It's almost hard to believe that we
have reached the halfway point of the football season in the City
League. Just seems like yesterday when the teams that make up Your
City League Advocate's favorite little football league were getting
on buses and traveling hither and yon to play games against teams
from West-By-Gawd-Virginia, Ohio and elsewhere.
And this week, the League goes off
the reservation for the final time this season to play a slate of
non-district games before starting the manic three week playoff run
next Thursday.
The Standings
University Prep 2-0
Perry 2-0
Brashear 1-1
Allderdice 1-1
Carrick 0-2
Westinghouse 0-2
University Prep's Akil Young is
starting to look the quarterback to watch in the City League this
season. Young went 23 of 32 for 280 yards in a 40-12 win over the
Brashear Bulls. He threw two touchdown passes to Marcus Johnson of 3
and 17 yards, respectively, and 1 TD pass of 39 yards to Clay
Moorefield. Moorefield also scored on runs of 4 and 48 yards.
Brashear scored off a 58 yard pass from Russell Page to Adam Tajuddin
and a 48 yard toss to Jamal Smith. The loss drops the Bulls into a
tie for second with Allderdice at 1-1.
Originally U-Prep was scheduled
to travel to Gilmour Academy in Ohio this weekend, but according to
the PG website, that game was called off. In fact, the Advocate
checked Gilmour Academy's website, and confirmed that on the 29th,
they were not playing U-Prep. So it looks like the Panthers will be
getting this weekend off.
Brashear, on the other hand won't
have to travel any further than down McArdle St from Brookline to the
SahSide to take on Erie Strong Vincent. The Colonels come into this
game 1-3, and judging by the rain that is falling outside the
Advocate's palatial estate, it looks like it's gonna be a wet
miserable evening at the George.
Allderdice managed to even its
record at 1-1 with a much needed 32-6 win over Westinghouse. The
Dragons' QB/DB Bishop Gethers helped the 'Dice's cause on both sides
of the ball snatching up a fumble and returning 39 yds for a
touchdown. He also tossed and ran for a score, while stud RB Patrick
Ferguson ran for two touchdowns and 118 yds in the easy win. The
Dragons head down to Wheeling to take on 3-2 Wheeling Central on
Saturday night.
The loss drops Westinghouse into a
tie for last with Carrick at 0-4, and an article
by Trib HS beat writer Kevin Gorman explains the Bulldogs' plight.
For those who don't know,
Westinghouse is by far the smallest school in the City League with
only 185 boys in grades 9-11, and they have to routinely play against
schools in and out of the City with enrollments three and four times
their own. The team they play this weekend, Steubenville High School
in Ohio has 260 boys in grades 9-11, and Allderdice, the largest high
school in terms of enrollment in the City has over 600 boys in those
grades. The 'Dawgs haven't won a City title since 1996, and coach
Monte Robinson feels that if the 'House were to move to the WPIAL,
they could compete against schools their size. The Advocate would
agree. They may not win a lot of games, but at least they'd be able
to compete on a more equitable playing field than they face in the
City League.
Perry moved into a first place tie
with U-Prep at 2-0 with a 47-12 drubbing of the Carrick Raiders.
Tomorrow evening, at 7:00, the
Commodores will host Liberty Christian of Virginia in the Bulldogs
first visit to Pittsburgh. Liberty Christian brings a 4-1 record
into the George, and they have an impressive resume. Since 2004,
they have won 4 Virginia Division 1 state titles, were runners-up in
2009, and made it to the state semi-finals in 2006, 2008, and 2010.
Clearly, the Commodores will have their work cut out against this
team.
Carrick will head down to Fort
Hill, Maryland to face the Sentinels, who have torched City League
teams the past two years. The Sentinels are 2-2 coming into the game
against the Raiders and looking at their results, it's been either
feast or famine for Fort Hill. They won their first and third games
at home by 45 and 64 points respectively, but on the road, it's a
different story as they've been crushed by 29 and 38 points,
respectively.
A look down the road, once the City
League returns to District 8 play: Allderdice will have U-Prep,
Carrick and Brashear in their final three games; Brashear has
Carrick, Perry, and Allderdice; U-Prep has the 'Dice, Westinghouse,
and a regular season finale against Perry that could decide the
regular season title as well as the No.1 seed in the playoffs. And
finally, Perry will have the 'House, Brashear, and U-Prep. It's safe
to say that unless either Carrick or Westinghouse can pull of a major
upset or two, the playoffs should consist of U-Prep, Brashear, Perry
and Allderdice. The question is, in which order. But that's why
they play the games.
