11/09/08

Subject to proof-reading – please let me know of my typos, especially if I forgot to update a team's record.

Playoff time!!!


Group 1: overall records = 52-12

Glassboro, Palmyra and Paulsboro start the playoffs undefeated at 8-0.

Gloucester, Penns Grove, Pennsville and Woodbury come in at 6-2.

Haddon Heights is in at 4-4

Only Haddon Heights lost this week (to undefeated West Deptford)

#1 Palmyra vs. #8 Haddon Heights

#2 Paulsboro vs. #7 Pennsville

#3 Glassboro vs. #6 Gloucester

#4 Woodbury vs. #5 Penns Grove

Glassboro and Paulsboro are the favorites. Palmyra may have the roughest road in round 1 despite being 1st seed. Gloucester has been known to cause trouble for Glassboro in nthe first round.

Group 2: overall records = 30-14

West Deptford starts the playoffs undefeated at 8-0.

Delsea is in at 6-2, but has the top seed!

Buena and Haddonfield are also in at 6-2.

Woodrow Wilson and Bridgeton are in at 4-4.

#1 Delsea – bye

#2 West Deptford – bye

#3 Buena vs. Bridgeton

#4 Haddonfield vs. Woodrow Wilson

Toss-up group with Delsea and West Deptford being favored.


Group 3: overall records = 43-21

Shawnee is undefeated at 8-0

Hammonton is in at 6-2

Brick Twp., Cumberland, Ocean City, Triton and Timber Creek are in at 5-3

Lacey is in at 4-4.

#1 Shawnee vs. #8 Timber Creek

#2 Hammonton vs. #7 Cumberland

#3 Ocean City vs. #6 Lacey

#4 Brick Twp. vs. #5 Triton

Shawnee is heavily favored.


Group 4: overall records = 56-8

Mainland and Williamstown are both undefeated at 8-0.

Cherokee, Southern, Toms River North and Washington Twp. are in at 7-1.

Eastern and Egg Harbor are in at 6-2.

#1 Mainland vs. #8 Eastern

#2 Cherokee vs. #7 Egg Harbor

#3 Toms River North vs. #6 Southern

#4 Washington Twp. vs. #5 Williamstown

Mainland is heavily favored, so many teams will seek to prove their worth and to take some pride in winning in the first round.

Williamstown and Washington Twp. is a natural rivalry and Williamstown needs to win to show that they are worthy of Group 4 as they have no Group 4 schools on their regular schedule.


Central Group 1:

Florence (6-2) is 6th seed and travels to Bound Brook (8-0).

New Egypt (4-4) is 8th seed and travels to heavily favored top seed Asbury Park (8-0).

Central Group 2:

Delran (6-2) is 5th seed and travels to Raritan (6-2).

Burlington Twp. (5-3) is 6th seed and travels to Point Pleasant Boro (7-1).

Central Group 4:

Pennsauken (5-3) is 8th seed and travels to top seed South Brunswick (7-1).

Non-Public Group 2:

Only 5 teams qualified.

Bishop Eustace (4-4) hosts Morris Catholic (4-4) with the winner facing Holy Cross (6-2) in round 2.

St. Joseph’s of Hammonton (5-3) travels to Hudson Catholic (5-3) in round 2.

Non-Public Group 3:

#3 Gloucester Catholic (7-1) hosts #6 Pope John (7-1).

#5 Camden Catholic (7-1) travels to #4 Bishop Ahr (7-1)

#7 Holy Spirit (6-2) travels to #2 Immaculata (7-1).



Small Schools rankings:

It has to remain Glassboro, Paulsboro and West Deptford. I rank the 3 based on their last year’s performance vs. each other. Glassboro beat Paulsboro and Paulsboro beat West Deptford. But West Deptford has larger margins of victories against common opponents with Paulsboro.

Palmyra hangs in there at 8-0, but Camden Catholic and Gloucester Catholic are strong 7-1 teams.

CC beat Delran by 38 compared to Palmyra winning by 16.
Palmyra beat Cinnaminson by 30 compared to CC winning by 22.

Tough call as there is slight edge to CC, but I will leave palmyra ahead of them because they are undefeated.

GC has more power points than CC. They both lost to undefeated teams. I’ll give the edge to GC and move them up over CC. They will probably not meet in the playoffs to settle it.

So: Glassboro, Paulsboro, WD, Palmyra, GC, CC


After those 6, we have to look at 6-2 teams. Holy Cross, Holy Spirit and Delsea get the top nods. Then you look at Buena, Delran, Florence, Gloucester, Haddonfield, Penns Grove, Pennsville and Woodbury.

I’ll rank the top three by power points: Holy Spirit, Holy Cross, Delsea

Delran lost to 2 impressive teams as did Buena and Haddonfield. Buena has more power points, so I will give them the slight edge for now. Delran and Haddonfield are equal in power points, but Haddonfield was shutout in their two losses.

Buena beat PG which beat Gloucester which beat Pennsville, so those 4 are easy. Where to put Florence and Haddonfield within them is the tough call. I have seen Florence and have to rank them below Gloucester. I’ll put them above PV due their strong edge in coaching.

Haddonfield has more power points than PG and Gloucester, so I will rank them after Buena and Delran.

Woodbury lost to Haddonfield and is seeded above PG.

So, I will rank them: Buena, Delran, Haddonfield, Woodbury, PG, Gloucester, Florence, Pennsville

Since St. Joe’s beat 5-4 Bridgeton, there is no debate to rank them above Bridgeton. The question is whether to rank them above most 6-2 teams.

At 5-3, we have St. Joe’s. Their losses are to impressive teams. They beat Buena by 7 and have more power points than any of the 6-2 teams. I’ll rank them above the 6-2 teams.

At 5-4 we have Bridgeton and Burlington Twp.

It is hard to judge as Bridgeton and Burlington Twp. have no common opponents, but Bridgeton has bounced back after losing their first 3 games and they get the nod. All Bridgeton’s losses are to playoff teams.

At 4-4 we have Bishop Eustace, Haddon Heights, New Egypt, Schalick and Woodrow Wilson.

Woodrow Wilson lost to New Egypt which lost to Bishop Eustace, so that part is easy.

Bishop Eustace took Holy Cross to OT, so I’ll put them first.

Haddon Heights gets the second spot, but can be compared to New Egypt after they have at least one common opponent after next week.

New Egypt is next.

WW gets the nod ahead of Schalick because they beat a winning team.

At 4-5, we have Maple Shade.

I’ll rank them between the 4-4’s and 3-5’s until after the consolation games.

At 3-5 we have Audubon, Collingswood, Gateway, Haddon Twp., Pemberton, Sterling, and Willingboro.

Willingboro beat Pemberton.

Audubon beat Gateway, but lost to Haddon Twp.

Collingswood beat Audubon, but lost to Gateway and Haddon Twp.

Gateway beat Collingswood and Sterling, but lost to Audubon and Haddon Twp.

Haddon Twp. beat Collingswood and Gateway, but lost to Sterling.

Sterling beat Haddon Twp., but lost to Gateway.

So this goes around in circles, so I will cop out and rank them by Power Points, then head-to-head and then schedule strength.

Gateway has 17 power points

Haddon Twp. has 15 power points.

Audubon has 15 power points and lost to HT.

Collingswood has 12 power points.

Sterling has 12 power points and lost to Collingswood

So, I rank them: Willingboro, Pemberton, Gateway, Haddon Twp., Audubon, Collingswood, Sterling – but I rank two 2-6 team above all of them!

At 2-6, we have Camden, Cinnaminson, Middle Township, Pitman, Riverside, Salem and Woodstown.

Camden and Woodstown have faced the toughest schedules. Camden beat 3-5 Pemberton and deserves to be above them. Camden beat Pemberton by 11 and WW beat them by 8. They deserve to be ahead of the 3-5 teams. Woodstown beat Group 3 teams, Deptford and Highland and deserves to be somewhere in the mix of 3-5 teams also.

Middle Twp. lost to Pennsville by 1 and Pennsville beat Pitman by 22. Pitman beat Salem.

Cinnaminson beat Riverside.

I’ll rank them: Cinnaminson, Middle Twp., Pitman, Riverside, Salem

At 1-7, we have Bordentown, Lindenwold, Pleasantville and Wildwood, but Wildwood gets ranked below most 0-8 teams.

Lindenwold beat a 3 win team. The others beat winless teams.

At 0-8, we have Burlington City, Clayton, Lower Cape May and Overbrook.

I move Overbrook above LCM after LCM’s loss to otherwise winless Pleasantville.

So, I rank them (with the 1 win teams in parenthesis): (Lindenwold), Overbrook, (Bordentown), (Pleasantville), LCM, Burlington City, (Wildwood), Clayton