Although other items are dominating the message board at the moment, let's do what we all should do and focus on this week's games. In the Shenandoah, there will be one highly-competitive game Friday, three in which the winning team should just about be able to name their score, and then there will be one non-district game that might be just as important in the overall scheme of things as the district encounters.
The district headliner will be Luray's trip to Stuarts Draft. As we all know, Luray is in a three-way tie for first place with Riverheads and RE Lee, a subject that I will address in more detail at the end of this post. So for the Dogs to keep pace with the other two, they not only have to win this one but also win at home next week against East Rock, which has been on a hot streak lately. SD on the other hand may have three district losses, but they were right in the thick of things in all three of those, so with or without Jenkins playing for Luray, the Cougars will be in this one and just might win it. If Jenkins does play, I would be tempted to still go with the Dogs in a close one, but if he doesn't, I think the advantage has to go with the Draft. Even with him playing at full strength, the Cougars are capable of winning this one.
The three snoozers will be Lee over Page, East Rock over Wilson, and Buffalo Gap over Stonewall. My guess is that all three of those will look at the big picture, knowing that they will want to stay healthy for the final week as well as the playoffs. Therefore the scores in these might not be as overwhelming as they could be and the subs might see a lot more action than usual. But there will be no upsets in any of those three games.
That leaves our non-district tussle where Riverheads will travel to Central Woodstock. At the beginning of the season, this might have been looked at as only a "filler" game for one or maybe both teams. But now it will be vitally important, not only for the two of them, but for the five Shenandoah teams who are in the top eight of the 2-A Region B playoffs. Therefore this may be one of the very few times that fans at a lot of other places will be pulling for a Riverheads win in hopes that their school can possibly leapfrog over the Falcons in the standings. It will be quite an accomplishment if all five of those teams ultimately make the eight-team field and if they do, it will be fun to see who re-matches who, who kills each other's title dreams, etc.
But first things first..the game at Woodstock. For Riverheads the key will be to put the Lee loss in the rear view mirror and go back to doing what they do best. If they can do that, they can win this one. Central sounds incredibly tough, perhaps the best team RHS will have faced, so this one will definitely tell us something about somebody. I did hear one stat that made me feel optimistic about the Big Red's chances however...........someone said that Central's first 7 opponents had won a combined 15 games between them. That is certainly not the case with Riverheads and the rough and tumble Shenandoah. I know obviously that the Falcon's 40-0 shellacking over Clarke made everyone stand up and take notice, but could it be that their overall schedule has been weak? We will find out I guess.
Back to the subject of that three-way tie for the Shenandoah title........first of all the playoffs being what they are, the district race is only for bragging rights anyway, as the point totals and state rankings are the important thing. But realistically, and this is not just a biased Riverheads fan talking, the Gladiators DO have mathematically the best chance to maintain their spot at the top. I say that because they only have Page left on their district schedule. But Lee still has to play a dangerous Stuarts Draft team, one that might match up better with them athletically, and Luray as mentioned above, still has TWO iffy games left on the schedule, especially if they remain Dylan-less.
Therefore I don't think it is a slam dunk that the three-way tie will finish that way. Let's just hope for the sake of Shenandoah bragging rights that Riverheads can eventually go far again on the 1-A level and that one of our 2-A teams will get hot and knock off Central and possibly make it to Salem. That Region B in 2-A is going to be most interesting to watch!
The district headliner will be Luray's trip to Stuarts Draft. As we all know, Luray is in a three-way tie for first place with Riverheads and RE Lee, a subject that I will address in more detail at the end of this post. So for the Dogs to keep pace with the other two, they not only have to win this one but also win at home next week against East Rock, which has been on a hot streak lately. SD on the other hand may have three district losses, but they were right in the thick of things in all three of those, so with or without Jenkins playing for Luray, the Cougars will be in this one and just might win it. If Jenkins does play, I would be tempted to still go with the Dogs in a close one, but if he doesn't, I think the advantage has to go with the Draft. Even with him playing at full strength, the Cougars are capable of winning this one.
The three snoozers will be Lee over Page, East Rock over Wilson, and Buffalo Gap over Stonewall. My guess is that all three of those will look at the big picture, knowing that they will want to stay healthy for the final week as well as the playoffs. Therefore the scores in these might not be as overwhelming as they could be and the subs might see a lot more action than usual. But there will be no upsets in any of those three games.
That leaves our non-district tussle where Riverheads will travel to Central Woodstock. At the beginning of the season, this might have been looked at as only a "filler" game for one or maybe both teams. But now it will be vitally important, not only for the two of them, but for the five Shenandoah teams who are in the top eight of the 2-A Region B playoffs. Therefore this may be one of the very few times that fans at a lot of other places will be pulling for a Riverheads win in hopes that their school can possibly leapfrog over the Falcons in the standings. It will be quite an accomplishment if all five of those teams ultimately make the eight-team field and if they do, it will be fun to see who re-matches who, who kills each other's title dreams, etc.
But first things first..the game at Woodstock. For Riverheads the key will be to put the Lee loss in the rear view mirror and go back to doing what they do best. If they can do that, they can win this one. Central sounds incredibly tough, perhaps the best team RHS will have faced, so this one will definitely tell us something about somebody. I did hear one stat that made me feel optimistic about the Big Red's chances however...........someone said that Central's first 7 opponents had won a combined 15 games between them. That is certainly not the case with Riverheads and the rough and tumble Shenandoah. I know obviously that the Falcon's 40-0 shellacking over Clarke made everyone stand up and take notice, but could it be that their overall schedule has been weak? We will find out I guess.
Back to the subject of that three-way tie for the Shenandoah title........first of all the playoffs being what they are, the district race is only for bragging rights anyway, as the point totals and state rankings are the important thing. But realistically, and this is not just a biased Riverheads fan talking, the Gladiators DO have mathematically the best chance to maintain their spot at the top. I say that because they only have Page left on their district schedule. But Lee still has to play a dangerous Stuarts Draft team, one that might match up better with them athletically, and Luray as mentioned above, still has TWO iffy games left on the schedule, especially if they remain Dylan-less.
Therefore I don't think it is a slam dunk that the three-way tie will finish that way. Let's just hope for the sake of Shenandoah bragging rights that Riverheads can eventually go far again on the 1-A level and that one of our 2-A teams will get hot and knock off Central and possibly make it to Salem. That Region B in 2-A is going to be most interesting to watch!
