Wide Open Big East

The college football season is almost over. Most of the conferences know who will be the unquestioned champion. Not so fast. The Big East still has to answer that question. At the beginning of the season, it was basically a three-way tie for preseason BE championship honors between Pitt, UConn, and West Virginia. Throw in Cincinnati or Rutgers as a sort of wild card pick. That tie still is pretty much the theoretical way the BE standings are, but Syracuse is having a breakout year, and Louisville looks to have a little spunk as well. Pitt and UConn stumbled early, while WVU and 'Cuse were the top dogs back then. UConn had a make-or-break game a few weeks ago against WVU at home and pulled out the 16-13 overtime win. That gave them some hope for the Pitt game this past week. They again pulled out a tight win, 30-28. Towards the middle part of the season, Pitt started to look like the team they were hyped to be in the preseason, while UConn and WVU kept tripping up. After UConn beat both teams, they are quite possibly the hottest team in the BE and except to travel to the Carrier Dome for a showdown with Syracuse this Saturday. If they win, and Pitt would trip up again this week or next, UConn is in a great position to still push for the title. Being that the BE has an automatic BCS bowl bid, amidst controversy, a UConn team that wins out at 8-4 could get that berth. With Pitt, WVU, and possibly Syracuse succumbing to the Huskies, followed by a late season home game with Cincy, there probably isn't a whole lot that will stop them. They're young and talented, like Pitt, and Randy Edsall's teams play smart, fundamental football. They have Jordan Todman on their side, and the pressure has lessened with being 5-4. This season in the BE is not over yet, and you gotta check out some of these games coming up. These will be a great last few weeks of football season! (There's always the Big East basketball season :) )

Go Huskies!

District 5-A Championship

After a perfect 9-0 regular season and a strong showing in the district playoffs have led the Northern Bedford Black Panthers to prominence, it's time to take home the District 5 crown. We are the No. 2 seed this year. The North Star Cougars will be our opponent. The Cougars are a great team, being the No. 4 seed. More importantly, North Star upended No. 1 seed and previously unbeaten Berlin 21-14 last Friday. Our offense was held in check by the Conemaugh Twp. defense for the first half on Saturday, but we exploded later to win 28-7. Our QB went down vs. Meyersdale a couple weeks ago, so we implemented a wildcat-type offense to specifically accommodate our needs. This appears to be the same plan for this week. Both Conemaugh and North Star boast great quarterbacks. We've taken care of Township, as our stifling defense held strong. We look to do the same again and although our last game really wasn't as close as many thought, I believe this will be the closest we've had. Let's get the job done this week as we have all season...Let's Go Panthers!

Perfect!

After another season of football, history has been made for the Northern Bedford Black Panthers. They have achieved a perfect regular season record of 9-0. This was our first perfect season since 1975. They've got a lot of momentum heading into the District 5 Class A playoffs. Meyersdale will come to town this Friday to face off in a first round playoff game. Berlin is the top seed in D5 A and appears as if they will be the Panthers' challengers for the championship. Look for it to be a great game when (or if) these two area powerhouses meet. I'm sure we'll be looking into the weaknesses that Berlin has and use them to our advantage in the event of a potential game matchup. We defeated West Branch 42-0 last Friday on Senior Night to clinch our perfect regular season. I think we'll be pumped and ready for the start of the 2010 high school postseason.