By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
The midway point in the regular season has arrived and eight District 2 teams have better winning percentages on the field than either Rick Notari or I have online in predicting the outcome of games.
In our competition, Rick, from The Rick’s Picks on our partner website at NEPAFootball.com, and I are still trying to get to the 80-percent mark overall for the first time this season.
Hazleton Area, Scranton, Dallas and Lakeland are all perfect at 5-0.
Crestwood, Valley View, Dunmore and Western Wayne are all 4-1 with active winning streaks of at least three games.
The midway point is a good time for reassessment.
Hopefully, we can properly reassess the strength of Scranton and Holy Redeemer, the teams on which we have been wrong the most often.
MIDWAY REPORT
The Rick’s Picks has been setting the pace this season – picking more winners while Rick also completes his column more promptly each week.
As was the case last year, I’ll follow his lead and take a look back at my preseason predictions for the season as a whole and see where I’d like the chance to do it over at the midway point.
To begin the year, I listed the champion and top threat in each divisional race for the Lackawanna Football Conference and Wyoming Valley Conference.
The LFC champions and top threat predictions to begin the season were: Valley View over Delaware Valley in Division 1; Lakeland over Dunmore in Division 2; and Old Forge over Lackawanna Trail in Division 3.
The only change in those predictions is in the second spot in Division 1 where I now have Scranton joining Delaware Valley. It is not a case of me being unwilling to pick between the two, but instead I am predicting that they each end up 4-2 and share second place.
In the WVC, I had Hazleton Area over Dallas in Division 1 and Wyoming Area over Lake-Lehman in Division 2.
With five weeks to assess the teams, I put Pittston Area in as the new team in the second spot in WVC Division 2. It all sets up for a Pittston Area-Wyoming Area rivalry game in the last week for the division title in what I will predict now will be the closest of the divisional races. The two teams may not be threats to go deep in the postseason, but they are most likely to bring an appropriate “championship game” to the end of the regular season
The conference dark horses were listed as Carbondale in the LFC and Pittston Area in the WVC.
I’ll stretch the interpretation of dark horse just a bit at this point. I’ll keep Pittston Area because, although the Patriots are now legit contenders, they fit that description when the season started. Scranton Prep could not fit that description in the beginning, but the Cavaliers do now after two early losses. As last week’s victory at Delaware Valley showed, they could still find a way to disrupt the race.
Our preseason predictions for district and subregional championships were: Bethlehem Freedom over Emmaus in the District 2-4-11 Class 6A Subregional, with Hazleton Area named District 2 champion; Delaware Valley over Scranton in District 2 Class 5A; Valley View over Dallas in District 2 Class 4A; Scranton Prep over Lake-Lehman in District 2 Class 3A; Lakeland over Dunmore in District 2 Class 2A; and Old Forge over Lackawanna Trail in Class A.
The picture looks only a bit different now.
At this point, we like Emmaus over Northampton in the subregional, Dallas over Crestwood in Class 4A, and Scranton Prep over Western Wayne in 3A.
Although there seems to have been an early pecking order established with Crestwood beating Valley View and Dallas beating Crestwood, the three-way battle among those teams in District 2 Class 4A remains the most anticipated of the playoff races with a good chance that their rematches could produce closer games.
By the time we get to the playoffs, perhaps things will look different, but that’s how it appears now.
In the meantime, this week’s predictions, with home teams in bold italics:
TRIMMING THE LIST
The list of four unbeatens is guaranteed to be trimmed down at least to three this week. Dallas takes its perfect record to Hazleton Area with the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 lead on the line. The Mountaineers bring along a reliable running game led by Parker Bolesta, the only District 2 runner to reach 1,000 yards in the first half of the season. Hazleton Area’s Tyler Wolfe has used a variety of receivers to become one of two passers – Holy Redeemer’s Jacob Hunter is the other – to already surpass 1,000 yards. Both teams rolled through the first half of the season with Hazleton Area’s 20-7 win at Wilkes-Barre Area the closest call by either. The host Cougars have allowed the fewest points in the district and may have the edge on that side of the ball in a game featuring two prolific offenses. Look for Hazleton Area to make one more stop.
Hazleton Area 35, Dallas 28
MORE RANKED BATTLES
The Hazleton Area-Dallas game features the No. 1 and 2 Big Schools in the Gaughan Auto Store Super Six Power Rankings of District 2 teams, as compiled by NEPAFootball.com. There are two other games involving ranked teams going against each other. Wilkes-Barre Area has worked its way into the rankings in time to host Crestwood in another WVC Division 1 game. Lackawanna Trail goes to Old Forge for a Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 opener that will establish the clear favorite for that title and serve as a preview of their District 2 Class A championship battle to come five weeks later.
Crestwood 29, Wilkes-Barre Area 19
Old Forge 27, Lackawanna Trail 10
OTHER UNBEATENS
Scranton and Lakeland will try to join the Hazleton Area-Dallas winner at 6-0. Lakeland takes the highest-scoring offense in District 2 into a home game to open the LFC Division 2 season against surprising Honesdale and the third-toughest defense to score against during the first half of the season. Scranton hosts Wyoming Area in a non-league game that might have received a different prediction if it had occurred at the start of the season.
Lakeland 36, Honesdale 0
Scranton 30, Wyoming Area 18
SHARING THE LEAD
Abington Heights did not a win at all this season before winning its LFC Division 1 opener last week at home against Wallenpaupack. Now, the Comets find themselves heading to Valley View for a game where the winner will grab a share of the division lead with Scranton.
Valley View 42, Abington Heights 6
GETTING STARTED
The Honesdale-Lakeland and Lackawanna Trail-Old Forge games are part of LFC Division 2 and 3 getting started. In those six-team divisions, every team played five games outside the division to start the season and will now play five within the division to finish it. Mid Valley is at Dunmore and West Scranton is at Western Wayne in the other Division 2 games. Carbondale is at Riverside and Susquehanna is at Holy Cross in Division 3.
Dunmore 40, Mid Valley 17
Western Wayne 33, West Scranton 13
Riverside 26, Carbondale 14
Susquehanna 39, Holy Cross 20
HIDDEN GEM
Pittston Area appears capable of going on a second-half winning streak to make the season finale with Wyoming Area into a WVC Division 2 title game. The most difficult step along that path, however, could be the first one at Nanticoke in what has the makings of one of the weekend’s most competitive games.
Pittston Area 22, Nanticoke 19
THE REST
Road teams went 13-6 last week after going 10-7 the week before. Those that are traveling this week will make it a close call in going after a third straight winning week.
Delaware Valley 35, North Pocono 7
Scranton Prep 31, Wallenpaupack 12
Berwick 36, Wyoming Valley West 3
Holy Redeemer 35, Hanover Area 12
Tunkhannock 46, Lake-Lehman 35
Montrose 36, Whitney Point (N.Y.) 35
Williamsport 30, Central Mountain 18
KEEPING SCORE
The Rick’s Picks and my picks here on NEPASportsNation.com split last week, each getting one right on the two games on which we disagreed. That made for a tie at 15-4 (78.9 percent) on the Week 5 Predictions. That’s not good enough when you’re behind. Still trailing by two games, I’ll try again to catch up this week. Rick’s predictions have a season mark of 68-20 (77.3) while mine are at 66-22 (75.0 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 6 | NEPA Football.
