Class A breakdown: Poughkeepsie vs. Roosevelt
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- November
- 6
This is the second of five breakdowns for the Section 1 championship games this weekend at Mahopac High School.
Class A championship
Poughkeepsie (6-2) vs. Roosevelt (7-1)
When: Saturday, 5 p.m.
Previous meeting: They didn’t play in the regular season.
Common opponents: Poughkeepsie lost to Eastchester, 13-12, and beat Rye 25-20. Roosevelt beat Eastchester, 22-12 and lost to Rye, 49-26.
How’d they get here: Just a few upsets, that’s all. Poughkeepsie handed Somers its first loss, 14-10, in the quarterfinals before stunning Rye in the semifinals with three touchdowns in the final 3:30. Roosevelt knocked off Ossining 41-20 in the quarters and stormed past Lakeland, 32-7, in the semis.
Position-by-position breakdown
Quarterback: Roosevelt has perhaps Section 1’s best player in Donovan Walker, who has thrown for 895 yards and 11 touchdowns and rushed for 549 yards and eight score. Poughkeepsie’s Jarrid Williams has gotten the job done of late. Although he isn’t quite the passer Walker is despite throwing for 918 yards. Edge: Roosevelt
Running backs: The Indians have one of, if not, the most productive runner in Dave Thomas, who’s rushed for 1,123 yards and is averaging 7.4 yards per carry. Thomas Boddie is a very capable backup. The Pioneers, though, have far more depth with hulking fullback Troy Wright and halfback Josh Graham, who’s the fastest high school football player I’ve ever seen. Edge: Poughkeepsie.
Receivers: This is a tough one. Roosevelt has a pure wideout in A.J. Pritchett (24 rec., 5 TDs) and two good possession receivers in Klaudio Selimaj and Alton Ritter. The Pioneers, meanwhile, have the most explosive player in the section in Graham, who torched Rye as a receiver. Malcolm Daniels and Jovan Wilkens are also great targets. Reuben Frank lines up at wideout but doesn’t get thrown to that much. Edge: Push.
Offensive line: What Roosevelt lacks in depth it makes up for in sheer determination. This is one of the hardest working groups I’ve seen all year. Tyrone Jones, Korab Muriqi and Gorge Tigre lead the unit. Poughkeepsie has some serious beef up front and is a tough, physical group. Edge: Poughkeepsie.
Defensive line: The Pioneers have the area’s top defensive end in Frank, who’s headed to UConn, and an underrated star in Tyree Coleman. Musa Nesheiwat, at 318 pounds, takes up some serious space in the middle. Roosevelt has Jones in the middle and a couple of nice ends in Kevin Outlaw and Ritter. But Poughkeepsie is just deeper and more physical. Edge: Poughkeepsie.
Linebackers: Poughkeepsie middle linebacker Jaquawne Simpkins (127 tackles) is a special talent. Few hit as hard as Wright and Dorian Cummings covers the field so well. Thomas is terrific at linebacker for Roosevelt, and Boddie and Ritter are good complements. Edge: Poughkeepsie.
Secondary: There isn’t a better defensive back around than Walker, who could legitimately play safety at the Division I-A level. He’s that good. Ronald Vereen won’t play this week after being ejected against Lakeland but the unit is solid as long as Pritchett comes back healthy. Poughkeepsie has some of the hardest-hitting defensive backs with Graham, Wilkens, Dijon Davidson and Dane Myers. Edge: Roosevelt.
Special teams: Both teams have several threats to return a kick to the end zone. The Indians have a slight advantage in the kicking game with Selimaj, who’s one of the most consistent around. Edge: Roosevelt
Bottom line: Hopefully they have fire extinguishers up at Mahopac, because these teams are going to burn holes in the turf. More than anything, though, I think the physical beating these teams are going to unleash on eachother will be jarring. That’s why Poughkeepsie beat Rye; it physically wore them down and then ran past them. They won’t have the speed advantage on Roosevelt. But the Pioneers are slightly bigger, stronger and deeper. Expect a thriller.
PREDICTION: Pougkeepsie 27, Roosevelt 22
This entry was posted
on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 11:06 am by Kevin Devaney Jr..
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poughkeepsie wins…both teams have talent but poughkeepsie is more disiplined….poughkeepsie goes up and never looks back.
PK this year reminds me a lot of Nyack last year.Lets just hope that whoever wins has enough gas left for the playoffs. Cornwall is probably next and they seem to be getting better every year(minus Aduino). Does anyone know the prospects for the top PK and Roosevelt kids?? Obviously they are talented but are their grades in check?
Graham is really fast But Kev you had to see Dion Lewis play Rye? Is Graham faster than him?Some of the other real fast kids are Israel Echi and John Farley from Hollow
Rileygirl, Graham runs about a 4.38 40, Now i’ll tell you he doesnt seem fast in the first quarters but when the second half comes his speed kills other teams.
roosevelt wins by 2 touchdowns
Devaney,
Donovan Walker might be the best player in Section 1, and you don’t even know what position he plays. He’s a LINEBACKER!
blankman:
donovan walker is good, but might be the best player in sect.1 is a stretch. is he better then his teammate dave thomas?
RileyGirl,
Why are the POK and Roosevelt Players grades in question? How bout you mind your business and stick around for the outcome. Sound like a good idea?
Letsbehonest,
Graham runs about a 4.38? Ever heard of weasel wording? here is an example, theres a sale up to 50% off. the weasel words are
UP TO. Josh Graham runs about a 4.38 the weasel words areABOUT A. What is the margin of era? What is your pure uncontested source?This blog needs a little more legitimacy from the contributors.
what?,
Those were Devaney’s words not mine. Thomas and Walker are both tremendous football players.
Something I thought you bloggers should read-
A man with conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts and figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.
Deiana would dominate against both theses defenses their the best in class A. Somers is still the best in A if not the section.
Powerhouse. I asked the question because one of them is in their 5th year of high school, Im sure you didnt know that.Just because you have some thoughts about athletes doesnt mean we all do. Another reason is there are many recruiting sites out there. These include, Rivals, scout, espn…...... many of these sites have little mention of these players.
Powerhouse, I would love to hear some further legitimacy from you.
Deiana had his chance and didnt quite get it done
I think that Roosevelt will win 28-20, simply for the fact that “The Godfather” of Section 1 Football (Coach DeMatteo) will certainly provide Coach Meade with enough information on how to beat Poughkeepise and help to propell his “Old School” past POK. Yes, Coach DeMatteo is totally loyal to Somers HS, but he BLEEDS Red and White. (Remember all of those GREAT Roosevelt Teams of teh 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, not to mention the Undefeated State Champ Team with Jimmy Kennedy on it, all under Coach DeMatteo’s reign.
RileyGirl,
You asked the question because one of them is in his 5th year of high school? You asked about the academic performance of both of these young men because of the situation of one of them? You serious?
I’m not asking everyone to have the same thoughts about athletes that I do, in fact I’m not asking anything. What I’m implying is that maybe you should mind your business and stick around for the results.
That is a very legitimate implication.
Power House,
I can’t imagine what your objection is to RileyGirl asking about a talented local player’s grades/college prospects? Where a kid ends up playing in college is of large interest to almost anyone who follows HS sports. A kid who does not have decent grades will have a serious negative impact on his college options. People ask that kind of question of kids all over the place – even at better academic schools – if you’ve ever been to a HS athletic event you’ve probably heard fans, referees, opposing coaches, etc. ask the exact same question?
If POK is allowed to keep multiple men in motion, leave before the ball is snapped, and get key conversions by penalty on offense, Roosevelt dies not have a chance.
If the officals actually understand and enforce the rules of football this should be an entertaining but flawed game.
POK has trouble throwing over 10 yrds successfully, most of the offense was yards after catch.
Neither team has good special teams, so I expect a reasonably low scoring game.
12-6 POK
Are any colleges looking at him?
Where might he go?
maybe…... but once I hear
What are his grades like? oh sure, were going to broadcast that so everyone could Know right? As if the kid doesn’t have the right to privacy
ScottinRye
Its okay, theres always next year
thanks for your bitter analysis
Power House,
ScottInrye says, “POK has trouble throwing over 10 yrds successfully, most of the offense was yards after catch”.
I keep asking him if he was REALLY at the Rye Poughkeepsie game that you and I saw?
At the real game the POP QB threw NUMBERS of good deep passes. In fact they were so long they went over the heads of both the rye and POP receivers!!
Power House…Do us all a favor and stop seriously. What a players grades are like is a fully legitimate question on any HS level. Even the Pro’s take an IQ test to see where they rank. Why are you getting so upset? Seems like that strunk a nerve with you deep down inside…Do you know them? Are their grades horrible?...Like take it easy No need to be nasty and “tough guy blogger”.
As for Graham running a 4.38 40yrd dash, I highly doubt that, considering out of the fastest 40’s in the NFL EVER, there is only 24 guys with a 4.3 or under…STOP IT!!!...lol
I do know that for a fact Kevin Bronner from Eastchester ran a 4.5 40 yrd dash which i believe was the fastest 40 in this years section 1 combines.
As for POK vs Roos, I believe that POK defense is going to be very strong too stong for Roos to handle. They are matched very well against each other, however i cannot see Roos keeping up with them by the 2nd half. my prediction POK 32-Roos 17
Powerhouse it is pretty obvious that you are taking your hatred of the Section one skirt out on Rileygirl. Cut it out. It is uncalled for. He asked a question that is not at all offensive.
Rileygirl. I recently heard that Arduino is heading to Maryland. Not 100% confirmed, but he can def. play there.
It was a miss type, I meant to write a 4.48, not a 4.38. Sorry.
ScottinRye, the fact that Rye couldn’t hold Poughkeepsie back for the last 3 minutes its the kids fault. PK played a fair game and won. There is no need to bring them down and say things like that. They beat Rye FAIRLY.
All in all it should be a great game. Alot of speed on that field.
I remember when people said PK Wouldnt have the speed advantage on New Ro. New Ro stacked the box to stop Dickens and Neal but PK’s Tight Ends torced New Ro for several long passes and TD’s. This one might end up to be epic like that game
I would have to say that 3 touchdowns in 3 minutes by poughkeepsie is great. but lets be honest that is more of player and coaching error. That should never happen, rye lost the game for themselves. But if poughkeepse plays the way they did against rye they will lose this game because Roosevelt won’t make the same silly and stupid mistakes rye did to cost them the game. All in all I am a poughkeepsie fan and I am just being honest. Poughkeepsie needs to get on the board early to win this game. All I can say is good luck to both teams. but I hope poughkeepsie wins.
Roosvelt 10 Pough 7 Half, sloppy plays Roos coach over thinking with 10 sec left in half kicks out of bounds twice than onside Pok recovers with 7 sec in half nice run facemask 30 yrd Field Goal short
Gael Force Winds
For athletes that are straight up speed demons, they can definitely run under a 4.4 in the forty. The forty is all about the start and if you get a good start to go along with good acceleration running under a 4.4 is a regular thing. Track kids have a definite advantage because they have great technique.
Half the kids in the state of florida run the forty under 4.4 and these kids get scholarships because of there speed. Many of them aren’t even that great at football but are tremendous athletes. College coaches will teach them the football that they want them to play.
Look at Ramapo’s team last year. They had Mike Abelard, Ryan Whitley, the Ezemma brothers and they were a problem for teams last year. They were good because of the there SPEED. That group of guys were state champs in the 4×100/4×400, all americans as well, national finalists, and Abelard was the individual state champion in the 200 meters. They werent great football players but there speed changed everything.
Graham has some gitty up, as I watched him accelerate and fly past defenders in person against rye and his highlight tape is impressive. I wonder if he runs track.
Congrats Roosevelt. As a PK fan, I must admit you guys beat us fair and square and had alot of heart. Good luck against Cornwall!!