Three local soccer teams are in the top 15 in the newest state soccer poll by EurosportScoreboard.com — and they might not be the three you expect.
Week 4 Tri-Nine Fearless Friday Football Predictions
Submitted by jmikeblake on 09/10/2009 - 06:16Conference play begins for almost all of our Tri-Nine teams this week.
Game of the week
Fuquay-Varina at Cary
A quick look back at Friday (9/5)
Submitted by jmikeblake on 09/05/2009 - 22:30Don't you hate it when some writer makes a bunch of predictions but never follows up on it? I'm bucking that trend each Saturday morning with "a quick look back at Friday." I'll also name the "stat of the week" and "player of the week."
How I did
Winners called correctly: 7-of-8 (21-5 this year)
Margin of victory within 7-points: 3-of-8 ("Middle Creek by 8" was actually 1, "Athens Drive by 11" was actually 7, "Leesville Road by 34" was actually 31).
I'm proud of: Improving my record for another week. Only Fuquay has a better winning percentage than mine (81%). I'm also just proud of the Tri-Nine in genera
Looking back at Friday's football games (8/29)
Submitted by jmikeblake on 08/29/2009 - 21:34Don't you hate it when some writer makes a bunch of predictions but never follows up on it? I'm bucking that trend each Saturday morning with "a quick look back at Friday." I'll also name the "stat of the week" and "player of the week."
How I did
Winners called correctly: 7-of-9 (14-4 this year)
Margin of victory within 7-points: 3-of-9 ("Southern Durham by 8" was actually 7, "Panther Creek by 10" was actually 15, "Cary by 10" was actually by 7)).
I'm proud of: Coming within a point of getting our "Game of the Week" with Southern Durham and Middle Creek right.
I'm embarrassed about: A lot. I picked Apex to win by 17 and they lost by one to a hapless Riverside team. I also had Athens winning by 13 and they lost by two. And I didn't give Lee County any credit, having them lose by 54 when they "only" lost by 28. Oh, and my 30-point blowout for Fuquay was actually a 7-point nail-biter.
Interesting to note: Two weeks into the season, only Fuquay is without a loss and half of the conference is sitting at 1-1. Tri-Nine play is only two weeks away and it'll be a wide-open conference race.
Player of the week: We didn't recognize him last week despite four touchdown tosses, but you've got to give props to Middle Creek quarterback Garrett Leatham. Against the vaunted Southern Durham defense, which features Wake Forest recruit A.J. Marshall, he threw for 304 yards and accounted for all three MC touchdowns (two passing, one running).
Runner-up will be Holly Springs' Joey Roach. He caught a touchdown pass for the Golden Hawks and had two interceptions on defense in a 28-14 win.
Stat of the week: Is the Tri-Nine becoming a defensive conference? Both Panther Creek and Green Hope held their opponents to 0 points in the second half — only problem is Panther Creek came back from 15-14 to win 30-15, while Green Hope was down 44-0 at halftime and stayed there. Apex shutout Riverside for the first half, while Cary was the only team to keep their opponent scoreless for all four quarters. Fuquay also shutout Clayton for a half.
In all, Tri-Nine teams had enough shutout halves to equal three games.
Week 2: Tri-9 Fearless Friday Football Predictions
Submitted by jmikeblake on 08/27/2009 - 06:11This is a hard week to forecast for a number of reasons. You just don't know how a team will respond after the first game, whether it's a win or loss.
Friday, Aug. 28 (all game times 7:30 unless otherwise noted)
Game of the Week
Middle Creek vs Southern Durham
You'd be hard pressed to find a better match-up in the eastern half of the state than this one.
Downloadable Tri-9 Conference Helmet Schedule!
Submitted by jmikeblake on 08/19/2009 - 05:59EDIT: We've now made it a PDF file, so all can print a helmet schedule of the Tri-9 Conference. Enjoy!
Documents:
Tri-9 Helmet Schedule.pdfBreaking down football schedules Part II
Submitted by jmikeblake on 07/20/2009 - 17:12We gave you the breakdown for the northern half of the conference on Thursday, so now it's time to look along Highway 55 and farther south for the rest of the Tri-9 football teams and their schedules for the upcoming year.
Want to post a comment?
In order to join the conversation, you must be a member of newsobserver.com. Click here to register or to log in.Advertisements