Re: High School Football 2018
Posted by:
Frequent Watched of WF Football
()
Date: December 16, 2017 04:35PM
Westfield Fan Wrote:
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> For the first time in a long time, and definitely
> the first time in the past 3 years, Westfield will
> be the clear cut favorites to win it all. In
> previous years they were just expected to make
> their annual trip to the region championship game
> and lose, and more recently, specifically the last
> 3 seasons, they weren't expected to be actual
> contenders because they kept on graduating over
> half their starters. This is the first time in a
> while that Westfield won't be doing that and this
> is due to the team being relatively young this
> year as well a small senior class numbers wise by
> Westfield standards. On offense they will be
> returning only 2 O-Lineman that started but they
> had some big guys on the bench and at the JV
> level. At TE they will have Joe Clancy back, who
> didn't play that much TE this year till near the
> end but that was because he was a starter on
> defense. At RB they will be getting back Eugene
> Asante who's should be making a run at All-Met
> Honors and will be one of the top RBs in the
> state. They also have a lot of depth at this
> position as well. At WR they bring back their
> entire group which consists of the 3 best
> receivers in their conference in Kiley, Morin, and
> Woodley, who also happen to be 3 of the best
> receivers in the region. One thing to watch out
> for though is that Morin plays both ways. Noah Kim
> will be coming into the year as the best QB in the
> state and expect him to dominate other teams as a
> Junior. Now that his first year as a starter is
> out of the way and all his weapons are returning,
> it'll be a scary year for the rest of the state.
> On defense they will be losing their most 3
> important players but this happens most years and
> I think the Bulldogs will be fine. They won't be
> as strong on the D-Line as they were the past 3
> years but they should be more than okay,
> especially since the rest of the defense is
> stacked. They are graduating 2 LBs, but Clancy,
> Newborn, Dishun, and McClain, all who received
> major play time or started will be back. The
> defensive secondary will be losing 2 players but
> they bring back Morin and Hinton who are clearly 2
> of the best DBs in the entire state. Special teams
> will be weird. Their punting game was strong this
> year with Steinhilber but looking at what the team
> is returning I don't think they will be punting
> much next year. 2 of the 3 kickers they used will
> be back so I don't think the kicking game will
> change that much either. Their two most dangerous
> returners Morin and Hinton will once again
> dominante the return game. Their freshman team
> went undefeated and didn't really have many close
> games, so I'd expect a few sophomores playing up
> and making an impact. There's always a few new
> kids and kids that hadn't made much impact in the
> past doing big things. Put all these factors
> together as well as the best coaching staff in the
> state and I think Westfield is the clear cut
> favorite to win it all once again.
You forgot Jewell at center on offense, he's a two year starter, next year will be 3, he also won a few post season accolades. They have some pretty big juniors who should be able to plug the empty holes on the rest of the line. They lose lineman every year but every year seem to find ample replacements. With Kim, Asante, Morin, Kiley, Clancy, and Woodley returning on the offense they'll definitely have the capability of putting up some points. Don't forget Soto and Daniel, both sophomores, who got playing time can contribute as well.
On defense Roberts returns on the line, Aguilar who got playing time and is a sophomore will be back. Would expect to see Clancy on the line as well, will be too big for LB next year. Newborn and Dishun will be the starting at LB's on the inside, can have Gepford in the mix as well, McLain outside. Then Morin and Hinton in the secondary along with probably Kiley and Johnson who both saw plenty of time back there.
I agree that kicking will be a big question mark, but it was this year and they seemed to be okay. Hildrup who did plenty of kicking will be back, think he got injured late in the year. He showed promise so he might turn out to be a decent surprise. Their return game with Hinton and Morin will be dangerous, don't forget Morin's punt, field goal, and extra point block ability.
The one thing I disagree with is the comment that they'll be the clear favorite for the first time in a long time. Not so true, entering the 2015 campaign they were picked by Gameday Magazine, Washington Post, Rivals, and a few others to be the cream of 6A North.