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Mountain Ridge has always seemed to shoot them selves in the foot over the past few years. If we are being honest we just haven't had the athletes to compete in the past 5 years. Since RaShawn Johnson left it has been a steady decline on talent there. And even when he was there it wasn't like we were lighting up the town. We had are good games and all. The one thing that stood out last week as I watched the MR and HHS game, in the pouring down rain, was how many times the Mountain Ridge players were in position to make the play. That is what coaching does. It gets you in the right place to make a play. Once there, it is all about the player at that point, and time after time we just didn't make the play. Every single long HHS touchdown we either had the chance to make a tackle for a loss or minimal gain or we had a chance to get the interception in the case of the touchdown passes. You can't coach athleticism. I am hoping my Miners' can turn it around like they did last year. Starting this week. Cause the second half of the schedule isn't looking good.SHS won last years matchup 23-0. Catoctin QB is listed 6'2, 185lbs. Very good arm and can run it some. Believe game will be decided by OL/DL. Neither team has had a tough match up yet this year so should be interesting game to watch. Totally agree with Redwhite 90 and cumbfanatic on comments about Mt Ridge. They are unpredictable and I could see them giving ALCO a battle this week.
Let's face it, whoever team you are pulling for seems to not have athletes when they are losing. Is it really about that as much as coaching. FH has dominated Alco in football, Alco has dominated FH in basketball. If you swapped the coaches for the last ten years in both sports, does anybody really believe the results wouldn't change?Mountain Ridge has always seemed to shoot them selves in the foot over the past few years. If we are being honest we just haven't had the athletes to compete in the past 5 years. Since RaShawn Johnson left it has been a steady decline on talent there. And even when he was there it wasn't like we were lighting up the town. We had are good games and all. The one thing that stood out last week as I watched the MR and HHS game, in the pouring down rain, was how many times the Mountain Ridge players were in position to make the play. That is what coaching does. It gets you in the right place to make a play. Once there, it is all about the player at that point, and time after time we just didn't make the play. Every single long HHS touchdown we either had the chance to make a tackle for a loss or minimal gain or we had a chance to get the interception in the case of the touchdown passes. You can't coach athleticism. I am hoping my Miners' can turn it around like they did last year. Starting this week. Cause the second half of the schedule isn't looking good.
What you say is very true. You have to have the athletes however more importantly , you have to have the coach willing to use what athletes he/she has and then adapt their gameplan to best put them in a situation to win. Coaches willing to do this are the most successful. It's easy to stick to the gameplan and 'impose your will" when you play lesser opponents. What impresses me are wins against "same strength" opponents. In order to do this, you have to be willing to adapt to changing game situations and opponent schemes.Let's face it, whoever team you are pulling for seems to not have athletes when they are losing. Is it really about that as much as coaching. FH has dominated Alco in football, Alco has dominated FH in basketball. If you swapped the coaches for the last ten years in both sports, does anybody really believe the results wouldn't change?
There are two coaches who had success at FH in the 35 years, Frank Harris and Dave Hobel. Does anybody believe that's because those guys had the athletes and nobody else has?
We agree on most but whereas you see the adjustments I just don't see them. He can take a lead and just sit on it and let an opponent hang around and then the pressure is on and he just freezes. You can't look any further than the Dunbar game and say 26 first half points, 0 in the second half, 2 full quarters and not one point, and say he did everything possible to win. His limitations are his inability to run a screen pass, wide receiver reverse, end around, a slant, a halfback pass....the playbook is so limited and that is all about preparation and contingencies....or lack thereof. We will see an entire season of the same thing we've seen for the last 10 years and the end result will be the same as last year. Granted, if Dunbar wasn't around it might be enough to win it all, but then again lackey/douglas on a neutral field would probably be too much.What you say is very true. You have to have the athletes however more importantly , you have to have the coach willing to use what athletes he/she has and then adapt their gameplan to best put them in a situation to win. Coaches willing to do this are the most successful. It's easy to stick to the gameplan and 'impose your will" when you play lesser opponents. What impresses me are wins against "same strength" opponents. In order to do this, you have to be willing to adapt to changing game situations and opponent schemes.
Fort Hill has had some great athletes over the years. And many on here will blast their coach for running the same scheme in and out. But what I think their staff does better than anyone else around is make the tiny, sometimes unnoticed adjustments during the game to give their team success. It may be something as simple as running the belly outside rather than inside a defender, moving a defensive player a gap, having a lineman cut down their gap, etc. All these little things they do make them successful and why they are so hard to beat in the second half as well as late in the year.
The same idea pertains to any sport.
FH is a second half team because they make the needed adjustments at halftime. I have seen them do this over and over during the Appel era.. Even the greatest coaches have bad games like the Dunbar game your talking about. He had a bad game and still almost won. Could you imagine what Appel could do if he had Dunbar talent???We agree on most but whereas you see the adjustments I just don't see them. He can take a lead and just sit on it and let an opponent hang around and then the pressure is on and he just freezes. You can't look any further than the Dunbar game and say 26 first half points, 0 in the second half, 2 full quarters and not one point, and say he did everything possible to win. His limitations are his inability to run a screen pass, wide receiver reverse, end around, a slant, a halfback pass....the playbook is so limited and that is all about preparation and contingencies....or lack thereof. We will see an entire season of the same thing we've seen for the last 10 years and the end result will be the same as last year. Granted, if Dunbar wasn't around it might be enough to win it all, but then again lackey/douglas on a neutral field would probably be too much.
Allegany should beat Mountain Ridges as bad as Hedgesville did. Fort Hill will beat Lewis. I wouldn't be surprised to see Allegany go into homecoming undefeated. The only team that concerns me on Fort Hill's schedule is Hollidaysburg. Should be a good homecoming game. Fort Hill or Allegany should be the 1A West Champion. I don't see Southern getting by either team.
Ok, So The ridge gave ALCO a little more than a "bit of trouble". I saw in the Southern/Mt Ridge scrimmage that they had the size and power to cause some trouble this year. Just comes down to execution which it sounds like they did last night. What a great win for that program!Only local game that have similar strength teams would be the Southern/Catoctin matchup. Catoctin likes to pass and spread it out which usually gives southern problems. Southern D has not given up a point in first 2 games. This early matchup could have a lot of playoff implications later in the season as Catoctin already has a win over Boonesboro and Southern beat Smithsburg.
ALCO, FH, and Frankfort should win their games. Looks like a long season for Northern so far. Still think Mt Ridge has more talent than they have shown thus far. Might be able to give ALCO a bit of trouble if they stick to their Power game and their Big RB. I predicted a 5-5 season which would have been a pretty good year with their difficult schedule. I'm still going to stick with that .