"Is Pinecrest Ready for Some Football?" by Frank Sports Talk (F.W. Manning II)

Is Pinecrest Ready for Some Football?

October 3, 2010

Way back when, before the first "official" practice, the coaches in the NCHSAA 4A Southeastern Conference got together, at the start of this season, to vote on how they thought the teams in their league would finish. When the numbers were tallied -- PHS was picked to finish fifth in the six team conference.

With PHS readying to begin its 2010 SEC campaign the team needs all the support it can get, especially for the upcoming back-to-back home games with Lumberton (October 8th) and Scotland (OCT 15)

Travis Scales is one heck of a player, a top notch on-field general, powerful runner and true team leader -- To me he was the one that made the Pat offense click and I hate that he is out due to injury...

As a starting CB for the Patriot JV gridders my sophomore year in 1992, I suffered a (football) career-ending injury during game action -- when my left elbow was completely shattered (at the same stadium where my high school alma mater still plays today.) So I know what missing a season is like, and can sympathize.

I wish Travis nothing but the best. At least he is only a junior and hopefully he will be able to come back next year and thrive as a senior.

However his absence for the remainder of the season, along with the lack of any apparent legitimate aerial attack, have me wondering if PHS may struggle to win more than two SEC games this season.

Purnell Swett is a tough team, but I do think Pinecrest has a good shot of beating them. I also see the Pats besting Hoke.... After that though, it is hard for me to see another win on the schedule....and remember, the coaches picked them 5th when they had Scales!!

According to the Massey Football Ratings (including all NCHSAA classifications, from a total of 401 schools), Richmond is the highest rated SEC team, ranked 3rd overall, with the fourth toughest schedule, the fifth ranked offense and the fifth ranked defense. Meanwhile, Scotland is ranked 33rd with the 12 toughest schedule.

Currently Pinecrest is ranked 54th. Their schedule is ranked 270 out of 401, they have the 65th best offense and 58th ranked defense.

In the same computer-based poll Lumberton is ranked 75th, falling 39 spots after its 50-33 loss to Laney in week 6. But the Pirates are the 18th ranked offense in the state, and their schedule rank is 228

Swett is ranked 117th, and Hoke is the 116 ranked team, but the Bucks schedule is ranked 57th.

Another popular prep site is MaxPreps.com, which does rankings for each division in North Carolina high school football. In MaxPreps' NCHSAA 4A Rankings, Richmond is ranked fifth, Scotland 14th and Lumberton is 39th

Then comes Pinecrest, ranked 41st, followed by Swett at 60 and Hoke at 69.

So what do PHS Patriot Football supporters think of all this?

Also -- I would love to hear opinions from all other local high school sports fans in our county (or those from people that follow our county's teams for that matter)

theonewithsense 2 years, 7 months ago

Rankings don't mean a whole lot for Pinecrest. They could have played a much tougher schedule and still been undefeated. Nobody that Pinecrest has played is capable of beating anybody, except maybe themselves.

Last year Lumberton demolished Pinecrest, so Pinecrest should not be over confident. Last year they went to Lumberton with a big head. Lumberton is suppoed to have a stud soph QB, I'll be looking forward to watching him. Pinecrest has an excellent secondary, numbers 1,2&8 standout every game. The ILB number 45 maybe is having a great year also.

The only drop off with the QB is that we no longer have him as a WR. He's not quite as athletic as number 10, but pretty dang close. Someone needs to step up and catch some balls. I guess that's why 24 is seeing some time at WR. The RB's are loaded and deep.

I haven't seen any of the other teams play, but Pinecrest is as good as they were last year. There was supposed to be a drop off. Certainly the big WR is missed and number 1 from last year was probably the best player on the team, but the new guys in the secondary stepped up.

My guess is that we will be running the ball more than we have the last few weeks. 34 and 24 will get a lot of carries, then they'll bring in 30 with fresh legs later in the game. I think we'll play some QB draws too. The limited passing we do do will be mostly the TE and 24 our of the back field.

fwm2 2 years, 7 months ago

It does seem like Scales was pretty strong with the option on making timely pitches, and he averaged 8.7 yards per carry as a runner.

I do like what I have seen from the secondary and think the d-line play has been solid with the rotating Coach M does....

Still the thing that concerns me is the passing game...Travis was agile and would roll out to pass, making his reads, see there was nothing there and scramble for yardage (sometimes good yardage)... I think he would have been able to do that against teams like Scotland and even Lumberton and Richmond...so in my eyes me loosing that sort of versatile playmaker at QB is a loss...and yes it hurts to lose KO as a receiver

Also I am sure he would have played some LB inside the Pat 40-35 on defense, as he was a great defensive player last season leading the team with 7 sacks and had 61 tackles for 4.7 a game.

PHS has 15 receptions on the year. The two starting QBs have completed 10-27 passes as the Pats are averaging 29.1 yards through the air per game....

I DO feel like PHS has a STRONG running attack, but without at least the threat of the pass, elite teams like Richmond and tougher ones like Lumberton and Scotland will be able to clamp down on the run and make it tough for the Pat offense....not impossible mind you...but pretty darn tough

RD28327 2 years, 7 months ago

I need to introduce you to my good buddy, Drew Pasteur, and his website, www.fantastic50.net. This guy knows math (he has a PhD) and football and really knows how to break things down.

HeelsHoopFan 2 years, 7 months ago

Pinecrest has one of the best Olines I have seen in years. Harnett Central has always had a great Oline and the head coach is the Oline coach. I think Pinecrest got the message with the current coaching regime that you're not going any where if you don't protect the QB and give the RBs time to hit the holes.

With Scales I had Pinecrest going down the road a good ways, at least better than the pre-season coaches poll. I just think they shot themselves in the foot by trying to score a 100 points against UP, thereby inciting the raucous behavior of students and fans at Williams complex.

I know you can not tolerate fighting by student athletes, but I think the post season ban is too much for folks who have invested a lot of time and sacrifice into a program to have the season end in such a fashion. A heavy fine perhaps; some anger management and community service could provide more constructive punishment and provide our educators with a teachable opportunity.

I do believe that with absence of Scales an opportunity presents itself for another to shine the light, we'll just have to see if any one brought the batteries. Good luck Pats and Godspeed.