Josh Thomson|The Journal News
With the rise of social media and the onset of 24-hour sports coverage, there is a troubling trend amongfans andpersonalities following the games to overreact. The angry talk-radio caller will obsess over a bad play or a bad loss. The hot-take artist will spout similar in-the-moment talking points, usually with a bit more eloquence but just as little restraint.
Generally speaking, making too much out of a play or a game will backfire, especially early in a season.(There is a Twitter account @OldTakesExposed for a reason.) That is less true in high school sports, and particularly in football, a sport with so much year-to-year roster turnover and so few regular season games.
PREDICTIONS: See Josh's picks for Week 2 of the high school football season
Schools with large enrollments can graduate two or three dozen players and 75 percent ormore of their starters. Small-school programs can losestars who play on both sides of scrimmage and maykick, punt, return kicks and do everything short of drive the bus home afterward.
PASSING: Lohud's 2018 passing leaders
RUSHING: Lohud's 2018 rushing leaders
RECEIVING: Lohud's 2018 receiving leaders
A team forced to confront that much change never really has time to adapt — not when each game amounts for 17 percent of its regular season. That's why the results from last week's games not only matter, they can be great indicators of what's to come.
A case in point: All eight teams that earned berths in last year's Class AA, A, B and C championship games won their openers last year. The average score? Try 37-8.
With that in mind, here are five takeaways to remember from Week 1 in Section 1:
1. Class A will be more grueling than ever
All of the teams that dropped down from Class AA won last week with the exception of Horace Greeley, which lost to Fox Lane, one of the other Class A newcomers. Although those teams don't all have the storied histories or dynamic styles of play, they are bigger schools and bigger schools generally play more physical football.
Clarkstown North coach Joe Trongone summed it up best: "We have to keep the Class AA, physical mentality up."
2. The Clarkstowns are for real
Two of the new Class A competitors, Clarkstown North and Clarkstown South, earned some coverage from us this preseason. They were touted as potential contenders and looked like nothing short of that last week. Clarkstown South led Tappan Zee 54-0 at halftime and rolled up 66 points. Clarkstown North rushed for 524 yards and physically overmatched Harrison in a 39-7 win.
They might face tougher opponents — including each other on Sept. 28 — but both appear more than ready.
3. New Rochelle has reloaded
With 17 of its 22 starters from last year gone — a grouphighlighted by three-year starters Jared Baron, Romeo Holden, Lloyd King and Jonathan Saddler — the three-time defending Class AA champ appeared more vulnerable this season. That hope was dashed minutes into Saturday's 41-0 thrashing of the Yonkers Brave. Not only are stars Jordan Forrest, Omari Walker and Khairi Manns (who didn't even play) among Section 1's best, the Huguenots have several players who were probably worthy of a starter's reps last year ready to step in.
Forrest and Walker formed half of the school's Section 1-winning sprint relay last spring. The other two, Halim Dixon-King and anchor leg Jesse Parson, look like breakout stars.
4. Ardsley has created a sustainable contender
For 10 years, former coach Colin Maier built Ardsley football from a doormat into a winner. That transition has continued the last two seasons under his successor, Dan DiFalco, whose team came within a play of upsetting both Class B state champ Pleasantville and sectional runner-up Westlake last season.
With the Panthers' top players graduating, that could've been a disheartening ending to a short window of success with a strong senior class. Instead, Ardsley carried on without four-year quarterback Julian McGarvey and Super 11 running back Glenmour Osbourne last week, routing Pleasantville 34-6.
There's no doubt Pleasantville lost some immensely talented players from last year, including all-state picks Charlie McPhee, Nick Salzarulo and Tim Driscoll, but Ardsley faced losses just as significant and seems to have absorbed them. That's the sign of a strong program.
5. The haves continue to distance themselves from the have-nots
There are blowouts everyweek, but the gap between successful, thriving programs and the schools chasing them shows signs of widening. Twelve of the 25 games (48 percent) were decided by four touchdowns or more — and that's despite seven rebuilding programs havingformed their own league. (None of the seven were even in action last week.)
This may be something to watch as the season continues. As was the case earlier this decade, the creation of an independent league gives teams analternative. If they are struggling, they may feel going independent gives them a better chance to thrive. Last time, that led to even fewer schools competing for Section 1 titles until the entire system was overhauled in 2011.
Could that happen again?
Follow Josh Thomson on Twitter and Instagram at @lohudinsider.
