I Love Playoff Football Season

Friday night I went up to Frank Banko Field to watch Easton take on Freedom in a District 11 AAAA playoff game in the freezing cold. It's almost an annual rite of passage, that an Easton team was playing a Bethlehem team on the turf in Bethlehem. As usual, it was worth the ride, as the underdog Rovers took down the EPC South co-champs in the first round.

Easton will go to Parkland next weekend, another annual given, to play in the semi-final round. Parkland took down Delaware Valley, and now gets at least one more home game against Easton. Once upon a time, about 15 years ago, Easton would always go in and beat the favored Trojans in the District playoffs. In the last three years, the Trojans have ended the Rovers season each time in districts, after losing the regular season game. This year Parkland won the regular season game, so hopefully the trend reverses.

Freedom's cross-town rivals had mixed results. Arch-rival Liberty won their game with Stroudsburg to advance to the other AAAA semi-final against unbeaten Wyoming Valley West on the road. Bethlehem Catholic, the heavily favored AAA school in town, was shocked by unbeaten Saucon Valley in the district semi-finals. Saucon will play at Lehighton next week for the title. Notre Dame meanwhile will play in the AA Championship game against reigning champion Northwestern. Emmaus will play Reading in next week's Eastern Conference AAAA Final, while Central Catholic will face off with Southern Lehigh in AAA. Phillipsburg also advanced in New Jersey, as did Belvidere, to next week's semi-finals.

High school football playoffs are always great to watch.  Seasons are made or lost by the performances put up this time of year. Kids wait their whole lives to play for their high school, and they have a lot more pride and heart in winning these games. Next week's games should be really fun to watch.