Post 441 – Bull Session Week Three

The just completed polls had some shakeup. Someone asked me why I still had DePaul over Delbarton and I said because their other loss was to St. Joe’s (Montvlae) and Delbarton’s losses were to St. Anthony (NY) and Woodrow Wilson. It was also in triple overtime, so it is not as if it was a big margin of victory….. One change is Piscataway’s first loss and I moved them down quite a bit…..One rule-of-thumb I use in public school polls is I rarely move a team down for losing to a good Catholic school. Case in point, Union City at 2-2 is in the Top 25…..Another rule I use is St. Joe’s (Montvale) stays at no.-1 in the Catholic poll after losing to St. Frances of Baltimore because there isn’t a team in New Jersey coming close to beating that team…..Best wishes to Nunzio Campanile as interim head coach at Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights have been taking their lumps, but I hope they can put together some good performances…..In a battle of teams from opposite ends of the state, I was not surprised Penns Grove beat River Dell, but I was surprised by the score: 42-7. Ditto, Ramapo’s win over Old Tappan by the same score…..A good story to this point is the 4-0 start Garfield is off to, 80 years after their mythical national Championship season of 1939. They face off with undefeated Waldwick in two weeks…..Last week did not lack barnburners. One was Lyndhurst’s come-from-behind win over Pompton Lakes, 21-20. The Golden Bears were down 13-0, with four minutes left, winning on a two-point conversion with 22 seconds left in the game…..No.-1 Public Groups 3-4-5 Williamstown scored with 19 seconds left over No.-7 Lenape to win, 28-21, after trailing 13-0 at the half…..No.-12 Toms River North beat no.-20 Rumson-Fair Haven, 22-21, one week after beating no.-21 Manalapan, 42-20…..No.-3 Phillipsburg beat no.-10 Ridge, 34-28, in overtime…..Also, the aforementioned Delbarton win over DePaul in triple overtime, 39-39…..Others were West Milford beating Lakeland, 33-27, in overtime, Shore over Point Pleasant Boro 37-30, and Pequannock surprising Mountain Lakes, 22-21…..With the new ranking system to determine the playoffs, I am sure I will understand it once I take the time to learn; I just haven’t done it yet. For now, it looks like a mystery to me. At least I know the “northing” system and I didn’t last year…..Hasbrouck Heights beat Lodi, 41-0, in a game between next-door neighbors who haven’t met since 1960…..Pet Peeves: While I am a devout Catholic, the invocations before Catholic school games are too long, usually lasting well over a minute. The players are antsy standing through a National Anthem, the least they can do is go easy on them by cutting the invocation to 20 seconds: pray for the players to keep them safe, play honorably, and may the best team win. That is the way God would want it. I mentioned this last year and it bears repeating…..Giants Front: What a difference two weeks makes for the Giants. After starting off 0-2, they are now 2-2. I predicted in the spring the G-men would win between 6 and 8 games and I am sticking to it. I also said the defense would be better the second half of the season…..In addition, the last two weeks of Jabrill Peppers are much better than the first two…..That’s all for this week; I will be back with more bull next Wednesday!