Thursday, April 19, 2007

Hiphoponpop Preview



I got beaten to it by an anonymous commenter in the original post, and every day I get further and further away from the Philly scene, but I try to stay up on it:

According to Mark Rosser, Hiphop TD, he feels "Hopefully, having 3 divisions will reduce the number of routs and help create a lot of very close games." For an early-season high school tournament, I feel this is a wonderful idea and should be nice for all teams involved.

Note that the divisions inside themeslves aren't really seeded, per se, but organized to give teams travelling further the first-round byes, avoid re-matches, provide good matchups, etc.

Let's see what one random observer expects:

(Editor's note: click on "continue reading..." to read an entire rundown of all the pools in every division)


Pool A
Pennsbury Petyote (2-0)
Council Rock South Fiasco (1-1)
Montour (0-2)

Pool B
Princeton P-HUC (2-0)
The Pterodactyls (1-1)
Stuyvesant Sticky Fingers (0-2)


Finals: Pennsbury over Princeton
Semifinalists: Council Rock South, Pterodactyls.
Pittsburgh teams have always had a hard time bringing out full squads to Hiphop or Kitkat, so I'm hesitant to pick them to do much here. If they do manage a fuller squad, this second-year team could make some more noise. The Pterodactyls have already beaten Stuyvesant this spring, so that pick I can't go against.
Stuyvesant over Montour in the 5th place game.

I'd love to see a 3rd place game though (given my predictions, at least), with Council Rock South taking the most recent matchup, and currently leading the PHUEL standings, but the Pterodactyls have been doing better against top opponents this year. Alas, field space prevents this. A disappointing 15-12 win over CB East by CR South clouds the picture even more.

And do we really need to explain what dominance to expect from Pennsbury? Especially after a disappointing Paideia cup (at least, disappointing to anyone who expects them to win Easterns), look for them to come out swinging.

Game of the day: Princeton vs. Pterodactyls





DIV II
Pool C
Haverford High HUDA (1-1)
Cheltenham Spirit Animals (2-0)
Neshaminy Llamas (0-2)

Pool D
Lower Merion Babaganouj (0-2)
St. Joe's Prep Hand of God (2-0)
Great Valley Patriots (1-1)


SJP over Cheltenham in the finals; The Prep took them out in a regular season matchup this week, and seem to play even better at tournaments when more is on the line, it seems.

I would take Haverford over Great Valley in a theoretical 3rd place game.

LM over Neshaminy for 5th.

This division will be very, very close, and really everyone has a legitimate shot of winning it, so expect a lot of very competitive close games, especially Great Valley vs. LM and Haverford vs. Cheltenham.

Game of the day: SJP vs. Cheltenham (really, any finals matchup will be amazing)



DIV III

Pool E
Cardinal O'Hara Waste of Life (2-0)
Perkiomen Valley Gravity (1-1)
Columbia B (0-2)

Pool F
CB East Nasty (2-0)
Radnor (1-1)
Lower Merion B (0-2)

O'Hara over Perkiomen in a finals rematch.

CB East and Radnor in the semis, a brand new team (from my home Central League, for those "normal" sports) and a team hoping to rebuild after years at the top. I had CB East on top in the pool play, but that one could be a good game.

The B-teams battle it out for 5th, with Columbia B taking it: these teams have played often over the years, and though I'm sure many of the faces are changing, I expect the spirit and friendship to stay high.
For instance (story time), at Hiphop Div I-AA, in Medford, last year, the teams were to play again for 5th (or so), and instead of playing out the rematch of a few times that spring, they mixed up the teams and played for fun. It was a great sight.

Game of the day: CB East vs. Perkiomen Valley/Cardinal O'Hara.



Best of luck to all the teams, everyone will play well and some of these pools are so close I wouldn't be amazed to see my predictions turned totally upside down: my project 6th takes 1st or 2nd take 5th. That's why we play the games!

My requisite plea at the end of any of my posts: Post your results on scorereporter. E-mail them to a UPA member if no one on your team is (heck, I'll post them for you). Post your team on scorereporter. Give yourself a name, a contact, a roster, just fill stuff in, report scores, the more the better.


Hiphop on Score Reporter

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This last week when Cheltenham lost against SJP, both teams played really well. SJP's average height is perhaps 3-4 inches taller than Cheltenham. Also, SJP was able to create runs, most notably the 6-2 run they strung together to close the game (the other streak was pieced together in the very beginning, a 3-0 rout to start the game). Personally, I feel that Cheltenham will play much better today. Unfortunately, we will be undermanned, but I think people will step up to the challenge.

McCabe said...

well Fantusta picks all the winners correctly, the second place finishers for DII and DIII were different but still impressive.