PIONEER VALLEY LEAGUE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP ON THE LINE - CENTER AT PLACER

The Sacramento Bee posted a link to this weeks football projections which were made by calpreps.com. Click here  for their projections including NU who will fall to Granite Bay and Bear River over Foothill.

I would like to add a little commentary to the Center at Placer game which the web information company states the Hillman will win 31-20. I have seen both teams play Bear River High School, where both teams in the discussion won their contests but Center scored 36 at Bear River while Placer only scored 14.

Bear River at Placer, 14-7
The Bruins moved the ball fairly well against the top ranked defense but penalties and turnovers inside the red zone killed all their offensive drives. The Bruins had the lead in the game on an interception that went 35 yards for a pick 6. This was on the first play of the game. Placer ran the ball most of the game as Pete Denham did not have a lot of time to pass the ball as the Bruins used their speed to get to the senior quarterback.

Click here for the full replay of the Bear River at Pacer game.

Placer runs the Wing-T offense, they are a big and strong football team that attach the center of the field which is much different than Center.

Center at Bear River, 36-0
When Center played at Bear River it was a defensive game between two speed teams with the score at 0-0 with less than 2 min left in the first half. The Cougars went into the locker room with the lead 14-0 scoring on a long run and a defensive break down. In the second half Bear River ran out of gas as their offenses had failed to score for 8 consecutive quarters.

Center runs a lot of spread offensive sets which isolates their speedy players matched up man on man. This is an area where Center has the advantage. The Center QB, Tyrel Anderson often hands the ball to D'juan Blair who is faster than any back in the PVL or so it looked to me. Anderson has dominated many teams when they run their standard option offense with his legs.

Click here for the full replay of the Center at Bear River game.

Placer has a dirt field so I would recommend letting the grass grow long and water the field to make it muddy. This will make it difficult for Blair and Anderson to cut back against the bigger players of Placer.

While many coaches know speed kills, I agree with calpreps.com's prediction of Placer winning on their home turf, but by less than 11 points.

Be sure to check back on Saturday morning for a replay of this PVL championship game as Paul Brown and myself will be calling the game for Touchdown Productions as their Game of the Week.