St. Georges 28 Hodgson 6………………..This will be the 2nd time these two Flight B rivals meet this year. St. Georges won the 1st matchup 47-0. The score of that game might be slightly misleading as the Hawks only led 14-0 at the half. St. Georges RB Gary Brightwell has had a huge season scoring 20 TD (17 rush 3 receiving) and had 181 yards rushing with 3 TD against Hodgson in their 1st meeting. He also had big games against Howard (161 rush yards 3 TD), Glasgow (163 rush yards 4 TD) and caught the game winning TD against St. Mark’s when they rallied to defeat the Spartans 20-16. Statistically the St. Georges defense is the best in the state allowing only 8.3 points per game and registering 4 shutouts on the season. Only DI William Penn scored more than 16 points against St. Georges when they defeated the Hawks 33-12 on opening day. Hodgson finds themselves in a similar situation again this year entering the tournament as a bottom seed. Last season they were the 7th seed and almost easily won the state championship beating Lake Forest (22-13), St. Georges (32-7) and Laurel (42-0). Obviously Hodgson will be looking to repeat last season when they were defeated by St. Georges in the regular season but handled the Hawks in the playoffs. The difference is last year the Silver Eagles had Ray Jones who was basically unstoppable and could take over a game with his talent. Back to back state champion Hodgson has made a nice run winning 3 of 4 games to make the playoffs and expect them to show up Saturday morning and play better than they did in that 1st game but St. Georges is too good this year to lose this one.
DMA 24 Woodbridge 16……………After going 6-4 the last 2 seasons DMA had a breakthrough season this year finishing at 9-1 in the regular season and qualifying for the state tournament for the 2nd time in school history. Their only loss was an odd 17-2 loss against Archmere. DMA last qualified for the playoffs in 2012 where they were beaten by Hodgson 47-6. DMA Junior QB Jacob Hudson (7 Rush TD 10 Pass TD) leads an offense that averaged 32.6 points per game and scored at least 30 points in 6 games. Defensively DMA allows 10.6 points per game and posted 2 shutouts on the season. One of those shutouts was a 35-0 win over tournament qualifier Tower Hill. The other was opening night against Charter 28-0. Woodbridge had a surprising season this year finishing at 7-3 and qualifying for the playoffs for the 2nd time in 3 years. Woodbridge was a participant in the 2013 playoffs beating Tower Hill in the 1st round 28-21 before losing to St. Georges 37-21 in the semifinals. This season Woodbridge was 3 points away from winning the Henlopen South conference losing to Lake Forest 9-7. The Blue Raiders other losses were to Friends (28-23) and St. John Paul (VA) (25-19). Last week Woodbridge defeated rival Delmar 32-6 behind RB Terrique Riddick and his 143 rushing yards. The Woodbridge defense enters the game allowing 8.8 points per game which is 2nd in DII to St. Georges. Woodbridge registered 4 shutouts on the season. Both of these teams have bright futures with underclassmen and juniors playing a major role in their success. At this point though DMA has a little more depth and size and should win a very competitive 1st round game.
Lake Forest 26 Friends 20……………Lake Forest returns to the playoffs for the 2nd straight year and once again draws a tough matchup in their 1st game. Last year they were the #2 seed and faced eventual state champion Hodgson the 7th seed in the opening round of the playoffs. Under the current point system winning your conference and finishing at 8-2 doesn’t guarantee you a home game so the Spartans will travel up state to meet Friends. Overall last year’s Lake team might be considered more talented than this year’s version but the Spartans do have 24 seniors on this season’s roster. QB Noah Feague-Johnson is a key returnee from last year and leads a Spartan offense averaging 29.3 points per game. The offense has really picked up steam in the 2nd half of the season scoring over 30 points in their last 4 games (Glasgow, Seaford, Indian River and Milford). Senior RB Trevon Milton scored 3 times last week in a 39-26 win over Milford which helped Lake secure a spot in the playoffs. Lake has won 7 straight games since starting the season at 1-2. The 2 losses were to Hodgson (38-30) and Dover (41-40). Defensively the Spartans do allow 19.3 points per game which is 2nd most of any DII playoff qualifier with Hodgson allowing 20.6 per game. Friends made the playoffs last year and defeated Archmere in the 1st round 41-27 before losing in the semifinals to Laurel 14-0. People will question their schedule (including me) but make no mistake Friends is very good and a well-coached football team. Friends opponents had a combined record of 36-52 this year but they did play 2 playoff teams defeating Woodbridge (28-23) and losing to rival Tower Hill (15-14). The loss last week to Tower Hill snapped an 18 game regular season win streak and it was Friends 1st regular season loss since 2013 when they lost to Tower Hill 28-7. The leading scorers for Friends are QB Justin Beneck (11 rush TD 6 pass TD) and RB Stephen Maguire (10 TD). Lake Forest looks to have a slight edge in this game but they better not overlook a very balanced Friends team.
Howard 32 Tower Hill 15………….The last time Howard faced an Independent Conference team in the playoffs they lost to Friends 26-20 in the 1st round of the 2008 playoffs. Since 2008 Howard is 1-5 in the playoffs with their lone win coming in 2011 versus Archmere. Howard is hoping that history doesn’t repeat itself this season. Howard had a strong regular season this year going 7-3 with all 3 losses coming to playoff teams (St. Georges, Smyrna and Mount Pleasant). Howard has a strong running attack and their offense is averaging 28.8 points per game. The Howard defense gave up 30 points or more 3 times this season but that was against Archmere, St. Georges and Smyrna. Tower Hill beat rival Friends 15-14 last week to secure their 3rd straight playoff berth. Last year they were beaten by St. Georges in the 1st round of the playoffs and the previous season Woodbridge knocked them out in the opening round. The biggest knock on Tower Hill was their schedule consisting of only 9 games. After looking at their schedule it might be a little tougher than most think. Tower Hill’s opponents had a combined record of 49-37 and they did face 2 playoff teams losing to DMA (35-0) and defeating Friends. Tower Hill only averaged 20.8 points per game offensively which is the lowest of any playoff team but defensively they were very good only giving up 12.9 points per game. I think this Howard team can make a deep run in the playoffs this season but they’ll need to get past Tower Hill first.
Last week: 20-1
Season: 163-44
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