Section Nine Football

SECTION NINE FOOTBALL TOP FIVE RANKINGS AFTER WEEK FIVE

CLASS AA/A:
1. CORNWALL – The 6-0 Dragons take our top spot here after a resounding last-minute win over Minisink at the middle school on Friday night. This week Cornwall will play the role of heavy favorite against visiting Beacon.

2. MONROE-WOODBURY – Coach James Sciarra has the Crusaders in first place after getting past pesky Pine Bush, 27-19, at Thomas F. Lonergan Field at PBHS. M-W continues the tour up at Rondout this Saturday with another Class AA game versus Kingston.

3. MIDDLETOWN – The Middies post an amazing 28-17 upset at Newburgh to shake things up in the big division. This represents a great program accolade for the Bears, and a small measure of revenge for what happened in last year’s playoffs. As for week six, Middletown hosts Warwick, a late-game winner over Wallkill on Saturday.

4. NEWBURGH – The Goldbacks suffer a rare loss to Middletown but must stay on track in a non-league excursion over to Poughkeepsie to take on tough Our Lady of Lourdes. NFA still has future league games with Kingston and M-W to further define the playoff picture.

5 (a). MINISINK – The Warriors played two quality SNF programs within a span of four days last week. MV will quickly move on from the disappointment at Cornwall as an A-1 divisional showdown takes place with Washingtonville at Slate Hill this Friday night. NFHS subscription streaming will have the game.

5 (b). WASHINGTONVILLE – The 6-0 Wizards held the proverbial football serve with a huge win over inexperienced Monticello. This sets up the colossal war on the road with Minisink. Everybody in Blooming Grove is chatting up Wizard football!

CLASS B/C/D:
1. MARLBORO – The Dukes won a 14th consecutive Black and Blue Bowl game over at Highland and they get to keep the trophy back home. In week six, Wallkill rolls into town in what could provide unbeaten Marlboro with one of its toughest challenges of the season.

2 (a). PORT JERVIS – The Raiders blanked the struggling Liberty Red Hawks, 35-0, in a tuneup for this week’s tug-of-war for the division crown against Saugerties. PJ may have the slight edge in the battle of the trenches.

2 (b). SAUGERTIES – The upstart Sawyers have won five straight after a rain-soaked, 35-26 Mum Bowl success over Roosevelt of Hyde Park. In watching this game, Saugerties converted the passes despite the weather but had some difficulty stopping the FDR running game.

3. O’NEILL – The Raiders dominated Class C opponent Dover and this sets up this week’s contest with visiting Chester as the game for the division title and top seed when they meet again for the sectional championship.

4. BURKE – The Eagles finally gave up some points but it made little difference in a 35-11 win at Spackenkill. Dover provides the opposition in a home game this week, as Burke prepares itself for the state playoff game since they are the only Class D team in our section. This gets the Eagles an automatic state tournament berth as the Class D champion.

5. CHESTER – The Hambletonians defeated Red Hook 35-21, the same score by which O’Neill beat them. The game at O’Neill this week will be a tough pick but only the first of two upcoming fights.

8-MAN:
1. PAWLING – The Tigers clinched the Division Two crown after a big 48-6 walloping of PP/RB. Two non-league regular season games remain on the Pawling schedule, including a juke and a jive over to T-V this Saturday afternoon.

2. SULLIVAN WEST – The Bulldogs blanked T-V on the road to clinch division honors and now host Eldred this Friday night. SW appears already geared for postseason action.

3. RONDOUT – The Ganders finally make our rankings in the program’s first year as an 8-man player. Coach Chris Frenza certainly hopes to get the Ganders back to 11-man football next year, yet they have slowly gotten used to 8-man play the past few weeks with wins over PP/RB and Fallsburg.

4. PINE PLAINS/RHINEBECK – The Bombers/Hawks endured a big loss at Pawling and must pick up the pace in front of the home crowd against Onteora this week. This comes after a close five-point loss to Rondout in week four.

5. FALLSBURG – The Comets lost 48-22 to Rondout but we’ll show them some love by keeping them here at #5. This week they expect to host Livingston Manor/Roscoe, a team that has had to forfeit two games thus far due to low roster numbers. We’ll see how/if LM/R can get enough players to get the game in this week.