Now, Your City League Advocate is one
who tolerates a lot of things. As he is fast approaching the big 5-0
in a few short days, The Advocate has to take it easy when rendering
his admittedly flawed opinion on most subjects of the day, hence he
spikes his already high blood pressure.
And considering that the annual
festival of wanton excess, unhealthy living, and general naughtiness
that is the annual Birthday Bacchanal and Clam Bake is coming up
soon, the Advocate has to save his limited energy for more important
and engaging pursuits, like judging the myriad of promising entries
in the Most Lethal Concoction Contest, or rounding up willing
contestants and victims...er, uh assistants in the Catch the Virgin
Race, or making sure that the crack security detail consisting of an
unlikely combination of ex-Navy Seals, retired SWAT team operatives,
and members of the local Hell's Honeys motorcycle club can work
together to keep an eye out for the local gendarmes, if and when they
decide to cruise by the undisclosed location.
Not so much to keep the boys in
blue away, but to discreetly inform the Advocate of their arrival so
that he can insure that the requisite donations to the Policeman's
Benevolence Association are made out in the proper amounts and given
to the correct people.
Many of the subjects that the
Advocate opines upon are well beyond his limited knowledge of just
about everything. But like many pundits have proven over the years,
the lack of knowledge about a subject doesn't stop Your City League
Advocate from rendering an opinion about them. As a matter of fact,
The Advocate has learned from his many readers that uninformed
opinions tend to be the most entertaining, and Your City League
Advocate would not be performing his high calling to the best of his
ability if he didn't entertain his followers.
The bone of contention that is
baking Your City League Advocate's biscuits this week has to do with
Thursday night high school football. The Advocate listened to a
podcast recently hosted by two of the local high school football
pundits that ply their trade for the local fishwrap. The Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette. These two gentlemen, Mike White and Terry Shields,
host a weekly podcast where they talk about the high school football
scene and break down the upcoming big games in the WPIAL and City
League.
All in all, they do a very good
job. In the latest edition of the podcast, Mr. White and Mr. Shields
tell their audience about the deal between Root Sports (formerly Fox
Sports Pittsburgh) and the WPIAL to televise certain high profile
games on Thursday nights. Which the Advocate has no problem with.
But what frosts the Advocate's
wedding cake is the implied suggestion that somehow, playing football
on Thursday nights is something that is exclusive to the WPIAL and
Root Sports and that it has never been done before, and/or isn't done
anywhere else. And this further perpetuates the belief that if the
WPIAL doesn't do it, or hadn't thought of it, then it doesn't exist,
or isn't worth doing.
To which, the Advocate has to
raise his hackles and protest most strenuously, that the City League
has been playing football on Thursday nights for over 20 years.
Every since the Pittsburgh Public Schools decided rightly or wrongly
to move all football games to Cupples Stadium back in the late 80's,
football has been played on Thursday nights.
Now the Advocate will concede the
point that the City League plays on Thursday nights out of necessity,
and the WPIAL/Root Sports co-op does it to showcase matchups that
stand out from the rest of the pack.
And he also concedes that in
most cases, the best City matchups don't always play on Thursday
nights. And that the crowds on Thursday nights at the George won't
come close to the turnouts that come out to see two top WPIAL teams
play.
But for the WPIAL to act as if
they invented Thursday night football is ludicrous. Give credit
where it is due. The City League has been doing Thursday night
football long before the WPIAL even conceived of the idea.
Okay, enough ranting about the
provincialism of the WPIAL. On to the weekend past and weekend
upcoming in Everyone's Favorite Little Football League.
The City League opened their
season last weekend with all but University Prep in action against
schools from outside the area. And as expected, all five teams ended
up losing.
The only City squad that gave a
credible performance was Brashear, who hosted Slippery Rock and hung
tough with the Rockets from Dist 10 until a 1 yard run with 41
seconds left in the game from Slippery Rock's Ryan Currie broke a
26-26 tie and handed them the win. Bulls QB Russell Page went 14-23
for 254 yds and three TD's plus a rushing score. DaBulls next game
is on September 7, when they travel down to West By-Gawd Virginia to
take on Wheeling Park who are 1-1 on the season. The Advocate is
tempted to ask the Brashear coaches to head over to the dog track and
lay a fiver on a dog named Gimpy running in the sixth race. The
Advocate has it on good authority that this pup is a dead cert. The
fact that it only has three legs, is blind in one eye, and will hump
anything in sight apparently has no effect on its performance.
Perry headed up to Veterans
Memorial in Erie, a venue they are more than familiar with to face
the Ramblers of Cathedral Prep, an opponent they are more than
familiar with. And ECP didn't hesitate in letting the Commodores
know how much they missed their rivals from Pittsburgh by handing
them a 56-6 beatdown. Perry's lone score came on a 1 -yard run by
Ahmad Turner. Perry will next take to the road traveling 301 miles
across I-80 to play St. Pius X of Bangor, PA. The Royals were
crushed in their home opener 61-0 to perennial power Southern
Columbia.
The Allderdice Dragons headed down
to Morgantown to play the Mohigans and were outclassed 32-13. Chazzy
Thomas scored three touchdowns for Morgantown and rushed 15 times for
204 yds. The 'Dice's two scores came off an 89 yd kick return by
Antonio Thomas and a 1 yd rushing TD by Matt Yarbough. The Dragons
will come home to host the Linsly Cadets who lost their first game of
the season 33-19, to Parkersburg South. The last time Allderdice and
Linsly tied up, the Cadets whipped the Dragons 41-6 in West VA.
Carrick took on Grove City and was
blanked 40-0. The Eagles rushed for 269 yards and passed for 119,
scoring 5 touchdowns on the ground and one through the air. Next up
for the Raiders, will be an 111 mile trip down I-70 for a road game
against Chestnut Ridge which is a AA school out of New Paris, PA.
The Lions are 0-1, losing 51-20 to Central out of Martinsburg.
The Westinghouse Bulldogs headed
into the Buckeye State to play Buckeye Local and were defeated 24-6.
The Big Bads next game is against Wheeling Central Catholic who is
1-1 after losing their last game to Weirton Madonna.
University Prep finally gets to
start their season after waiting too long to put their schedule
together, and having to scramble to find games at the last minute.
The Wildcats will be heading 288 miles up I-79 and I-90 into
Rochester, NY to take on the Little Irish of Aquinas Institute.
Aquinas is 1-0 on the season winning their opener 44-7 over St.
Francis. Aquinas is listed in the top 5 in New York according to Max
Preps, and finished last season 10-2. One of the marquee games on
their schedule is a game against Erie Prep on Oct 12.
As you can see, City League teams
are traveling far and wide to find quality opponents. This is the
second week in a row that City squads are playing non-conference
opponents, and City League play will start the weekend of the 13th
and 14th. Which incidentally is the weekend of the
Advocate's Birthday Bacchanal and Clambake.
The Advocate wishes that the gurus
who put together the League schedule for the season would have
consulted with him in regards to the logistics and difficulties of
covering the City League whilst also trying desperately to keep the
lid on the most infamous gathering of free-spirited whackjobs in
recorded history. We're only taking about a gathering that would
make Caligula's biggest debauchery look like a Sunday School picnic.
How hard can it be to make allowances for the one person in this
area who covers the City League with any kind of
semi-professionalism? Oh well, if wishes were horses, beggars would
ride.
