September 1-4

The ninth month of 2016 began on a Thursday, the Barnstormers hosted Long Island in the final game of their series but I was not there. We had our organizational meeting for the fall street hockey season at the rink. We had about seven or eight teams represented but not all were there, the target date to start is Monday the 19th. On Friday Jenny was in town (no migraines on this day), we had lunch together at the plaza. In the evening I was at McCaskey for the opening weekend of high school football and my 29th year behind the mic on the PA. Former head coach Jack Neal was in attendance, he was the head man at JPM from 1986 to 1997. I asked him if he wanted to hear something that would us all feel old and noted that it was my 29th year, he agreed that time marches on and there's nothing any of us can do to stop it. State College HS was the opponent, they are from a town in the central part of the state perhaps much better known for college football. SC was a state-ranked team and JPM is starting over with a new head coach so nobody seemed to be expecting a competitive game. SC led 14-0 at the half but in the third quarter JPM took advantage of a turnover and a short field to get on the board. Returning QB Jathan Gonzalez rushed for a TD, kicker Nick Allen's PAT made it 14-7. Another SC touchdown and a field goal put the visitors ahead by seventeen, on the game's final play Gonzalez ran for his second score to bring the final to 24 13 (the PAT was not attempted because no time remained on the clock). New coach Eric Spencer is a former head coach at the high school level and has collegiate experience as an assistant, he is returning to the sidelines after several years away for family reasons. He takes over for Rob Monzon who stepped down at the end of 2015 for family considerations of his own. Anyone who knows anything about football knows that it takes time to institute a new system, how this season plays out is anybody's guess. The next home game is on the 16th against Reading High. The rest of the weekend was quiet except for Saturday lunch with Jenny. Take care, thanks for reading.