Pennsylvania High School Football Huddle
Today, I took-in two games on a perfect day for high school football.
First, I watched the top-seeded Royals advanced to the District XI Class A championship game for the third year in a row with a 42-14 defeat of Williams Valley. The Royals offense was firing on all-cylinders scoring 42 points on only 36 offensive plays.
Pius amassed 499 yards in total offense on those 36 plays. The Royals were led by sophomore quarterback A.J. Long, who threw three TD passes; two to senior Drake Freeman.
The Royals will meet Shenandoah next Saturday in the championship game.
On a fun note, Minersville Park, which is now the site of a strip mall called King's Plaza, was the home field of the NFL's Pottsville Maroons in the 1920s. After the game, I actually ate with the Pius X coaching staff at Palmero's, which is located in King's Plaza.
For those of you that don't know, many believe the Maroons won the 1925 NFL championship, but the team was stripped of the title a week after beating the Chicago Cardinals 21-7 on December 6, 1925. Back then, the NFL, in its infancy, actually based the title on winning percentage; there was no playoff system. After the December 6th win, the Maroons owned a 10-2 record, while the Cardinals were 9-2-1, including their loss to Pottsville.
December 6th was supposed signal the end of the season, but the NFL allowed the Cardinals to play two more games (both wins) after the loss to the Maroons. Those two wins, coupled with the fact that NFL commissioner Joseph Carr suspended the Maroons for playing an exhibition game in Philadelphia earlier in the year.
The suspension was based on the fact that the NFL had warned the Maroons that they couldn't play the exhibition game in Philly against a team of former University of Notre Dame football stars. The Maroons played the game, which the NFL said infringed upon the territory rights of the Frankford Yellow Jackets (now the Philadelphia Eagles).
The suspension meant the Maroons couldn't finish their schedule, so the NFL awarded the championship to the Cardinals with an 11-2-1 record. To the Cardinals' credit, the team's owner refused to accept the title. However, in 1933 when the Bidwell family bought the Cardinals, Charles Bidwell publicly took credit for the title.
Some say the claiming of the 1925 title has placed a curse on the Cardinals, who are still owned by the Bidwell family, but have only won one other title back in 1947.
Sorry for digressing, but it thinks it's cool to know that the NFL once played in a 5,000 to 6,000 seat high school football stadium in the tiny town of Minersville that at the last census had a little over 4,500 residents.
Pennsylvania High School Football Scores
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Playoffs
1st Round
AAAA
Central York 35 Red Lion 13
North Penn 48 Bayard Rustin 21
Erie Strong Vincent 42 Mifflin County 21
George Washington 20 Frankford 13
AAA
Dobbins-Randolph 42 Boys' Latin Charter 12
Archbishop Wood 42 Monsignor Bonner 14
Dallas 39 Scranton Prep 6
Clearfield 28 St. Mary's 7
AA
Moniteau 40 Sheffield 0
Karns City 40 Brookville 25
Wyomissing 49 Littlestown 26
Penn Cambria 14 Forest Hills 12
Richland 50 Ligonier Valley 12
General McLane 54 Greenville 32
Hickory 33 Northwestern-Erie 12
Pen Argyl 49 Pine Grove 13
Northern Lehigh 28 North Schuylkill 0
Wilkes-Barre GAR 41 Lakeland 21
West Catholic 30 Bok 23
A
Pius X 42 Williams Valley 14
Shenandoah Valley 26 Minersville 25
Port Allegany 37 Union-Rimersburg 8
Bishop McCort 46 Marion Center 16
Windber 34 Northern Bedford 7
Moshannon Valley 21 Juniata Valley 9
Eastern Conference Playoffs
AAAA Semifinal
Bethlehem Liberty 35, Wallenpaupack 34
Regular Season
Caravel Academy (DE) 35, Chester 0
Haverford School 16, Episcopal Academy 7
Lawrenceville (NJ) 42, The Hill School 15
Lower Merion 21, Radnor 14
Malvern Prep 23, Chestnut Hill 0
Mastery Charter North 36, Morrisville 6
Penn Charter 54, Germantown Academy 7
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