High School Football weekend

I'm going to have to apologize for this post, but I'm using an old version of Safari that makes it hard to embded links, so you'll have to cut and paste until I get home tonight.

High school football playoff talk is in the air, as the Sun's Milton Kent blogs here: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/highschool/varsityletters/2007/10/football_playoffs_at_a_glance.html.

Here's a link to the points standings: http://www.mpssaa.org/fallsports/football/release.asp?release_id=52

A big matchup in Baltimore tonight, as a pair of 6-0 teams face off. Dunbar, ranked #3 by the Sun is at Poly. Half of Poly's wins are against winless teams, so Dunbar, which has outscored opponents 264-36, will be a test.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. if you want to go. Notable players include Poly RB Lee Reynolds and Dunbar LB Keon Redhead and Kenyon Kinard, the Sun reports.

In Howard County, Mariotts Ridge's upset win over Atholton last weekend takes the luster of their matchup with River Hill this weekend. But it will still be a running back showdown with River Hill RB's Malik Redd, Michael Campanaro and Zach Martin against Atholton's Kelechi Odocha.

Here's Tron's breakdown:

That Atholton loss is forcing me to make some major shake ups in the power rankings, based on gut feelings and not just head to head contests. Hold on to your hats...

TronBlaster's Howard County Power Rankings (Week 7 edition)
(last week) team, record, PF-PA;
The elite
1. River Hill, 6-0, 253-8; 5th shut out in six games, shouldn't have trouble with a suddenly flawed Atholton. (Last week: beat Long Reach 44-0; This week: Atholton at)
2. Wilde Lake, 5-1, 165-69; Only team with as diverse a running attack as River Hill (beat Reservoir 25-8; at Long Reach)
The good
3. Atholton, 4-2, 106-53; Can't drop them out of third, but they're no longer elite. (lost to Marriotts Ridge 7-12; at River Hill)
4. Howard, 5-1, 164-104; Their week five win over Marriotts Ridge now looks even more impressive (beat Hammond 35-21; at Mt. Hebron)
+5. (9) Marriotts Ridge, 4-2, 160-154; With a formidable defense emerging against Atholton, they're now a complete team (beat Atholton 12-7; at Reservoir)
-6. (5) Reservoir, 3-3, 125-80; Being shut out by Atholton in week 5 keeps them squarely behind MR (lost to Wilde Lake 8-25; Marriotts Ridge at)
The respectable
-7. (6) Glenelg, 2-4, 62-149; Could go 6-4 after 0-4 start (beat Centennial 31-16; at Oakland Mills)
-8. (7) Long Reach, 3-3, 88-122; Dominated OM in week two (lost to River Hill 0-44; Wilde Lake at)
+9. (10) Oakland Mills, 2-4, 136-208; First two-game winning streak since like 2001 or something, still leaking too many points (beat Mt. Hebron 22-14; Glenelg at)

Just go out there and have fun kids
+10. (11) Hammond, 1-5, 118-196; Should use speed to beat a banged up
Centennial (lost to Howard 21-35; at Centennial)
-11. (8) Centennial, 1-5, 51-158; They're too banged up and inexperienced (lost to Glenelg 16-31; Hammond at)
12. Mt. Hebron, 0-6, 73-200; They're playing for the number one draft pick (lost to Oakland Mills 14-22; Howard at)

--NS/TB