EASTON, PA Rips Phillipsburg, NJ, Now goes for 3 in 8 !

[ngineer]

The Easton Red Rovers, now 11-1 on the season, ranked #5 in PA and #1 in District XI, beat archrival P-burg in the 103rd meeting yesterday, 26-10. The Stateliners were coming in 9-1 and also in the NJ playoffs.

However, Easton, which played in the first round of the PA playoffs last week, will now have to play the second round tomorrow against 9-2 Parkland (north of Allentown). Asking kids to do this is tough. Easton-Pburg is always a hard-hitting intense game due to the closeness of the towns. A body needs to recover and fatigue is usually a major contributing factor to serious injuries. While I understand everyone 'wants' to play and do this, sometimes I think we lose sight of some priorities in terms of physical welfare.

Easton will host Parkland tomorrow night at Cottingham Stadium. They beat the Trojans in the regular season 14-3, so it will be interesting to see what the repeat shows. The Rover defense is allowing only 8 pts/game this year.

[Schfourteenteen]

Easton has really taken over this series since the early 90's. Even though I went to a diferent HS I'd always go to Easton for the game.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Easton will never accomplish anything on a state level as long as they play this game. Not saying that there's anything wrong with that since it's obvious this game means more than a state title to them. Not many schools get the chance to play a turkey day game like Easton-P'burg.

[ngineer]

No question the P-burg game is more important than the state playoffs, but trying to do both, to me, is placing too much risk of injury in a collision type sport where the body needs to heal up after such a hard fought game.

[bluehenbillk]

Not like anyone wants to get into a HS debate, but look out for North Penn.

[GannonFan]

Not like anyone wants to get into a HS debate, but look out for North Penn.

North Penn's fantastic, no doubt, but they are playing with a stacked hand. As far as I know, North Penn's the biggest school district in PA with only one high school. NP's a senior high (3 grades) and each class is about 1400 students big. Think of it this way - Central Bucks and West Chester are about the same size as the North Penn school district - North Penn has one high school (and one high school team) while the other two have 3 high schools each. It's hard to be that big and not be successful. The only way to do it is to be Upper Darby. :o

[Franks Tanks]

Easton will never accomplish anything on a state level as long as they play this game. Not saying that there's anything wrong with that since it's obvious this game means more than a state title to them. Not many schools get the chance to play a turkey day game like Easton-P'burg.

They just accomplished somthing this weekend. That Parkland team is no slouch, especially with the TB that is going to BC next year.

Easton is playing Lasalle this week ( the Philly catholic league champs) and they should dispose of them relatively easily as every other Philly champ has bombed in the playoffs at this round IIRC.

Easton should make it to the Eastern finals with a game vs. North Penn. I dont know if they will beat North Penn (probably not) but making it to the Quad A eastern finals is pretty good.

[ngineer]

They just accomplished somthing this weekend. That Parkland team is no slouch, especially with the TB that is going to BC next year.

Easton is playing Lasalle this week ( the Philly catholic league champs) and they should dispose of them relatively easily as every other Philly champ has bombed in the playoffs at this round IIRC.

Easton should make it to the Eastern finals with a game vs. North Penn. I dont know if they will beat North Penn (probably not) but making it to the Quad A eastern finals is pretty good.

Yes, I saw the game and was impressed with Easton's defense. Playing that tough on not even two days' rest is not for the weak. I still don't think it's good in the overall scheme of things, and it's toll could be seen this week against LaSalle. They may still beat them, for as you point out, the Philly squads have not shown any success against District XI in recent years. Easton could have trouble with a team having some speed merchants, as I didn't detect any on the Rovers. Some good hard runners, but not the 'mighty burner' types.

I don't know what Patrick Murphy's grades are like, but he has a real motor at MLB that I"d love to see wearing Brown. Caldwell, only a junior DE is no slouch with a big frame to build upon.

The Easton-LaSalle game will be played at Bethlehem SD Stadium. May take it in if the weather is decent.