Something besides SCAC

[Front Row Joe]

Can someone else comment perhaps? Curious to hear details of colville-freeman game and hoquiam-montesano. Anyone?

 

[OldGrenadier]

Me too, but this board seems all but dead. Hopefully someone will respond and get things going as we get closer to playoff time.

 

[the_boz]

Hey! Finally, some talk about NEA play. I was actually at the Freeman/Colville game last friday. It was a real defensive battle. After watching Colville play all of last year with their greatest team ever, I might dare to say this defense looks just as good, and possibly quicker. It was a 7-7 tie at the end of the game.

Freeman: relied heavily on Jack Paukert, a running back/reciever and the play of the quarterback making throws to their capable wideouts when necessary. Freeman has some size up front, and it showed at times against the smaller Colville line. But really, Paukert is the key player here... "Paukert on the carry....Paukert on the carry..."

Colville: qb is a stud, looked like he was playing qb and middle backer. They have several running backs that carry the load. Their line looks a little undersized, but solid and quick (typical Colville). The double wing is hard to stop, it's just athlete on athlete, and Colville has some athletes. Their defense closes gaps quicker than most 1A football teams I have seen. One of the defensive lineman is what looks like one of the best lineman in the state, he might have led the team in tackles.

There was something like 11 punts in the game. After Colville scored on a 20ish yard run on their first possesion, Freeman scored on a halfback pass, and youll never guess who threw it...yep, Paukert. Freeman came back out and threw an interception. Then Colville scored on a 1 yard qb keep.

2015: 20-14 (OT) Colville wins
2014: 28-7 Colville wins (game decided first place in NEA)
2013: 14-7 Freeman wins
2012: 20-18 Colville wins
2011: 28-27 Colville wins (game decided first place in NEA)

It's always fun watching these two teams play. They are well coached and always hit hard. Good luck to both teams going forward.
Tribe Pride

 

[Front Row Joe]

Great post, boz!! Thanks for the update. If I'm reading the state bracket right then NE is getting a raw deal. I'm anxious to see how they play out because Colville, Freeman and Lakeside all look pretty tough yet they only take 2 teams to playoffs. And it's not like that league is week as the last 2 championship games have had teams from there. In addition, the #2 from there has to play #1 from district 5 in the first round. That will be great football.

WIAA must have these brackets figured out well in advance and not put any value on how the teams are currently doing. I could probably do more research and find out but it's more fun to just assume and criticize. Either way I agree with king griz06 that playoffs are anyone's for the taking.

 

[OldGrenadier]

I'm pretty sure that the seeding and playoff brackets are done by formula without any regard to how teams and leagues are performing on the season.

 

[king_griz06]

But I guess the question remains, why does the east side get the raw end of the deal? Why not have it be east side battle it out and west side battle it out and then have a true east vs west title game? would make for better games and who knows maybe some rematches from the regular season could come up and the loser of the first game wins the rematch? The bracket needs to be re-worked to make things better!

 

[OldGrenadier]

I do agree that the bracket methodology should be reviewed regularly, especially as the number of teams in each league and each side of the state changes, but the scenario that you mention does actually happen quite regularly on the east side. For example, this year theoretically Royal and Connell could meet up again in the semifinals this year after already having played in the regular season. Connell and Zillah will play in the last regular season matchup and will likely be favored to meet up again in the quarterfinals. In 2012, Royal played River View in the regular season and again in the semifinals I believe. In 2013, Royal got destroyed by Zillah in the regular season and pulled off the biggest upset of the year in the preliminary crossover game. I actually preferred the way it was back in 2007 when it was set up so that it wasn't so clearly eastside vs westside in the championship game. Royal and Connell were clearly the two best teams in the 1A classification that year and from the same league, but the brackets allowed for them to meet in an epic championship game. That dissolved when the WIAA got so worried about travel expenses in a down economy. I dislike when the two best teams are on the same side of the state, but the east vs west bracket methodology forces them to play much earlier in the playoffs than they should.

The problem in seeding by some sort of system of team rankings is that it is nearly impossible to gauge when they haven't had many common opponents and some leagues are just much weaker than others. How good is this year's undefeated Port Townsend team? How do you know? They are undefeated and have blown every opponent out. Their closest win was by 37 points.

 

[king_griz06]

I do agree that the bracket methodology should be reviewed regularly, especially as the number of teams in each league and each side of the state changes, but the scenario that you mention does actually happen quite regularly on the east side. For example, this year theoretically Royal and Connell could meet up again in the semifinals this year after already having played in the regular season. Connell and Zillah will play in the last regular season matchup and will likely be favored to meet up again in the quarterfinals. In 2012, Royal played River View in the regular season and again in the semifinals I believe. In 2013, Royal got destroyed by Zillah in the regular season and pulled off the biggest upset of the year in the preliminary crossover game. I actually preferred the way it was back in 2007 when it was set up so that it wasn't so clearly eastside vs westside in the championship game. Royal and Connell were clearly the two best teams in the 1A classification that year and from the same league, but the brackets allowed for them to meet in an epic championship game. That dissolved when the WIAA got so worried about travel expenses in a down economy. I dislike when the two best teams are on the same side of the state, but the east vs west bracket methodology forces them to play much earlier in the playoffs than they should.

The problem in seeding by some sort of system of team rankings is that it is nearly impossible to gauge when they haven't had many common opponents and some leagues are just much weaker than others. How good is this year's undefeated Port Townsend team? How do you know? They are undefeated and have blown every opponent out. Their closest win was by 37 points.

You have a very good point there.......each league is different.......just seems like there needs to be a review of how the bracket is done......crazier things have happened like you have said maybe some crossover games could be arranged at neutral sites between east and west going forward if the state and leagues could come to some kind of agreement.....