Week four of the high school football playoffs continue this weekend as all matchups move to Saturday afternoon.
The Salem Spartans now carry the ‘Big-11’ banner after Cave Spring fell short in a valiant second-half comeback effort that saw the Knights season end when a last-second pass deep in Tunstall territory was broken up, giving the Trojans the 19-15 win and a trip this Saturday to Brookville.
Salem remained undefeated with a solid River Ridge rematch victory over Christiansburg that set up their state semifinal at 1:00 p.m. Saturday in Salem Stadium against Heritage.
It should be a classic matchup between long-time friends Steve Magenbauer and Brad Bradley, as their teams knock heads on the Salem carpet.
High school basketball regular season games began this week, and early signs point to significant strength inside the ‘Big-11’. All teams will be in action by next week with the first “Big-11′ Top-5 poll set for December 14th.
The Tech-UVa battle for the Commonwealth Cup last Saturday offered a chilly look at what had become a pair of underachieving teams in 2012.
Tech survived the battle of snafus, 17-14, on Cody Journell’s last second field goal. The biggest winners were the hot chocolate vendors. Unless, of course, you’re more excited about the Hokies becoming bowl-eligible after finishing 6-6 with the win.
This weekend’s conference title games will shed light on Tech’s bowl destination, but make no mistake about it, this year the ACC is like being in a gunfight with nothing but a pocket knife.
If Georgia Tech knocks off Florida State, the Yellow Jackets, after getting blistered by Georgia last Saturday 42-10, would be the ACC representative in the Orange Bowl. Should that happen, last week’s prediction of $5 bowl tickets is dropping to $3.
If Florida State wins Saturday, runner-up Georgia Tech may end up bowl ineligible at 6-7. Quite a mess for a 12-team conference that has only three bowl-eligible teams with winning records. Add to that the fact that one of those three, N.C. State, has already fired its head coach.
Somebody in the scheme of things will end up in Charlotte for the Belk Bowl. That may well end up a Red Dot special, with an extra 50% off the lowest marked price.
I’ve been asked what was the most notable thing I noticed from being on the sideline at the Tech-UVa matchup. Besides the temperature, which made things feel quite a bit more like Christmas, it was probably watching Logan Thomas run 29 quarterback keepers. That’s putting your team on your shoulders.
Or, watching in amazement as the Cavaliers tried a fake field goal on fourth-and-eight with an ex-team manager place kick holder while leading 14-7. Can anybody tell me, was Al Groh at the game?
I know why I’ll never be a head coach after watching UVA avoid using their two timeouts while Tech spent the clock before Journell’s game-winner. At the post game press conference Mike London couldn’t come up with an answer and I’m guessing he never will.
Now, a quick glimpse into the mailbag, where a reader asks about Saturday’s game and a Tech fan offers insight into an angle on the tax code and a new meaning for the term “fiscal cliff.”
Dear Wild Bill: Any interesting comments heard at the Tech-UVa game last Saturday after the long season both had? (Bennett/Hillsville)
Best line of the afternoon went to a clearly cold and disgruntled Tech fan who could not get a bite outside the stadium on selling his extra three tickets: “This season has been such a disaster for Tech, I can take the cost of my season tickets as a tax writeoff.”
Until next week, somebody call Harry Reid before we all have tickets- to the poor house. And, send your tax questions to: [email protected]
