TIDE THE FAVORITES DESPITE WHAT "BIG CITY" PAPERS SAY

If all one read in preparation for the Curwensville-Rochester clash in the PIAA Class A semifinals Friday night at Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium was the "big city" papers, one would have to wonder why the Golden Tide (12-0) should even bother showing up against Rochester (11-3).

In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a story on Curwensville that ran Dec. 1, while having some nice things to say about Curwensville, also questions if the Golden Tide has played anyone this season.

The story says, "Curwensville’s competition is questionable. District 9 reputedly doesn’t have as many strong teams as Class A of the WPIAL. Plus, Rochester is used to playing high-powered offenses. In the WPIAL title game, Rochester played a Clairton team that had averaged 49 points in three postseason contests. But Rochester beat Clairton, 15-14."

Not to be outdone, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review story on the game that also ran Dec. 1 starts out by saying "Gene Matsook can’t help but notice that Rochester is on course to meet Southern Columbia in the PIAA Class A final for the fifth time since 1998.

It then quotes the Rochester coach as saying "As a coach, you’re peeking out of the corner of your eye, but we try to make sure the players are looking at one game at time."

At least the story does point out that in order to meet Southern Columbia Rochester is going to have to get past Curwensville, although, at the end of the story the writer picks Rochester to win 28-14.

Hey maybe the big city papers are right. Maybe Curwensville will lose to Rochester. After all, the Rams have history on their side having won five of the six PIAA semifinal games they have been in with the only loss coming to District 9 Smethport in 1992. Not only that Rochester has won three state titles or two more state titles than Curwensville has playoff wins.

But you know what. All that history counts for zero Friday night. All that history is exactly that, history.

All that matters is what happens Friday night.

And I know this. If Curwensville comes to play, if the Golden Tide don’t get enamored with the fact they are playing a big, bad WPIAL opponent, Curwensville can not only win this game but might run away with it.

It is easy to ignore what Curwensville has done to opponents this season. Heck I was guilty of it myself for a lot of the year. It was always, ‘hey they are good, but who have they played. Wait until they find a team that shuts them down. Wait until they find a team that frustrates them. Wait until they find a team that scores on them.’

Well you know what, I am still waiting. Curwensville hasn’t just beaten opponents this season, it has humiliated them. The Golden Tide have outscored their foes 567-78. That’s 47.25 points per game to 6.5 points per game. They’ve beaten 10 of their 12 opponents by at LEAST 28 points. They have beaten seven of their opponents by at LEAST 33 points. They have knocked off six of their foes by more than 40 points. In a 78-0 win over Ridgway they outscored two District 9 teams for the YEAR. If you take their 70-0 win over Elk County Catholic and add it to the win over Ridgway the 148 points were more than nine teams playing in either District 9 or the combined District 6-9 league the Mountain Athletic Conference scored all season.

Curwensville has done it with both offense and defense this season.

The Golden Tide need just 75 yards on the ground against Rochester to accumulate 5,000 yards rushing for the SEASON. Think about that one for a second folks. FIVE THOUSAND YARDS RUSHING IN A SEASON.

District 9 has some great teams with great rushing traditions, but 5,000 yards is unreal. How many yards is 5,000? Look at one of those great rushing teams, Brockway. If you take the Rovers total from this year and last year and add it together it comes to 5,568 yards. Another example is Bradford. The Owls another traditional strong rushing team have amassed 4,643 yards on the ground over the last TWO seasons. Clarion, another great running team in District 9, has 5,563 yards rushing over the past THREE years.

It would be one thing if all Curwensville could do is play offense. But the Golden Tide have been pretty good on the defensive side of the football as well.

On the season, Curwensville has allowed 1,875 total yards of offense against it an average of 156.25 per game. The Tide have been almost impossible to run on allowing only 74.8 yards per game on the ground. Curwensville has held nine opponents under 200 yards of offense and seven under 100 yards rushing.

Only one team, Kane, has ran for at least 100 and thrown for at least 100 in the same game, and a lot of Kane’s yards came against the JV’s after the game was out of hand. Coudersport is the only team to throw for more than 200 yards on Curwensville tossing for 215 while gaining a season-high 285 yards on the Tide.

As for the myth that Curwensville hasn’t played tough competition all they have done is beat both Brockway and Clarion-Limestone teams who have combined to win three state playoff games in the last two seasons.

All told, the Golden Tide not only shouldn’t be overlooked coming into this game, but in fact might be, could be, are the favorites to win this game.