By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
The District 2 football season is down to one team.
Crestwood is at the Northeast Supersite in Philadelphia Saturday at 1 p.m. in a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 4A state quarterfinal against District 12 champion Archbishop Bonner-Monsignor Prendergast, known more commonly as Bonner-Prendie.
Bonner-Prendie, the 11-1 Philadelphia Catholic League Blue Division champion, has won 10 straight since a 14-12 loss to Haverford.
Neumann-Goretti, the District 12 Class 3A champion that eliminated District 2 champion Scranton Prep, 22-14, in a state game last weekend, tied for second in the Blue Division behind Bonner-Prendie. In their head-to-head meeting, Bonner-Prendie won, 26-14.
Crestwood is 12-1, has won 11 straight and is champion of both Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 and District 2’s largest championship, its only eight-team playoff field, Class 4A.
GAME PREDICTION
Make no mistake, the predictions here are not just winners, but the scores predicted are an attempt to suggest the relative difference between the teams and whether a low- or high-scoring game is anticipated. Put another way, a large predicted margin is a hint that a result the opposite way feels quite unlikely. A close margin is an acknowledgement that there is not a clear-cut favorite. Having said all that, we’re not predicting a state semifinal appearance for Crestwood, but the Comets have surprised us before and it is certainly quite possible they could do it again.
Bonner-Prendie 26, Crestwood 23
TITLE PREDICTIONS RECAP
Along with our weekly game predictions, we made preseason and midseason championship predictions and a new set of postseason championship predictions when the regular-season ended.
As for regular-season champions, we went 3-for-5 both preseason and at the midway point, correctly calling the Lackawanna Football Conference titles for Valley View, Lakeland and Old Forge.
When it came to District 2 champions, we had four out of six right at each step, although which four changed as the playoffs were opening.
Class A champion Lackawanna Trail was the only one we did not pick to win it all at any point. Each step of the way, we had anticipated Old Forge repeating its regular-season superiority over the Lions.
Delaware Valley (Class 5A), Lakeland (2A) and Hazleton Area (in the District 6 portion of Class 6A) were projected as champions each step of the way and produced, as expected.
It took until the end of the regular season before we acknowledged Crestwood’s status as District 2’s best team and as the projected Class 4A champion.
Scranton Prep was the predicted champion in preseason and midseason and wound up as Class 3A champ.
The postseason predictions reminded us that we should stay in our lane. In trying to predict the District 2-4-11 Class 6A Subregional in which Hazleton Area and Wilkes-Barre Area participated, we never saw Parkland’s title as the number-six seed coming. In fact, we never predicted Parkland as a finalist and only had runner-up Bethlehem Freedom projected for the final during our preseason look at the teams.
KEEPING SCORE
The competition gets tougher for teams the deeper we get into the season and the task also proved to be tougher for those of us making predictions. My picks were just 3-3 last week, making the mark 37-12 (75.5 percent) for the playoffs and 166-43 (79.4 percent) season overall. The two-game lead in our friendly competition with Rick Notari of The Rick’s Picks on our partner website, NEPAFootball.com remained intact. Rick also went 3-3 to make his season record 164-45 (78.4 percent). See what Rick has to say this week at 2022 The Rick’s Picks – Week 14 | NEPA Football.
