It all started on Wednesday with the Annual Night Before Thanksgiving pilgrimage to the local establishments to reunite with some old friends and listen to the great sounds of Joe and Dino.
Joe Kuckla and Dino Domiano are both OFHS grads and could usually be found playing the tunes of our lives at Dooley's on Thanksgiving Eve; at the annual Guinness Party at the Nee residence in mid summer; and now and then at GI's Bar as they will on Dec. 19.Of course I got to sit in with J&D for my normal two song set of Mellancamp's Pink Houses and the Violent Femmes' Blister in the Sun. Don't ask me how I sounded - I don't remember.
People tell me I was good. But hey. They could just have been being nice. It is the holiday season after all.
Joe's brother Matt even got into the act - as he usually does - with his stirring renditions of Skynyrd's Simple Man and the Animal's House of the Rising Son.
The duo kicked ass as they normally do when they have not played together for a while. And it was probably a whole year since the last TG Eve when they performed for a crowd.
Thanksgiving Eve was so good, I missed most of Thanksgiving. Not dinner of course. But I slept from when I got home - passed out is more like it - at about 3 a.m. until 1 p.m. We had dinner at 1:30 p.m. and after handing out with a record crowd of 17 at 13 Lincoln Street until like 3:30 p.m. I was back to bed until like 9 p.m.
Of course all that sleep kept me awake most of the night, but I had some company with the Godfather marathon on AMC and the Rocky marathon on versus. All that rest during the day allowed me to stay awake for some great viewing in the wee hours of the morning. It was a great day and I had a lot to be thankful for.
Friday came and I was off to work for a few hours before heading home for the Backyard Brawl. I caught the first half of the game at Coaches Korner, then headed home to watch some with Dad.As the Panthers fell behind and Matt Cavanaugh refused to give the ball to LeSean McCoy - the greatest Pitt running back since Tony D - I decided it was time to go back to work. I was detoured on the way back to Pittston to a reliable lucky spot for me and I watched the Panthers come from behind to win the game.
So back to work for a few hours I went before heading to Peckville and Jack Henzes Stadium for Riverside's Eastern Semi against Schuykill Haven.
And what a game it was!
Friday's game was possibly the best high school game I had ever witnesses. The only other game that could rival it was the Wyoming Area-Pittston Area game for the District 2 title at Scranton Memorial Stadium in 2003 which WA won on a trick play to end the game.
Back to Valley View.
In front of about 8,000 fans - the most I have seen at a HS game since that WA-PA game (which was about 10,000) - the two teams put on an offensive display that is rarely seen on the high school level.
For three quarters the two teams traded haymakers that rivaled the Rocky Balboa-Apollo Creed rematch that I had just watched hours earlier. Then in the fourth quarter both coaches made some questionable calls that left fans scratching their heads before Haven escaped with the victory.
Riverside led 14-0 when the Haven head coach - a guy who did not wear a headset, did not have a play sheet, and was never within 15 yards of the other coaches on his staff - turned to me and a reporter from the Pottsville paper and said, "not the way we wanted to start, huh?"
He was as calm as could be - and with good reason.
He had Zak Barket, a 3,800-yard rusher in his backfield.
That's right 4,100 yards. THIS YEAR!!! The kid leads the nation in rushing and was the real deal. By the way... he also has 60 TDs on the season. He is also headed to Yale or Harvard according to one of the Haven media types as the kid has like 1400+ in his boards.
Barket rallied the Canes with a big TD run to get within 14-7. The Vikes came right back to go ahead 22-7, but the Canes rallied to tie the score at 22-22.
Riverside went ahead 30-22, and Haven answered to go tie the game at 30-30. THIS WAS ALL IN THE FIRST HALF!!!
Haven opened the second half with the ball and ran off a 15-play drive to take a 37-30 lead.
The Vikes answered with a Joe Klebon touchdown - his fourth of the game - to take a 38-37 lead after the 2-point run by the senior tailback with 1:21 left in the third. But it would be Riverside's last points of the game - and more importantly, it would be the last Klebon would play on offense as he got hurt on the ensuing onside kick that he actually recovered.
Haven would stop Riverside and drive to the Vikings 9 with second and goal in the fourth quarter. The Canes decided to pass on the next two downs, with Corey Schuster picking off a third down pass at his own four to give RV the ball back.
A few plays later though, with Klebon nursing either a hip or ankle injury - there are reports of both - RV fumbled to give the ball back to Haven. The Canes capitalized and went ahead 43-38.
The Haven coach went for two instead of making the game at least a touchdown, but the Canes were stopped, giving Riverside a chance to take the lead with just a score.
The teams went back and forth with Klebon playing some defense, but not returning on offense til late in the game.
Meanwhile, Matt Talerico carried the load for the Vikes and ran the D2 champs inside the Haven 10 with less than four minutes left in the game. The senior carried about six times for about 40 yards to set up RV in the redzone.
After being stopped on second-and-2 (some reports have reported 2-and-3 and 2-and-4, but I was standing right there), the Vikes opted to throw a pass which was knocked down in the endzone. RV then inserted Klebon in the game, and the bruising tailback sprinted right before pulling up to throw a halfback option that fell incomplete on fourth down.
Haven ran some time and was forced to punt, but Barket intercepted a pass with less than 30 seconds left to preserve the victory.
Whew!!! And it wasn't even Saturday yet.... What a weekend!!!
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