By 9:30pm last Saturday night, the five
City League schools who played over the weekend, were questioning
witnesses as to whether anyone had gotten the license plates of the
trucks that mowed them down. Non-conference opponents committed
multiple hit and run offenses against the Advocate's teams to the
tune of a 192-55 display of utter smackage. The only team to escape
the beatdown was University Prep and that was only because their game
against Gilmour Academy was canceled.
The only game that could be deemed
as competitive was the Brashear-Erie Strong Vincent game on Thursday
night in which the Colonels were able to eke out a last minute score
to win 21-14. Beyond that and Allderdice's 35-20 loss to Wheeling
Central where Patrick Ferguson rushed for 155 yds and 2 touchdowns,
the rest of the league was folded, spindled and mutilated at the
hands of opponents from West-By-Gawd Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, and
Virginia.
Perry scored on its opening drive
on a 73 yd TD pass from Ahmad Turner to Mallory Claybourne, but
Liberty Christian of Virginia rebounded by scoring 49 unanswered
points to embarrass the Commodores on the SahSide 49-7. Ft. Hill
(MD) scored on all eight of its possessions in their win over Carrick
54-8, and Westinghouse got their only score off a blocked field goal
attempt and Iziaiah Spearman pounced on the ball and scampered 89 yds
for the touchdown, but could do no more against the Big Red of
Steubenville, OH. All told, the City League went 2-14 against
non-league competition this season.
But the good news is, that last
weekend signaled the end of non-league play for the City, and with no
more need to travel all over God's creation to act as other team's
tacking dummies, the school's of the City League can now concentrate
on the most important three weeks of the season, where playoff seeds
will be determined.
The Standings.
U-Prep 2-0
Perry 2-0
Allderdice 1-1
Brashear 1-1
Carrick 0-2
Westinghouse 0-3
The marquee matchup for this
weekend will happen on Friday night at 7:00pm when the U-Prep
Wildcats/Panthers take on the Allderdice Dragons. The last time these
two teams met was in the City Championship game almost a year ago,
when U-Prep took advantage of an ineffective 'Dice offense to claim
their first ever City Title 14-0. Akil Young has emerged as the main
offensive weapon for the 'Cats, throwing the ball over 400 yards and
scoring 6 touchdowns in U-Prep's 3 games so far. He's completed 35
of 50 passes this season, and this in a league where running the ball
is still considered the majority of City team's offenses.
Allderdice will counter with
Patrick Ferguson who stands 6 ft tall and weighs a Jerome Bettis-like
260 lbs. Ferguson has rushed for 535 yds off 89 carries and 6
touchdowns this season. But for the 'Dice to be successful, they'll
need a good performance by QB Bishop Gethers. And as the Advocate has
repeatedly said over the years, Allderdice has never been a school
that has produced good quarterbacks. But they will need Gethers to
shine if they want to win this game. A win will put Allderdice in a
tie with U-Prep and give the Dragons the all-important head to head
tiebreaker.
The rest of the week in the City
will have Perry taking on winless Westinghouse tonight at 7:00pm, and
Brashear going against their South Hills neighbor Carrick in the
Friday matinee. But the Advocate's Game of the Week is the new
Battle of the East End featuring Allderdice and U-Prep.
Unless the Mayans had it all wrong
and the end of the world was to happen between the time the Advocate
is writing this and 7:00pm tonight, It's safe to say that Brashear
and Perry should have no problems handling their business against
Carrick and the 'House. But the U-Prep-'Dice game could go either
way. Ferguson is a legit scoring threat for the Dragons, but he
can't do it all. And while Bishop Gethers is getting looks from
colleges, it isn't because of his skills as a QB, but rather as a DB.
He needs to come up big under center if the Dragons are to win this
game. U-Prep has lost a lot from that championship team, but they
still have a lot to play with, and Young looks like the real deal in
the City League this season. As much as the Advocate wants to see
his Dragons win this game, he isn't sold on Gether's ability to keep
U-Prep's defense honest. So with a heavy heart, he has to predict
that U-Prep will win on Friday night.
