All of you Whittier Tech bashers had better back off.
Look, I grilled Kevin a bit on his very iffy (at-best) non-league schedule.
After that, step off.
Whittier’s gritty win over Manchester was a pretty solid testament to the quality of this football team. A lot of people want to cheapshot the CAC.
They’ve done it in print.
When it comes to your league, you can’t pick your opponents, and the Cats have, to this point, plowed through the competition.
This team looks very familiar.
“I think it’s as good as our 2006 team,” said Bradley of the Jay Pena-led crew that went all the way to within nine yards of victory in the EMass title game.
“They haven’t very different personalities, but they compare very well.”
Bradley lauds this group’s desire to learn the game and get better. His wallet may take a hit as he picks up the tab for takeout in some film sessions that run into the night, but Bradley loves it.
He also likes his young, but feisty offensive line, which had no qualms about jamming the football down Manchester’s throat Saturday.
“These kids want to hit you,” said Bradley. “They have the mentality of a defensive line where they want to get after you.”
Why do I bring this up now? Well, the Cats deserve and they deserve a spot in my Fantastic Four, which you will see below.
First, I wanted to bring up one more point that I talked about with Dan Ventura of the Boston Herald, a great guy and a pretty good high school reporter, too.
Ventura noted that the MVC’s point system has not been approved by the MIAA, which probably won’t get ugly but it could have.
The MIAA has trouble recognizing the crossover games as counting. If they count, then they shouldn’t be two different leagues.
I found that pretty interesting, not for the MVC but for the CAL large, which is supposedly counting the Newburyport results for the large teams, even though the Port is in the small.
What if the MIAA had issues with that, would North Andover be able to claim its loss to the Clippers shouldn’t matter in the standings?
Confusing, yes. But what involving the MIAA isn’t confusing?
Oh well, enough with the red tape. A great week lies ahead, what with Central and Billerica on Friday night and the Pinkerton-Salem semifinal on Saturday, life is good.
OK, shakeup week in the Fantastic Four.
A week ago, I poured props on Salem.
I truly liked what I saw and thought there was no way the Blue Devils could e stopped.
45-7?????
Wow is all I can say.
1. Methuen - You deserve it Rangers, knocking off Central in a thriller.
Side note here, all this whining in comments from the game story on eagletribune.com: First, there was some atrocious officiating in that game. The non-call on the interfered with fair catch by Central was awful. Methuen fumbled the ball away on the next play, so it didn’t hurt the Raiders. The interference non-call was blown too. But Central had too many opportunities that it blew.
Bottom line is, the team that made more plays when it had to,made them and won a great football game.
The officials had a tough night. It didn’t matter. So enough already.
Methuen was the better team on that night.
2. Central Catholic - Yeah, the margin was that thin combined with Salem’s no-show Friday night.
3. Salem - The Blue Devils deserve a second chance, a win over 5-5 Pinkerton Saturday and I might consider it.
4. Whittier - A solid No. 4. An entrenched No. 4. A it’s going to take a Pinkerton state title run or North Andover Thanksgiving Day win to unseat you kind of locked in No. 4.
Let the Central-Billerica, Salem-Pinkerton pregame hype begin!!!!!
