At Washington, Ron Cohen has a team that made this year's playoffs and will face Catholic League playoff entry Archbishop Ryan. Is this the year Washington finally defeats Ryan after having lost all 13 previous engagements? The Eagles have had their hopes up before.
At Villanova, Gamp Pellegrini leads a Malvern Prep club, which has struggled the entire season to score points, against Archbishop Carroll. Carroll went all the way to the Catholic League Southern Division final and is a threat to upend the Friars. Of note is whether Gamp will enter the stadium on crutches as he has been doing in the weeks after his foot surgery. Or will his players carry him on their shoulders like they did against Episcopal?
At Interboro, the Bucs, who won the Delaware Valley American Conference, get a shot at upending Ridley, which is looking to clinch the Central League title.
Which brings us to the rather intriguing matchup of Central Buck East versus perennial powerhouse Central Bucks West. When these two kick off on Thursday, it will mark five years to the day since Central Bucks West lost a game (7-6 to East). Since then, the Bucks have won 53 straight.
"We really haven't talked about this anniversary bit," says C.B. East coach Larry Greene. "The kids are aware of it though. Some of them had brothers who played on that team."
Central Bucks West is aiming to be this area's representative in the state football playoffs and cannot afford to lose this game.
C.B. East has had 11 days to prepare for the game, the same as West. Greene won't say whether he intends to use some psychology on his players in preparation for this game.
"You can't be as intense on Tuesday of the first week," Greene says. ''You've got to build on it and hope to reach a peak by the next week. This is a make-or-break game for both of us. They're in first place, we're in second place (in the Suburban One Colonial Division) and you've got all this tradition."
West leads the series, 15-2.
