Post 601 – Bull Session Week Seven

Just took in a live stream of Bernards defeating St. Thomas Aquinas, the former Bishop Ahr. It was a damp evening played on a grass field at Aquinas and Bernards adjusted from being in the shotgun to under center. Bernards was in control and broke the game open in the fourth quarter to win, 41-6…..There is something to be said about a player being a good, very good, or great high school football player. They may not be big recruits for a variety of reasons, but they’re a good, very good, great high school football player…..In case you wonder why I don’t have many player or coach interviews any more, it’s simply not a strength of mine. I am much better with questions that are thought out ahead of time than I am with spontaneous ones. There are questions that others ask and I never think of, situations that happened in the game that I realize happened, but I am not thinking of it at that time. I need to digest the game before I can get to that; I know the game, but need to think about it and that sometimes gets lost in the flow of the game. When I do my game story I realize what somebody contributed to the game. If there is a situation I want to know about, I will go out and ask somebody and there are times responses to my questions have been printed in other publications, but it is something I am not comfortable with much of the time. I did it at NJ Varsity because it was expected, but now that I have my own site, I don’t have to interview anyone. When I personally read a game story, I don’t need a quote from someone to know what happened. I simply report the game as it happened and record it. I like to think I have a unique way of covering my games from quarter to quarter…..The Ramsey win over Verona was a good game and had the winning score being a touchdown pass between twin brothers Blake and Bryan Creamer. Verona features a great high school football running back in Frank Riggio. He may not have Alabama, Ohio State. Or Rutgers offering him, but he is a great high school football player and one who makes high school football such a great game…..Pet Peeves: when you do something you’re not supposed to and a person says “can’t you read signs?” I can read signs very well; perhaps a better question would be “did you notice the sign?”…..More Pet Peeves: I hate when a team wins a Super Bowl and say 2012 when it was actually the 2011 season. The Super Bowl may have been played after the New Year, but most of the work was done in 2011. Ditto high school football – I don’t consider the graduating year to be the player’s senior season…..There are some interesting matchups with the extra games starting this weekend. Good matchups include these Catholic school games: #3 Delbarton at #4 St. Joe’s (Montvale) and #5 Don Bosco at #2 Bergen Catholic. Catholic/Public games feature #8 Mater Dei at #2 Wall, #12 Winslow at #9 Holy Spirit, and #11 St. Joe’s (Hammonton) at #13 Ocean City. Public Groups 3-4-5 include #1 Lenape at #3 Cherokee, #9 Somerville at #5 Woodbridge, #24 Ridge at #14 Phillipsburg, #19 North Brunswick at #22 Cranford, #4 Rumson-Fair Haven at #21 Colts Neck, #7 Hammonton at #10 Williamstown, and #8 Wayne Hills at #23 Northern Highlands. Large and small publics give us #6 Willingboro at #16 Ramapo. Public Groups 1-2 have #10 Park Ridge at #15 Becton, #24 Pompton LAkes at #23 Waldwick, #20 Cedar Grove at #14 Boonton, #18 Delaware Valley at #12 Hillside, and #25 Haddon Heights at #3 Paulsboro……The statewide state leaders from nj.com are: passing – Dario Bryant of Cedar Grove – 1,488 yards, rushing – Hunter Van Zant of Boonton with 1,498, receiving – Anthony Billotta of Cedar Grove with 677 yards, tackles – Harry Boland of Caldwell with 92, sacks – Devin Jackson of Lincoln with 19, interceptions – Yah-Sin Calhoun of Freehold Boro and Khan-Yae Stevens of North Plainfield with 5……Nobody asked me, but: I don’t understand how so many people go bonkers over Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline. I don’t hate the song, but I can take it or leave it. In fact, the only two Neil Diamond songs I really like are Cherry Cherry and America…..Rutgers plays Illinois this weekend…..I miss the days when Union playing Elizabeth was the big game…..The lone New Jersey high school player in the Top 50 Draft Prospects from The Athletic’s Dane Brugler is Blair Academy’s Jayson Oweh….. That’s it for this week, I will be back next week with some more bull!