The 'Road to the Ralph'

Hello to boys and girls from all over the world, and to all of you reading this blog, thank you for tuning.  In today's blog, we are going to continue to look at the Section VI High School Football Playoffs.  We will go over some of the great games of last weekend which includes the escape win over Starpoint, an amazing game between Lockport and Clarence, and also a couple close wins for Grand Island, and Springville.  I will also preview this week's semi-finals games as well as the huge game between Monsignor Martin foes Canisius and St. Joe's.  It is the week before the 'Ralph', or 'The Final Four' and the remaining teams must bring it to get the opportunity to play for their respective Class Championships.  First, I will release the Week 9 schedule for all you out there:  In Class AA, Frontier travels to Jamestown and Orchard Park travels to Lockport.  In Class A, Williamsville South will head over to West Seneca East, and Grand Island will head over to Sweet Home.  In Class B, Depew travels to Alden, and Springville travels to Cheektowaga.  In Class C, Fredonia travels to JFK, and Cleveland Hill travels to Wilson.  And in Class D, Portville travels to Maple Grove, and Silver Creek travels to Randolph.  Now a look back at last week, probably the best two games of the year happened in Week 8.  On Friday night, Starpoint went over to West Seneca East.  Now West Seneca East is arguable the best team in Class A and had a tremendous season.  Not to offend anyone from Starpoint and their season, but a lot of people were expecting the Spartans to just roll over for the Trojans of West Seneca East.  East is the #6 Large School team in the Buffalo News Poll and must have been looking ahead or something because this was a phenomenal football game.  It looked like the Bills and the Titans this past week, no defense.  Starpoint led basically the entire game, leading 28 to 14 heading into the 4th quarter, but East had the ball.  A quick touchdown, and it was a one score game, Starpoint scored again, but star quarterback Andy Smigera brought his team back twice to come within one point.  It was 35-34 Starpoint and the Coach from East was in the middle of making a tough decision.  Either to go for two and go for the win, or kick the point after attempt and take their chances in overtime.  And they chose to go for two, and they made the right decision.  Andy Smigera got the snap out of the shotgun, looked around for the pass, and saw an opening of field and took the ball in his own hands and ran it in to give the Trojans the wild victory.  West Seneca East now has to move on to play the Williamsville South Billies, a tough matchup and an intriguing game at that.  Lockport and Clarence was another unbelievable game this past weekend.  Clarence opened up dominating on a rainy and muddy Saturday, scoring 27 unanswered points early.  And somehow someway, Lockport came together, and was able to get back into the game.  James Chambers, the star running back for the team, put the team on his back and almost single-handedly got the win for the Lions.  He had 4 touchdowns, including a 90 yard punt return the sparked their 21-point 4th quarter and got the game into overtime.  A 35-35 score heading into the extra time, who else but James Chambers to cap off the historical comeback off a one yard run to give Lockport the 42 to 35 win in a crazy ending.  Now they will have a rematch with Week One opponent Orchard Park.  The Quakers won a 42 to 21 win, even though the score isn't as close as it seems, Lockport held the score close early, and you never know when you have to go against James Chambers what could happen.  Grand Island pulled away late in a 27 to 20 win over Iroqious, and they will now have the tough task of taking on undefeated and always good Sweet Home Panthers.  I had the opportunity to check out Sweet Home in their first round match up against WIlliamsville East, and they dominated the entire game.  A 46 to 6 trouncing of the Flames.  Grand Island has to stop the high powered offense and of course the entire team speed, should be a tough challenge for the Vikings but hey, who knows what'll happen.  Springville got out of a tight battle against Eden, and is the lone cinderella story left in the bracket.  They have to go to #2 seed and starless Cheektowaga, and many people are favoring them to go to the 'Ralph'.  It should be interesting to see what happens.  Now they big game this weekend comes out of Section VI, and not a playoff game.  The final regular season game in the Monsignor Martin League between Canisius and St. Joe's, a storied rivalry that has a lot of history.  Last year, St. Joe's grinded out a tough one point victory over the Crusaders, but this year Canisius is the team that's undefeated, and they're the team with all the expectations.  They are the #1 Large School in the Buffalo News Poll, and have a lot going for them, especially on the back of their star Qadree Ollison.  This should be a phenomenal Saturday afternoon game and I may try and get out there for that one if I were you.  So that's all I have for you today, 'till next time, good luck and get it done.