By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
The season is winding down, nearing a conclusion.
That conclusion, however, will not arrive until at least Week 14 with the Crestwood-Valley View District 2 Class 4A championship game winner guaranteed to represent District 2 in the state quarterfinals.
Whether the Comets-Cougars survivor will be joined by others from District 2 will depend on the results of what could be a difficult round for local teams. The task was made more challenging when the district’s best state hope, Lakeland, struggled through the second half of its District 2 Class 2A championship game while battling injuries.
Quarterback Dominico Spataro did not finish the district final while Lacota Dippre, the team’s top recruit and a Holy Cross commit, was slowed at times by injury during the 20-14 victory over Dunmore.
With 16 teams left in the state in each bracket, only two District 2 teams are ranked in the top 10 in their classifications by PennLive.com. The other four active teams are all listed as “Teams To Watch,” putting them in the top 13-15 teams in their classes.
Lakeland is ranked third in Class 2A, behind only District 10’s Farrell and District 4 unbeaten Mount Carmel, going into its game with unranked Executive Education Friday at Dunmore. The Chiefs are up one spot from last week.
Crestwood has moved into 10th in Class 4A going into its district final where it hosts Valley View, one of five teams to watch in the class.
Delaware Valley and Whitehall are both among the five teams to watch in Class 5A going into their state meeting Friday.
Lackawanna Trail is one of three teams to watch in Class A, going into its game against sixth-ranked Northern Lehigh.
Scranton Prep is one of four teams to watch in Class 3A where it faces unranked Neumann-Goretti.
On to this week’s selections, with home teams in bold italics, where appropiate:
PIAA CLASS A
Lackawanna Trail has made it through a District 2 final and a District 1-2 Subregional final while featuring five freshmen and two sophomores in prominent roles. The Lions run into the Northern Lehigh team that eliminated them when both were in Class 2A last season. The Saturday afternoon game in Dunmore will be a chance for the young Lions to pick up valuable experience for potential future state runs, even if it not quite their time yet.
Northern Lehigh 38, Lackawanna Trail 16
PIAA CLASS 2A
Lakeland could be facing dual tasks, trying to get through a state tournament game and trying to protect its team health as much as possible for what could be ahead. Executive Education, Friday’s opponent at Dunmore, got to this game on a long touchdown pass with three seconds left in the District 11 final. District 2’s only unbeaten team has some obstacles to overcome to try to extend the season.
Lakeland 36, Executive Education 23
PIAA CLASS 3A
Scranton Prep gets to play its first state game on its regular-season home field at Scranton Memorial Stadium. The Cavaliers are looking to return to the state quarterfinals.
Scranton Prep 19, Neumann-Goretti 17
DISTRICT 2 CLASS 4A
Valley View, the defending champion, is at Crestwood in a rematch of the season opener that the host Comets won, 20-7. Valley View is 10-1 since. Crestwood is 10-0 since losing in the second week against Dallas, the team the Cougars beat in last week’s semifinal.
Crestwood 36, Valley View 21
PIAA CLASS 5A
Two five-loss teams try to make the most of preparation from strong schedules when Delaware Valley plays at Whitehall Friday night. Whitehall’s schedule strength may have held up through the entire season in terms of getting ready to play among the state’s top big schools.
Whitehall 33, Delaware Valley 16
DISTRICT 2-4-11 CLASS 6A SUBREGIONAL FINAL
The continuation of this tournament after the elimination of District 2 entries Hazleton Area and Wilkes-Barre Area cost me last week with two of my three losses coming in the semifinals here. Bethlehem Freedom, the top seed, will try to avenge one of its two regular-season losses when it faces Parkland.
Bethlehem Freedom 21, Parkland 20
KEEPING SCORE
My lead in the season-long competition with Rick Notari of The Rick’s Picks on our partner website, NEPAFootball.com, was trimmed from three games to two with last week’s results. My picks went 5-3 (62.5 percent), making me 34-9 (79.1 percent) during the playoffs and 163-40 (80.3 percent) overall. Rick went 6-2 (75. 0 percent) to put his season record at 161-42 (79.3 percent). See where Rick and I differ and read what Rick has to say in this week’s predictions at: 2022 The Rick’s Picks – Week 13 | NEPA Football.
