Four Super Bowls in Hershey
December 12, 2007
By Joe Stokes
This is it.!!! The grand finally. The east against the west. The elite eight fight it out for bragging rights and the 2007 PIAA Championship trophy.
All roads lead to Chocolate town for Pennsylvania high school football fans to see the best teams at all four levels battle out in the last weekend in what has turned out to be one of the most competitive seasons on record.
The Ridley Green Raiders ended their season on top in Ed Thomas’ Southeastern Pa Top Twenty despite their season ending loss to District Eleven’s Parkland in the AAAA Eastern final last Saturday. The never say die Green Raiders fought back from an early fourteen point deficient to tie the game at 21 early in the fourth quarter. However the high powered Trojan offense could not be denied as they scored two late touchdowns behind the great leadership of quarterback John Laub to earn a 35-21 victory and a trip to Hershey this weekend.
This writer comes off a 50-17 prediction record for 2006 and so far in 2007 has a 54-16 record in the last fourteen weeks of prognostications. Last weeks results gave the record a boost with a 4-1 push. Serra Catholic, Pittsburgh Catholic Central, Garnet Valley, and Dunmore all found a way to win as predicted with Parkland’s win over Ridley accounting for the lone set back.
The PIAA playoffs end this weekend with four great games. The Quad A finals feature a showdown between star laden Pittsburgh Catholic Central Vikings representing the west against a well coached squad from Parkland representing the east. The Vikings were able to secure a hard fought win over Harrisburg when Jon Petrigac scooped up a fumble and ran 62 yards for the winning TD in a 14-6 victory.
This week will be different as the stars will look kindly on the Viking offense and they will capture the gold for 2007.
Prediction: Pittsburgh Catholic Central 35 Parkland 17
At the AAA level District One champs Garnet Valley survived a hard fought contest with Lampeter Strasburg with a come from behind 27- 20 thriller. Running back Tim Keyser grabbed a quick pass over the middle and scampered 74 yards for the winning score. Jaguars quarterback Eric Van Wyk will be key to this final. He will find a way to win.
Prediction: Garnet Valley 20 Thomas Jefferson 14
The AA championship game finds the Jeannette Jayhawks facing off with the eastern representative Dunmore. The Jayhawks have a true stud QB Terrelle Pryor who has rushed and passed for over 4,000 yards in his career. However the Dunmore Bucks just find a way to win the tough ones. Last week found sophomore Brian Copeland coming off bench to grab a TD pass from Miller Holmes to give the Bucks the lead for good. The Bucks will find a way to pull this one out as well
Prediction: Dunmore 27 Jeannette 24
The single A final is a showdown of running backs Jeremiah Young of Steelton with Isaiah Jackson of Serra Catholic dueling it out on Friday afternoon. Don’t bet against Serra Catholic this week.
Prediction: Serra Catholic 31 Steelton Highspire 21