Manual (3-1) will host St. Xavier (4-2) after having a first round bye, and have had only 1 game since October 1st which was a 55-0 defeat of Butler on October 24th. Manual has a very good defense and a running back that will punish you in Juwan Northington. They also have other D1 prospects in WR/DB Eli Blakey and LB Malachi Lawrence. St. Xavier is coming off a 37-0 shut out of PRP and will have their hands full with the ? who have been polishing their horns the last few weeks. St. Xavier has struggled to run the ball against good teams and will need to get Mekhi Smith involved  in the passing game and out of the wildcat to score some points. These teams are separated by 3 points in the Calpreps rankings with Manual rated higher and should be a low scoring game. The kicking game could be key along with turnovers.This should be the game of the week in 6A as a top 5 team will be going home for the season Friday night. Who wins?

Oddly Manual is higher In Calpreps ranking but the Calpreps project a matchup has it St.X 21-20.

This game for St.X will come down to the QB play. Can he make throws needed to keep the offense on the field. He has a good release and arm, but at times seems to hold the ball a bit too long. 

For the Tigers defensively, it will come down to gap integrity. If they keep their run fits consistently they'll be in good shape, if not Northington will have a big game. Traditionaly this would be a game I'd say St. X will win because they'll control the line of scrimmage, but over the last number of years that hasn't always been the case upfront. Should be a good high school football playoff slugfest!

On paper, I think this is a toss up game.

But Manual hasn't played in a month.  It's a crazy year and they crushed Butler 55-0 in that game.  They have only played 4 games all year.  Only the opener against LaSalle was close.  That was a long time ago.

St. X expectantly crushed PRP last Friday Night.  I think that's a big advantage just to be on the field and play last week.  I think Manual will be really rusty in this game.  I do think Manual has more guys to worry about than X does this season, but may be a work in progress to make that matter in this game.

I expect a hard fought tough ball game.  I expect Northington to make a play at the end to win it for Manual.  But it won't be easy.

Manual 21

X 20 

Manual 27-24.

Who isX QB?

4 minutes ago, Tigercat said:

Who isX QB?

Giles Pooler. Against PRP they also did some wildcat with Mekhi Smith especially on goaline.

Oddly, all the pressure is on Manual for this game. They have the star players and probably their best team since Keenan Burton roamed the field for Manual. But with all that, it will be the little things that decide this game similar to the playoff game last year. I’ll go with the Tigers in this playoff matchup, 21-10. Go Tigers!

2 hours ago, LongTimeReader said:

Oddly, all the pressure is on Manual for this game. They have the star players and probably their best team since Keenan Burton roamed the field for Manual. But with all that, it will be the little things that decide this game similar to the playoff game last year. I’ll go with the Tigers in this playoff matchup, 21-10. Go Tigers!

Manual will also be motivated by revenge after St.X knocked them out of playoffs last year.

This is a classic matchup of superior talent versus superior numbers. Manual has a handful of guys capable of swinging this game for them, but they also play some people both ways, whereas X doesn't. 

I don't see any way this isn't a tight game. I'm more or less on the same page as @Purple88. I think over the course of the game, one or two of Manual's FBS studs makes a high impact play to nudge the Crimsons ahead of the Tigers.

 

1 hour ago, Tigerpride94 said:

 

I assume that is top 20 in the entire state. That said, using calpreps.com statewide rankings:

#17 Somerset at #13 Lexington Christian

#19 Franklin County at #15 Central

 

Just a little outside a top 20 matchup:

#22 Lexington Catholic at #2 Boyle County