings.

 

[NNDanalyst]

I'll start at the 4th quater......

Middlesex was up 23-6 entering the 4th quater. Rapp finally starts clicking and cuts the deficit to 23-18.
Rapp gets the ball drives down field to the Middlesex 12 yard line but couldn't convert a 4th &1 with about 30 secs left.
Middlesex goes to kneel the ball but fumbles and Rapp recovers the ball.
Rapp QB gets tackled on the on the 8yd line and as Rapp gets on the ball to spike it, the Refs stand over the ball for about until the clock runs out so Rapp was not allowed to spike the ball even tho everyone was set and waiting for the ref to blow the play in but they never did. If you were there it was a crazy ending.

 

[Twobyfour]

Having seen both Middlsex and Rapp play, I would have picked Rapp too win easily. They must have thrown in the towel or Msex found something. WnL vs WP was a toss up, that WP wins in my IMO if its not 100 degrees at game time. WP has 6-7 2 way starters, the heat was brutal. Starting in the 2nd qtr, WP was without 3-4 of them the rest of the game at any given time, and finished without any cornerbacks. WnL is decent, will prob make it to 2nd round. I've not seen Lancaster, Beach or the Indians. Essex should have hung 60 points on a less than avg KW team. I don't see Essex in any final four. They make far too many mistakes on offense, and lack fundamentals. These should have been corrected by now and there not. AltaVista or Sussex could very well send Essex home early this year

 

[riversportsfan]

I don't see Essex hanging 60 on anyone this year, but all you need is one more point than the other team to win. Maybe they get some confidence from their first win and continue to improve. They definitely have a lot of work to do, but it is still early in the season. It will be hard for any team to score much on Essex. If they can cut down on turnovers and penalties, then anything can happen in 1A. Lots of "ifs" and only time will tell, but nobody wants to draw Essex come playoff time.

 

[riversportsfan]

Essex may have a few more players than West Point, but they are in the same boat when it comes to 2 way players. They have at least 6 guys going both ways, sometimes more. The heat has also been tough on them, and I am sure they will be happy once the temperature comes down. Northumberland looks good early, but they tricked me last year by playing well early. W&L will continue to improve with the new head coach learning his players and competition. Rapp looks to be down big time this season, especially since they have had some good seasons the past few years. Lucas and company will be a tough out. And Lancaster seems to be usual so far, beating up lesser teams, but giving up too many points to better teams. Season is young!

 

[NND Sports Fan]

IMO, the Essex-King William game was over-officiated with flags flying on innumerable plays. I would speculate if your added up the accepted penalties and the declined ones there were probably 35-40 instances of flags being thrown. Looked to me that Essex had several skill players in new positions. I know the QB has been a WR and a WR was playing RB with the Dameron kid mostly blocking although he threw a couple nice passes when he played QB and ran over a few KW kids. I'm guessing once these players get more comfortable in their new positions things will improve

 

[uvacavs1]

Great input and analysis by all! Awesome to hear varying perspectives on the games and teams.

Unusual events at the Rapp at Middlesex game...thanks for the info.

Yes, Essex must clean up penalties and turnovers if they want to win it all. It is said an offensive penalty on a drive changes your scoring chances from 60 to 20%. That stat may just apply to this year's Essex O.

In the past, Essex could rack up the penalties on a drive and still almost always scored. 2nd and 20, Essex QB Broaddus drops back, puts it up, bam, 65 yard TD. It was like watching Steph Curry dropping 3s.

This year's version may different but Essex still may very well be there at the end...

 

[uvacavs1]

riversportsfan, good stuff there. Yes, Northumberland looked good early last season too and then fell apart. The team that derailed the Indians' promising season last year was Mathews. NHS got down early (some top stars were sitting for 1st q or half), lost badly, and and never quite recovered. Guess who the Indians play this coming Friday? Mathews in Northumberland. I expect there should be some Indian revenge enacted on the Blue Devils this week.

NHS' Coach Cutler is in his 2nd season. Team has some good talent and size. Team appears to be focused on correcting some issues. NHS is extremely strict on its student-athletes for academics and tardies etc. with weekly checks (not once at the end of the nine weeks or semester like many schools). Often starters (some top players) have to ride the bench for awhile. This year, hopefully players will be more mindful of doing great in class.

 

[NNDanalyst]

Rapp (an already young team) has been with out their top 2 backs the past couple of games (one went down in the 1st qtr of the 1st game). If they are able to comeback and contribute, they should make them a better team.