[Stardust]

[Image: http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi....h=410&q=60]

[Stardust]

[Image: http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi....h=410&q=60]

[Stardust]

[Image: http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi....h=410&q=60]

[Stardust]

[Image: http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi....h=410&q=60]

[Stardust]

[Image: http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi....h=410&q=60]

[Stardust]

[Image: http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi....h=410&q=60]

[Stardust]

[Image: http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi....h=410&q=60]

[Stardust]

[Image: http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi....h=410&q=60]

[Stardust]

[Image: http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi....h=410&q=60]

[Stardust]

[Image: http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi....h=410&q=60]

[Can you dig it?]

CCH brought a very nice crowd to last nights game. It was SRO. I do have to give CCH fans the award for most whiskey bottles left in the stands after a game, the Catholic crowd likes to drink!

They must have been readying themselves for the beatdown that was coming. The fumes in the south endzone were pretty thick. We were talking to one of the white-outed students toward the end of the game. His anti-freeze level was pretty high and the white paint really made the red eyes stand out. Luckily, none of us were smokers.
I was kind of amazed at how many of the people at the game paid little or no attention to the game itself. There was a group of 20-somethings around us who stood with their backs to the field and talked the whole night. Impressive that the game sold out, but the interest level was definitely elsewhere in the south endzone. I think the CovCath faithful were really hoping for a replay of the 1997 Miracle in Mud, especially with the game being so close at the half.

[McCameraMan]

Congrats Highlands!

[toussaints]

[Image: http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi....h=410&q=60]

I knew Towles was tall, but anytime you can look over the top of your blockers, it makes a big difference

[Stardust]

^ It goes to the argument we had about how BIG HHS is. HHS is outsized in stature every game, but their players play 5 feet taller on the field!

[MtnHSFootballFan]

Congratulations Highlands!

[gapman]

Another gold star for me. My comments from the prediction thread for this game.

"Highlands makes more (and better) adjustments than CCH in the rematch. Going to have to go with Highlands 42 CovCath 20."

Was only off by a TD in both directions. Did anyone get any closer? Yeah, I was right on the internet! My life is complete.

Yep, 48-20 Highlands.

[PaintsvilleTigerfan]

Hope the Cov Cath student who was taken away in the ambulance is OK, never like to see that!

What happened?

[Can you dig it?]

What happened?

Got drunk, fell, and broke his leg apparently. :oooo: A lady behind me said he didn't look conscious when they loaded him into the ambulance.

[BFritz]

I was amazed that CovCath didn't send more pass rushers at Highlands and just allowed him to sit back there and pick him apart.

Highlands played a good game, but one HUGE game-changing play was when Highlands was up 21 to 14 and on their own 40 or so- it was third down, CovCath stops them (I believe it was an incomplete pass), and a Highlands blocker is pushing a CovCath defender into the ground right next to the quarterback two-to-three seconds after the whistle had blown, so CovCath's coach goes nuts that there was no flag, gets an unsportsmanlike called on himself, and allows Highlands to keep the drive alive and go down and score.

Was all downhill from there, but that, in my opinion, is what swang the momentum in Highlands' favor.

[Stardust]

Got drunk, fell, and broke his leg apparently. :oooo: A lady behind me said he didn't look conscious when they loaded him into the ambulance.

Goodness, I hate to laugh at this, but god loves drunk catholic students too.

[2dog]

Goodness, I hate to laugh at this, but god loves drunk catholic students too.

:thatsfunn Where did you get that pic of my mother in law?

[Stardust]

:thatsfunn Where did you get that pic of my mother in law?

LOL, now that is FUNNY 2dog!:lmao:

[tradition]

I was amazed that CovCath didn't send more pass rushers at Highlands and just allowed him to sit back there and pick him apart.

Highlands played a good game, but one HUGE game-changing play was when Highlands was up 21 to 14 and on their own 40 or so- it was third down, CovCath stops them (I believe it was an incomplete pass), and a Highlands blocker is pushing a CovCath defender into the ground right next to the quarterback two-to-three seconds after the whistle had blown, so CovCath's coach goes nuts that there was no flag, gets an unsportsmanlike called on himself, and allows Highlands to keep the drive alive and go down and score.

Was all downhill from there, but that, in my opinion, is what swang the momentum in Highlands' favor.

Really BFritz, give me a break. You have been around football way to long. This is Highlands /Cov. Cath. and your complaining about a Highlands blocker pushing a cov. cath. defender into the ground for 2 or 3 seconds. :please::hilarious:

If that is the game changer, Cov. Cath. has work to do.

[Wideleft01]

Covcath fans were whining all night. Yelling for flags on every play. Quit crying and play football. The coach set the tone with his hissy fits on the sidelines. It was pathetic. I think Covcath realized they were the inferior team and the crying just kept getting louder. Covcath got beat 49-14 and without the free gifts program on their first drive and the short kickoffs it's a bigger beatdown. It Sheehan plays it's a 70pt difference.

[charlie22]

I went into this game thinking the game would be decided by what coaches made the best adjustments from the regular season game. That was a no brainer.

Since then I've been wondering if Highlands DC didn't set CovCath up in the first game. In that first game, Highlands corners played off a lot; Highlands played a 3-4-4, and rarely attempted to put pressure on CovCath's QB. Playoff game: the corners played close, we cheated one of the safeties so close that it resembled our old 3-5-3, and we put a lot more pressure on the QB.

Result: CovCath couldn't double the nose and he just ate up CovCath's center; we had the extra linebacker that enabled us to once again shoot gaps and totally shut down Gray and CovCath's run game; the short passing game was nullified; and when CovCath attempted to go deep their QB was getting hit regularly and often.

I really wonder of Weinrich wasn't baiting CovCath in the first game, expecting the re-match.

On O, once Mueller saw that CovCath was committed (actually over-committed) to stopping the deep pass, he went to the run game. Highlands O line dominated CovCath's front 7. And I mean dominated. The RBs, given good running lanes, performed fantastically. True, Seidl and Harris all had great games. I've felt all year long that Highlands had an outstanding line and RBs, they just were never given the opportunity because of Highlands passing game. Once called upon, they performed extremely well.

I read a lot about CovCath's O line after the first game and I'll admit it's better this year than it has been in a while (but is still too slow against a D line Highlands). This game showed which team had the better O line. Highlands by a country mile. Opened big holes and for most of the game gave Towles all kinds of time to pass. The few times CovCath put pressure (by bringing the outside LBers) on Towles, he either evaded them or threw them off rather easily.

Great game plans coaches and great execution players. Well done.

[Wideleft01]

I went into this game thinking the game would be decided by what coaches made the best adjustments from the regular season game. That was a no brainer.

Since then I've been wondering if Highlands DC didn't set CovCath up in the first game. In that first game, Highlands corners played off a lot; Highlands played a 3-4-4, and rarely attempted to put pressure on CovCath's QB. Playoff game: the corners played close, we cheated one of the safeties so close that it resembled our old 3-5-3, and we put a lot more pressure on the QB.

Result: CovCath couldn't double the nose and he just ate up CovCath's center; we had the extra linebacker that enabled us to once again shoot gaps and totally shut down Gray and CovCath's run game; the short passing game was nullified; and when CovCath attempted to go deep their QB was getting hit regularly and often.

I really wonder of Weinrich wasn't baiting CovCath in the first game, expecting the re-match.

On O, once Mueller saw that CovCath was committed (actually over-committed) to stopping the deep pass, he went to the run game. Highlands O line dominated CovCath's front 7. And I mean dominated. The RBs, given good running lanes, performed fantastically. True, Seidl and Harris all had great games. I've felt all year long that Highlands had an outstanding line and RBs, they just were never given the opportunity because of Highlands passing game. Once called upon, they performed extremely well.

I read a lot about CovCath's O line after the first game and I'll admit it's better this year than it has been in a while (but is still too slow against a D line Highlands). This game showed which team had the better O line. Highlands by a country mile. Opened big holes and for most of the game gave Towles all kinds of time to pass. The few times CovCath put pressure (by bringing the outside LBers) on Towles, he either evaded them or threw them off rather easily.

Great game plans coaches and great execution players. Well done.

Great summary. The soft corner play and lack of a pass rush in the first game was driving me insane. It had to be part of the master plan. It worked. But wasn't it as obvious to the Covcath coaches as it was to the knowledgeable football fan? Could the Covcath coaches conceivably thought that Highlands would play defense in the same way? I was quietly confident that this game would be a blowout. I really believe if Sheehan isn't hurt, the long passes are there in abundance too. I thought Highlands had a legimate chance to score 70 in the rematch.

[charlie22]

Great summary. The soft corner play and lack of a pass rush in the first game was driving me insane. It had to be part of the master plan. It worked. But wasn't it as obvious to the Covcath coaches as it was to the knowledgeable football fan? Could the Covcath coaches conceivably thought that Highlands would play defense in the same way? I was quietly confident that this game would be a blowout. I really believe if Sheehan isn't hurt, the long passes are there in abundance too. I thought Highlands had a legimate chance to score 70 in the rematch.

I think it had to be as obvious to the CovCath coaches. But while they had to anticipate certain changes, they couldn't have been sure exactly how we'd run the changes. Plus, while the CovCath coaches and through them the CovCath players knew Highlands would do things differently, seeing what is anticipated in practice against a scout team is totally different than having to face the opponent's starters in the real game. There is simply no way CovCath's scout team can simulate the speed of Highlands starting D.

Once again Highlands speed based defense overwhelmed CovCath's big but considerably slower O line.

As for the shots being fired at the Highlands fans for being cocky; arrogant; a holes; whatever, I ask people to understand that last week the Highlands fans "endured" a lot of stuff from the CovCath fans on this site and others. CovCath was back they were told and CovCath was going to knock the mighty Birds off their high and might perch. That didn't happen; it didn't come close to happening. So the Bird fans are rather full of themselves this week and understandably so. When your biggest rival tells you all week that they are going to beat you, and you kick the stuffings out of them, you are pretty cocky for awhile. Then you add to that the fact that LexCath struggled in both games to beat Boyle; a team that Highlands beat by a decent margin and should, if you look at that game the way Highlands fans do, have beat by a much bigger margin. Thus, the confidence that Highlands will beat LexCath by a lot. Will they? We'll find out in a few days. But I can certainly understand why the Highlands fans are pretty confident of a big win.

And I have to admit, after seeing how Highlands disposed of CovCath, I'm pretty confident myself. That was a pretty darn good CovCath team folks. They pretty easily handled an Ashland team that many posters on here thought was the best Ashland team since 91. CovCath had a very nice QB, a stud RB, nice recievers and a decent O line. Yet Highlands held them to 14 and shut down their stud RB. But-for some un-Highlands like penalties, CovCath would have only scored 10. Now we face LexCath: another very good QB with good receivers. Running game supposedly not as good as CovCath's. Which should make it easier to defend the LexCath passing game. LexCath's D obviously stepped up big time against Boyle's O which should be encouraging to the LexCath fans. But it's a night and day difference between Highlands' O and Boyle's O. Highlands' O spreads the defenses all over the field: deep and wide with its passing game. Highlands O line is better (actually much better) than Boyle's. I like Boyle's RBs (Cox and Hester) but Highlands RBs are very talented also. Then you add to that, Towles and the Highlands receivers, and you start to feel that what LexCath's D did to Boyle they won't be able to do to Highlands. Thus, unless Highlands O has a lot of turnovers, I can understand why the Highlands fans think that Highlands should score a lot of points.

So while I'm not into making predictions on message boards, I can understand where the optimism is coming from with the Highlands fans. Having said that, I know Coach Letton pretty well. He's a very good defensive minded coach. I'm sure he'll come up with the best game plan possible to slow down the Highlands O. I'm just not real confident that it will be effective. I am very confident however that the LexCath players will play their hearts out. Birds better be ready for a very hard fought and hard hitting football game. I think they will.