Few of the end results in the PSAC Football Conference this season were anything but predictable. At no point in the 2012 season was there a game where you felt 100% certain that you knew who would win. Many times stats and records can be a barometer of an outcome, but that has been rendered useless in the PSAC football season. If you had to bet your life savings on one thing, it wouldn’t be the winners of games any given weekend.
Traditional power California will be missing the National Playoffs after two late crushing losses that knocked them out of contention. Surprise teams were everywhere in the PSAC this season. Mercyhurst handed the previously mentioned Vulcans their second of their back to back losses, placing them second behind the West Division Champion, IUP Crimson Hawks. Slippery Rock got off to a bit of a “rocky” start but finished strong in the conference at 5-2. Leadership by Junior Quarterback Nigel Barksdale helped The Rock find their stride late in the fall, and most likely left them wondering of “What if”. Bloomsburg finished with only one blemish, losing to East Division Champion, Shippensburg. Bloomsburg has made their mark on the PSAC this season and their offense is firing on all cylinders at the most crucial time of the year. For all of the moments this season has presented, three teams have fought hard and will represent the PSAC in the National Division 2 Playoffs that start next weekend.
Indiana University of Pennsylvania went into last Saturday’s game knowing exactly what they would need to do to become the 2012 PSAC Champions. Defense was key, going up the against the PSAC’s best QB in Zach Zulli. IUP shut the prolific Raider Offense down, only allowing a total of 271 yards and constantly harassing by Zulli and his skill mates. IUP ‘s dominance on defense allowed signal caller Mike Box to run the IUP offense up and down the field all game long. IUP might not have went into that game as the favorite, but it left as the probable favorite to do damage in the playoffs with their ability to play so well on both sides of the ball. The Crimson Hawk’s will open up their playoff schedule against Sheppard at home on November 17th. What we knew about IUP is that they have a defense that has the ability to really disrupt an offense, what we know now is that they have an offense that can carry its own weight just fine as well.
Shippensburg probably went into Saturday’s game against IUP feeling a much different way than they did leaving Indiana on Saturday night, after a crushing and in a sense, shocking loss. The Raiders had a game plan much like their opponent. Their plan instead lied on the other side of the ball, and with an offense that was debatably the best in all of Division 2. What the Raiders should take from the loss is anything that doesn’t leave them with some sort of “disappointment hangover”. Though the loss did end the streak of the only unbeaten PSAC School, the Raiders must focus on getting back to doing what they do best, at the time they planned on doing it. What seems to hurt the Shippensburg team is the dependency that appears to be on the offense too often than not. To be successful against the types of opponents in the National playoffs, the Raider Defense must play at a high level to propel them on to bigger and better games. They might have landed the wrong opponent coming off this kind of performance. Bloomsburg, the team from their division, their biggest rival, who they defeated in a game for the ages earlier in the season, would like nothing more than to show why they believe they are the best that the PSAC East has to offer.
Bloomsburg seems to be the girl at the dance that’s not getting nearly enough attention. It seemed that when they got their first lost it felt like they were treated like it was their 5th or 6th. The Huskies didn’t allow a surging Slippery Rock squad to derail their pre-playoff plans this past Saturday at the Slimy Pebble. Though the Rock showed why they were a team no one wanted to particularly face at this time of the season, the Huskies showed off their own prolific numbers on offense and out dueled Nigel Barksdale and the SRU offense 49-41. The Huskies go into the National playoffs needing the same sort of help on defense as Shippensburg does to be successful against real quality opponents. The Huskies take their show on the road to arch nemesis, Shippensburg. The Huskies will be licking their chops leading up to this game as they will try to avenge their only loss of the season.
As the best time in Division 2 football rolls in, the local representation is strong and the teams representing the conference are undoubtedly the best it has to offer. Whether it be the IUP defense, or the ground and pound of Bloomsburg, the D2 playoff bracket better keep an eye on three schools from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.
