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The 2007 Philadelphia area high school football season is over, and there were some big stories and some surprising outcomes.  Perhaps the most surprising outcome was the Catholic League Red Championship game, where St. Joe’s Prep fell to Roman Catholic in a 10-9 game that has been called a classic by some.  The Prep rolled through their Catholic League Red schedule this year, extending their regular season league win streak to 55, and stormed through the playoffs accordingly.  But Roman Catholic came into the championship game with a gritty attitude and an impressive resume of their own, and were able to win the defensive struggle and claim the championship.

The Catholic League Blue was decided in a matchup between Archbishop Wood and West Catholic.  West Catholic had been very impressive all year, and they remained so in a 28-7 win.  It marked their second consecutive Blue championship. 

In the Public League, Washington claimed the title with a 34-6 win over Bok.  The Public League went through some controversy this year due to Frankford and West Philadelphia High getting disqualified from possible playoff contention due to using ineligible players.  Both teams were and are very talented, and we hope that they will both be able to bounce back next year.  In the meanwhile, all praise goes to Washington for persisting, going undefeated in the Public League Red division, and winning the Public League title.

In the Inter-Ac, Malvern defeated Chestnut Hill Academy in the unofficial championship game, 26-18.  We (when we were Digitex-U Sports) were actually there to cover that game, and the atmosphere was great.  The two very talented teams represented the Inter-Ac well, and Malvern showed why they were one of the best teams in the Philadelphia area this past year.

If we had to give the season a tagline based on the games we covered, we’d say it was the year of the running back.  Running backs Rob Holloman (West Catholic), Jamir Livingston (St. Joe’s Prep), Neil Willis (Malvern Prep) and James Connelly (Malvern Prep) were all Digitex-U Players of the Game and showed that the NFL may someday get back to being a running league (oh, those were the days…)

The most inspiring performance of the games we covered was definitely done by Jim McGoldrick of St. Joe’s Prep. He  returned from a serious face injury suffered over the summer to return two kicks for touchdowns against Lasalle.  This was his first game back.   He proved to be a return threat all year long for the Hawks.

All in all, it was a great first year of covering high school football for Digitex-U Sports (now Varsity 365, of course).  There will be big changes next year with the Catholic League realignment, but one thing we know won’t change: the heart and desire of all the players every time they hit the field.  That alone already has us looking forward to 2008.