Roanoke Catholic 36, Blessed Sacrament-Huguenot 28

[MetroVCC6]

nm

 

[Chief62]

Blessed Sac plays North Cross every year. Why won't Catholic play crosstown rival? Obviously they can compete and maybe even win. I am not buying the North Cross recruiting angle. If they recruit that heavily then why are they starting ninth graders all over the field and only have a couple of guys over 200 pounds. I am also not buying the scholarship issue as I was always required to fill out financial aid app for my kid. That was a couple of years ago but I do not think things have changed that much. I am rooting for Catholic to win D4 championship so they have no option but to schedule North Cross next year. Either that or VISAA mans up with some regional requirements to play.

 

[rocketballz]

If NC wants to play RC so bad, just drop to d4 where you are suppose to be anyway, then they cant avoid you in the playoffs

This post was edited on 10/26 10:20 AM by rocketballz

 

[MetroVCC6]

What sense would regional requirements make if they were division-blind? If Catholic would have to play North Cross, I assume they and North Cross would also have to play LCA? BSH would have to play Benedictine, Massanutten and Quantico would have to play O'Connell and Ireton, and Covenant would have to pay Woodberry? I'm with Rocketballz on this one-- if you want so badly to play your Quantico-sized neighbor, why not drop to D-IV where your enrollment puts you anyway? If you're both competitive, you have every chance of seeing each other in November, even if you avoid a regular-season matchup.

I don't know the names who are driving the resurgence of Roanoke Catholic this year, but I think it's early to say they are back to their former glory as the consistent non-VCC contender in the bottom division (Greenbrier had played that role for the past few years). North Cross-Catholic might have been a good game to watch this season, and it was consistently in the 1990s and early 2000s-- but for those of us who have been paying attention in the years since North Cross has become a consistent power, I'd say most of us agree that North Cross would have blown out Catholic in most of the past six or seven years. And barring any huge changes, I think that's the trend we would continue to see if these two continued playing each other every year-- occasional good games but a whole lot of blowouts in North Cross' favor.

 

[Muscaro]

Agree with MetroVCC6 - lots of good points in your response. Regional requirements wouldn't solve anything - one example being that it would force North Cross and RC to play LCA, too, right? Pretty sure NC dropped LCA in football a few years ago because the game became one-sided year after year in LCAs favor…which, I imagine, is the exact same reason the RC/NC game was discontinued. LCA is probably saying the same thing: "Why won't NC play us anymore? It's a close game geographically" NC probably felt that there was no point in playing a game every year that was consistently going to be a blowout in favor of LCA. RC has the same argument when it comes to playing NC. And the recruiting, re-classing, scholarship, etc angle is very real. There's nothing wrong with it and schools do it for a reason - it makes for great sports teams. But RC doesn't do any of those things, so it puts them at a major disadvantage, especially in an extremely physical sport like football. For some empirical data regarding how those things can impact an athletic program, just look at how competitive the NC/RC football rivalry was during the 1990s and early 2000s. It was a great game that could go either way every year. Now, with NCs shift in philosophy within the last decade or so regarding athletics, the days of a competitive RC/NC regular season football game are gone. The rivalry went from being competitive year after year for decades, to being a consistent NC blowout.

I also agree with Metro in that it's way too early to surmise that RC is back to its former glory. While they are having a great season so far, they would need to put together several good seasons in a row before they could be considered "back." I think RC has only been to one football state title game in the last 20 years... way back in 1994, I believe. So, it's not like RC has ever been contending for a state title year after year. How many football state title games has NC been to in the last 10 -12 years? I would bet a solid handful, at least. And the fact that NC chooses to play a division up shows that they feel that they are much better than the vast majority of D4 teams - which is true, and it's an admirable move on NC's part. Didn't NC make it all the way to the state title game last year in D3? And aren't they looking at making the D3 playoffs again this year? Again, this shows that NC, regarding talent and athleticism, is much better suited to be playing D3 teams and up… not steamrolling a local rival year after year just because it's a close game geographically. Metro is right, maybe this year a RC/NC game might have been a competitive and fun game to watch, but the consistent trend would be NC blowing out RC year after year, and who would that really benefit, on either side?

 

[Chief62]

You have a point. Long history of playing in the VIC and playing much larger schools. Catholic was a successful member of VIC as well. Now ODFC which is half D2 schools and the rest larger D3 schools. I think North Cross likes playing bigger schools even if it means the occasional physical manhandling. Regular season would just be easier.