THE COMING WAR AT THE BVAL

[Bluedog2]

Antioch, Freedom, Liberty and Pittsburg are lined up in the coming weeks, when the dust clears, we may have a three way tie for first place. The key to winning this battle is to take advantage of each teams weakness and they will have to find it. Antioch is scary, they got by Clayton Valley by lady luck or a choice that didn't pan out. Pittsburg had gaps in the defense which could be their undoing. Liberty has faced Mac and sent them on their way 42-14 and then Cardinal Newman 31-14....Will the Lions have lapses in defense or offense which could give the other three teams the break they need. And what about Freedom....They seem to be a quiet team that will be dangerous....They handled San Leandro in a 20-7 win and dumped San Ramon 37-24 which was the real surprise. You can't call Freedom a sleeper because you can't tell what they may do.
Deer Valley and Heritage won't be figured into the race this season.
One of the four teams is going to loose two games, so you can bet that all four teams will be on the hunt and the question is who will come out on top or share the crown.
The first round is Friday night as Freedom plays host to Antioch, Freedoms stands are large and can handle a large crowd, but be there early.

 

[Bluedog2]

Antioch, Freedom, Liberty and Pittsburg are lined up in the coming weeks, when the dust clears, we may have a three way tie for first place. The key to winning this battle is to take advantage of each teams weakness and they will have to find it. Antioch is scary, they got by Clayton Valley by lady luck or a choice that didn't pan out. Pittsburg had gaps in the defense which could be their undoing. Liberty has faced Mac and sent them on their way 42-14 and then Cardinal Newman 31-14....Will the Lions have lapses in defense or offense which could give the other three teams the break they need. And what about Freedom....They seem to be a quiet team that will be dangerous....They handled San Leandro in a 20-7 win and dumped San Ramon 37-24 which was the real surprise. You can't call Freedom a sleeper because you can't tell what they may do.
Deer Valley and Heritage won't be figured into the race this season.
One of the four teams is going to loose two games, so you can bet that all four teams will be on the hunt and the question is who will come out on top or share the crown.
The first round is Friday night as Freedom plays host to Antioch, Freedoms stands are large and can handle a large crowd, but be there early.

Who is going to Friday night battle between Antioch and Freedom? Both teams like to score, so this is going to be a wild affair....

 

[observer22]

Who is going to Friday night battle between Antioch and Freedom? Both teams like to score, so this is going to be a wild affair....

Cal has played both of these teams this season. They fared far better against Freedom winning 42-27 on the road than they did at home vs Antioch where they lost 37-27. Based on the scores alone it might appear Antioch would be the favorite.

Antioch jumped out to a 30-0 lead on the basis of steller QB play and a couple of huge turnovers, including a blocked punt that was run back for a TD. Cal had some opportunities to score early, but had some bad luck combined with good Panther defense, and it was 37-7 at half. Cal then put it together in the 2nd half and shut them out while putting up 20 more points, but fell short.

The next week the Grizz travelled to Freedom and pretty much shocked everyone by taking it to the Falcons and winning convincingly. Antioch then backed up the victory over Cal with a huge win over CVC and beating Marin Catholic. Freedom also bounced back last week beating a solid SRV team to get back on track.

These teams know each other inside and out and both need this game to stay in the BVAL race with the preseason favorites Pitt & Liberty. Antioch might be a slight favorite with their offense and QB, but the Falcons are no slouch offensively either and with the game at Freedom I’d say it’s a toss up.

 

[Bluedog2]

Cal has played both of these teams this season. They fared far better against Freedom winning 42-27 on the road than they did at home vs Antioch where they lost 37-27. Based on the scores alone it might appear Antioch would be the favorite.

Antioch jumped out to a 30-0 lead on the basis of steller QB play and a couple of huge turnovers, including a blocked punt that was run back for a TD. Cal had some opportunities to score early, but had some bad luck combined with good Panther defense, and it was 37-7 at half. Cal then put it together in the 2nd half and shut them out while putting up 20 more points, but fell short.

The next week the Grizz travelled to Freedom and pretty much shocked everyone by taking it to the Falcons and winning convincingly. Antioch then backed up the victory over Cal with a huge win over CVC and beating Marin Catholic. Freedom also bounced back last week beating a solid SRV team to get back on track.

These teams know each other inside and out and both need this game to stay in the BVAL race with the preseason favorites Pitt & Liberty. Antioch might be a slight favorite with their offense and QB, but the Falcons are no slouch offensively either and with the game at Freedom I’d say it’s a toss up.

observer22.....Antioch just may surprise everybody, but I think Antioch's weak spot is there defense.. They let CVC come roaring back in the second half and it almost did them in...It makes one think that the Panthers are a first half team and hope the second half survives...If Antioch plays two half's, things could get different....This game has all the makings of a high scoring game.

 

[observer22]

observer22.....Antioch just may surprise everybody, but I think Antioch's weak spot is there defense.. They let CVC come roaring back in the second half and it almost did them in...It makes one think that the Panthers are a first half team and hope the second half survives...If Antioch plays two half's, things could get different....This game has all the makings of a high scoring game.

That was my thought exactly. In both the Cal and CVC games, Antioch got off to great starts and then held on for dear life for the victories. Maybe they just caught both teams off guard and Freedom will be ready for them, or maybe they got winded in the 2nd half and/or didn’t make proper adjustments? But they’d better be ready to play in the 2nd half this week.

 

[ThunderRam]

Yeah, the BVAL promises to be really interesting the next few weeks. I liked PITT coming into the season -- like I'm sure many others did -- and while I still believe the Pirates are really good, I think Liberty has won me over to this point in the season. Antioch has also really surprised and impressed. BVAL seems pretty deep this year. Whomever comes out of it will have proved to be a damn good football team.

 

[BayReporter]

Watched the Antioch vs. CVC game and Antioch is definitely talented. There challenge is the majority of the starters go both ways and they clearly wore down in the second half, especially the line.