And again, I know West Essex is undefeated at home this year and has only allowed 4 TDs all freaking year, but HP scored one of those TDs and held WE to their lowest point total of the year (6 when they average 31 a game) when they last played.
As far as HP goes, they are peaking at the right time. Again, that loss to Mendham was an aberration, (especially when you look to what happened to Mendham since then, missing the playoffs and losing to Ridge - although that may have been the result of getting the shaft in the playoff picture and a loss of focus and desire), HP is peaking at this point and is going to make a game of it on Friday. If they keep it close they can win. Let's face it, not many teams can stop Hinton. Gatti contributes in several different ways, and HP's QB, Alex Ardolino, has been playing very well and doesn't make many mistakes. However, HP cannot squander opportunities to score like they did against Ridgefield Park last week. Anytime they get into the red zone they better put something on the board, or WE is going to make them pay.
Let's not forget that Ridgefield Park was bigger than HP but HP outplayed them. HP is quick as a team on both sides of the ball. Their defense has been playing well all year, and as their coach Dan Gregory's defensive gameplan, "Our philosophy is to tackle well and run to the football" makes complete sense. I only wish the New York Jets applied that logic when playing, maybe they could stop a team from scoring 25 points or whatever a game against them!
Finally, these HP kids have some grit and some heart, and that is what it is going to take to beat the heavily favored Knights. That's not to say WE doesn't have heart, they are playing like the Patriots of the Iron Hills Conf., kicking ass and taking names. And don't think for one second revenge won't be on their minds come Friday. That being said, HP has been up against adversity before and performed. They will do it again this Friday!
HP 13
WE 7
Go Hornets!
RANDOM NOTES:
--Mendham's fall from grace was completed after they last to an inferior team last Saturday. It was a disappointing end to an otherwise good season. They will have to get them next year!
--Nobody is stopping Morristown this year.
--I know it is out of conference, but Verona had some revenge last weekend against Beardley, who beat them for the State Title last year. Although they are underdogs, I don't seen anyone standing in their way on their quest to a State Championship.
--Finally, East Orange is going to roll and Chatham doesn't have a chance this weekend. Write that shit down. I don't need to give scores because it is a bunch of bullshit anyway. If you want me to pick numbers out of thin air I could, like Unruly, but I don't like to put my sweeping generalizations down to simple numbers.
-- Oh yeah, one last thing. Many of you want to know what Unruly looks like in person. Well, I was lucky enough to graduate High School (HP in the house!) with him and here is his senior year yearbook photo. Nobody ever made fun of him because he was nuts in High School.
23 comments:
Fake,
You are one hilarious mofo.
...and as a correction, I am the one who makes sweeping generalizations about scores (eg. my hyperbolic score prediction to the Ridge game). Alas, literary devices are lost upon the uneducamated.
You are right...Ridge IS an inferior team to Mendham, but they came into the game with nothing to lose and played like it - despite the fact they had like 2 half decent players (1 on each side of the ball) and 4 plays on offense, two of which were QB keepers, and ran some fake punt BS that looked like a Rugby play. I was waiting to see a drop kick on their PAT.
Fakehead, you are one funny mofo is right. This summer I was at the beach and this guy and his mother kept telling me I looked like Will Farrell.
I dont know where you got that picture. You are f'n funny man!
But back to business, you got balls to take on Wessex like you did. But I like HP's gumpshun and this is actually a rematch of last weeks AFC Championship Game. HP has the "nothing to lose" factor which might be just the swagger they need. But Wessex has a nifty QB and they have a nice WR that starts with an R I think.
Anyhow, I am still laughing at your post.
By the way, I dont see Chatham getting knocked out this week at all.
I believe you. there will be another upset. watch hanover park beat wessex and then watch Morris Hills beat Chatham once again. believe me i know morris hills going to win this one.
watch Morris Hills and Hanover Park in state finals.
heyy you should write somethin about morris hills and chatham.
Trex, tomorrow the Chatham/MoHills article will come out. And MoHills will not be happy about it.
You Guys will not stop. Ridge was the better all round team and would win 9 out of 10 times
The Ridge Line was clearly bigger and stronger. They controlled the LOS all day. The skills positions were also in Ridge favor.
Take nothing away from Mendham. They had a great year and they played hard on Saturday. You can only beat who is on your schedule. That said, switch the schedules of these two teams and Mendham is lucky to win 3 games.
If you looked at who Ridge played, and were honest with yourself, you would see it. Bottom line - Ridge was better the better team. STOP BASHING RIDGE!
This website is funny. I understand you are a HP graduate, but I dont understand why you bash against west essex every week. What is wrong with you? Hp had about 4 first downs last game along with their fluke touchdown. They played good, im not taking anything away from them. But WE looked bad, not to mention the sloppy conditions. But i guarentee you see the west essex that spanked Mo Hills, chatham, and Parhills... Since then theyre a better team. I bet if you had money on it, youd go with west essex. Im not a gambler, but id put my money on WE to beat HP for the 2nd time in 2 years in the state semis. remember west essex owns North 2 Group 2. WE 20-6
I don't think I bash WE every week, do I? I don't post here every week. And to be honest, most of my posts shouldn't be taken seriously because I have no clue what the hell I'm talking about. If I were a WE fan, I'd take it as a compliment, because there is no question they are a good team. It's like bashing the Patriots, it's gotten to the point where the only people that like the Pats are Patriots' fans, everyone else in the world wants them to lose. Now, I'm not saying everyone wants WE to lose, that certainly isn't the case, plus they don't cheat like the Pats did and their coach doesn't run up the score like Bellijerk does. That being said, HP is clearly the underdog and everybody likes an underdog.
All that being said, and regardless of the fact that I have no clue, that doesn't mean HP is going to lose, and trust me, I already put some money on it. There is plenty of action on this game with the Knights being favored by 14 points, who wouldn't take it! ha ha
Everytime I look at Unruly's photo I laugh. That is the best thing about my prediction post.
Allright Anon 5:23...you want the honest scoop, all kidding aside??
Ridge won that game, no doubt. The tale of the stats actually favors Mendham slightly if you take a look at it, but for arguments sake in your favor...let's call it parity.
Any overtime game - BY DEFINITION - can easily break either way, so to say that one team is undoubtedly better than the other, based on the results of one game is just plain ridiculous.
So what do you have left if you really want to compare the two? The schedule. Ridge beat one other team with a winning record all season before beating Mendham; Franklin (6-3) who is a group IV playoff team who just beat PBurg (5-4)in Rd 1. Nice work.
Straight up? McGuirl is a great QB. He pulled some shite out of his butt that reminded me of Doug Flutie. The depth of their offense begins and ends there from what I saw at the Mendham game. Ridge had like 4 plays on offense and 2 of them were QB keepers. Without McGuirl, Ridge loses at least 14-0. It looks like the O has no depth.
Ridge's O and D lines looked bigger than Mendham's. So you definitely have that won, but that speaks nothing to skills...that is genetics and time jackin' the steel. Good on them for the effort induced part of the equation. Skill on the line looked like parity other than that.
Granted the only Ridge game I saw was on Saturday, but it looks to me like the team couldn't get it together until later in the season. That happens. You should have no problem dismantling Watchung Hills, then. I'll write you a nice article, ok? (it is actually already half done...I just can't seem to find anything worth a damn for data on W.H.)
On last thing: This website is meant as much for entertainment value as it is for serious sports analysis; I will not identify which it is of the two that I am writing, because that takes the fun out of it.
I am glad Ridge has seen it so motivating to read about all of this in the past couple of weeks. So enjoy, join in the fun and make some wisecracks of your own...we'll all love it. Just don't take it so seriously, you'll live longer.
One more thing...since we are here to have fun, you'll notice we don't bash players as individuals (unlike Mr.Dunn)...I don't care if the kid threw 100 interceptions and ran for -10 yards on the year and started over my son who threw 100 TDs and ran for 1000 yds. I'll never do it.
However, teams, leagues and coaching staffs, etc. are fair game for light comical commentary...
...and Unruly...
...and Fake...
...and Val...
...nobody here will get there widdle feewings huwt.
So now that that is said, the only apology I'll ever give in this regard, you get...I'm sorry if it came across as bashing Ridge...adverse comments were directed at NJSIAA and general systemic injustice more than anything.
BTW...I am sincere about the Flutie comment, and I totally would have gone bananas (in a good way) if McGuirl drop-kicked a PAT...and I was waiting to see that. Nice. He should try it against WH- it'd be something else he'd have in common with Doug.
i love iron hills sports..unruly you are the man for making this site..
we all should share our thoughts about the teams all over the area..
and we all should have fun...its the most exciting part of the year. because its playoff season. and were one game away to see who advances to play at giants stadium and rutgers uni.. this is all the fun about leaving comments because you get to see peoples thoughts...I know im excited because im on a playoff team thats in the second round in N2G2.
I saw the game too. Ridge does not have much depth on offense but they came to win against Mendham and played really hard and pulled it off. Ridge does not have the edge over Mendham in the skill positions, that's just not true, but they did have the size advantage and a tougher schedule (based on school size only). Val is right, that was some crazy stuff they did at punt and I too doubt they win without that QB (and he is really good).
Having watched Mendham all year, they just looked like they weren't really into it compared to the other games they played. They could have beaten WEssex and definitely MoHills, just some bad breaks there. On the same token they could have lost to PH, Chatham or HP just as easily; making them just as likley to be 9-0 or 5-4 as 7-2. If you think the IHC-Hills is weak, take a look at the current N2G2 playoff bracket - it is all IHC Hills teams, all the teams from the other conferences were eliminated in round one.
Ridge and Mendham actually do have one thing in common though - they are both loaded with Juniors this year...I expect to see both teams 7-2 or better next year.
Playoff rematch? Maybe, if Mendham doesn't get jostled back to Group II again.
It is too bad Ridge didn't get a playoff berth.
A Pyrrhic victory for Ridge.
Fake - I think South Plainfield might be the one to beat Morristown this year. You gotta believe that any team that can take down Irvington can take down MoTown.
Hey, we don't need to give Ridge a BJ. We made our peace. They freaking beat us. This is not called SkylandsSports. Hey their QB is good, but screw them. Enough about Ridge.
Hermes, you just made me laugh bc I looked up the word pyrrhic. Which basically means when the victor wins but in winning they kind of lose. Kind of like when a bully beats the kid in a race but everyone knows he is a bully so the cheer the other kid. But I dont think that is the case with Ridge. I think both teams were just pissed they didnt make the playoffs.
Trex, you are in for a real treat. I have a post coming out tomorrow that has all the upcoming playoff games analysis along with predictions. And dont worry, none of them are 44-7 blowouts. But they are really good. I think there are some interesting analysis. Plus this comes out a day earlier than the papers so tell all your teamates about it. It will be up first think tojmorrow.
hahaha. you so funny 'ruly. make me raugh at you rong time. hahaha.
Seriously though...some of the playoff games will be blowouts (statistics bear it out) but I doubt there will be any in N2G2, since all the remaining teams have all played each other.
alright awesome unruly. your the man.. haha.. about the ridge-mendham game. i believe that ridge brought there "A" game vs mendham. and mendham as a young team, kinda backed off alittle. they were just not in the right mood because they felt they shouldve gone as a group 3 playoff contender. they got jipped off in the power point system. but hey you cant control that. along with weather and officials..
and thanks again. im looking forward to the new post..
My predictions for the N2G2.
-Morris Hills 24 Chatham 21
MH has a very good kicker...and i dont think their afraid to kick a field goal either..
-Wessex 20 Hanover Park 24
dont know about this one but it will be another close one...
I say WEssex tops HP but it could easily go either way.
WE 14, HP 10
Looking forward to it 'ruly.
Fakehead, good prediction! I heard that Wessex printed this article and posted it in their locker room as motivation. It must have been my picture that pissed them off the most.
By the way Fakehead, I call that if Chatham upsets MoHills you have to drink a half a bottle of witch hazel which has a laxative effect. By reading this you accept the terms.
Post a Comment