Section Nine Football

Our resident guru went a somewhat pedestrian 13-4 in predicting the games from week one. He has sent us another batch of chocolate chip scones for this short week:

MONTICELLO – The Panthers have suffered two big losses entering a battle with local rival Liberty. The Red Hawks have also had little luck. We’ll go with Monticello to find the charm.

RED HOOK – Although Saugerties beat New Paltz by two touchdowns, Red Hook had good preparation in losing a hard-fought encounter with state champion O’Neill. We choose the Raiders to find a way.

BURKE – The Eagles righted the ship somewhat in coming back from a difficult loss to Tioga by taking a decision over Highland. Meanwhile, Beacon gave up 61 points at Port Jervis. Burke gets our blessing here.

WASHINGTONVILLE – Sean Davis and Nick Ascenzo are piling up the early-season stats for the Wizards. Kingston enters at 1-1, after ignoring my prediction in a shutout loss to Warwick. We feel Washingtonville can get this done.

MIDDLETOWN – In the 145th meeting between two old DUSO rivals, we don’t get an obvious picture of which team comes out ahead on the scoreboard. Port Jervis has pasted its first two opponents by a combined score of 109-38. The Middies ran away from Goshen, 55-28. Right now, the Erie Bell sits in Port Jervis. Word has it that the ghosts in charge of handling the Bell have booked passage from Glennette to Faller.

MARLBORO – The Dukes won a close tussle over Saugerties two weeks ago, but weather prevented them from playing Roosevelt in week one. New Paltz lost by two touchdowns to those same Sawyers.So the theory of transitivity states we shall witness an Iron Dukes kind of evening.

SPACKENKILL – The Spartans rebounded with a huge win over Dover while Chester handled Liberty by three scores. This matchup could come down to whichever squad plays the best fourth quarter. Let’s stay with the home team in this one.

HIGHLAND – The Huskies get the slight edge versus Dover in this week two non-leaguer. Despite losing big at Burke, Highland may have more in the tank than the Dragons, a team still finding its way back to 11-man football.

NEWBURGH – The Goldbacks had a week one bye after trouncing Section One New Rochelle in week zero. Minisink got right into action by scoring a fast 33 first-half points before the rains ended the affair at Wallkill. MV still gets credit for that as a win. This marks a great early season SNF showcase between two of our toughest. NFA takes this one on the road.

OUR LADY OF LOURDES – The 2-0 Warriors have had a great time since joining us at Section Nine a season ago. They won the Section Nine Class A crown over Cornwall and now get to face another long-time dominant force on this side of the river, Monroe-Woodbury. The Crusaders had a week one bye so had the challenge of staying sharp for OLL. We’ll see how the ball bounces but the Warriors get the pick this time around.

CORNWALL – The Dragon offense is rolling after two wins to open the year. Pine Bush scored 32 in a loss to OLL. In their home opener, Cornwall will find extra motivation to overthrow these Bushmen.

WALLKILL – We have another rendition of the Helmet Game. The Panthers have won the last two meetings to take an edge in the overall series over Valley Central. We see no reason why Wallkill can’t make it three in a row over the Vikings, unless they have some unforeseen tricks up their shoulder pads.

WARWICK – We went against the Wildcats and got our derrieres burned by some week one lightning. Goshen had a good second half against Middletown but fell too far behind to come back. The Gladiators have better quick-strike ability. This should challenge the Warwick defense. This could be one very close ballgame and the Purple-and-Gold will have to claw their way to a third straight Spirit Trophy win.

O’NEILL – Superstar receiver Marek Arbogast had another fine game along with his partners in football crime to knock off Red Hook in week one. Now it’s the O’Neill home opener – and they should indeed get out the bunting and ceremonial glitter to celebrate last season’s Class C state championship team. Roosevelt may find some push from watching, but the Raiders stand in good position to get the ‘W.’

FALLSBURG – The Comets definitely made us look bad with a 48-24 season-opening win over Ellenville. But we’re still glad for these guys. Tri-Valley, on the other hand, did not start their 8-Man title-defense well with a 33-0 loss at Pine Plains/Rhinebeck. I guess we go with the hotter ‘Comet’ here.

RONDOUT – Neither Rondout nor Millbrook/Webutuck has scored any points as of yet. We strongly get the notion that somebody will cross the goal line this week and that Rondout will pick up its first-ever 8-man victory.

PINE PLAINS/RHINEBECK – The Bombers played very well in a shutout win over T-V as Ellenville stumbled at Fallsburg. A league victory would be well worth the long journey for PP/RB. We’ll find out if Ellenville can tighten its defense. Nonetheless, we’ll take the Bombers/Hawks in this interesting ballgame.

PAWLING – Pawling got a rain-shortened decision over Rondout in week one. Now they host league rival Onteora in a game where the Tigers should play as the heavy favorites.