2021 Inaugural Season: Three Rivers Conference

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Northridge, I hear, looked really good vs Dixie. Meanwhile, Oakwood got smashed.
Overall, Milton, Northridge and Riverside look really good. Troy Christian is right there.
 
D4fan said:
About what I expected wins and losses wise. Did not expect Covington and East to lose by the margins they did, but Bethel and Troy Christian played closer games that most expected.

Week 2 does not look any easier. I'm predicting another 3-5 result.
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Who do you have winning this week? Bethel played a young Waynesville team, with a new coach, very tough. Covington and East ran into buzzsaws. Shawnee will push TV for the WOAC title. They are talented.
 
Milton needs to prove to themselves they can play with a program like Valley View. The Spartans just dominated them last year. This game is very key for the Dogs. Valley View beating Shawnee was very impressive. I wasn't expecting that.
Overall, it's a transition year for Valley View and a peak year for Milton. Some of these Bulldogs come back next year. Brumbaugh being one.
 
BlessEmAll said:
Who do you have winning this week? Bethel played a young Waynesville team, with a new coach, very tough. Covington and East ran into buzzsaws. Shawnee will push TV for the WOAC title. They are talented.
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TC iis pretty much a given.

Then there is the group of Riverside, Milton and Northridge. I expect two of the three to win, just have not decided which two yet.

Miami East was a disaster Friday night so I can't see them turning it around enough in one week to knock off Carlisle but could happen.

The others (Bethel, Covington, Lehman) are looking up pretty far at the competition this week IMO.

Tri Village will likely be without Sarver this week vs Shawnee. That game may turn uncompetitive as Shawnee was pretty strong vs East.
 
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Week 2 schedule:
(1-0) Riverside vs (1-0) Northeastern
(1-0) Milton-Union vs (1-0) Valley View
(1-0) Northridge at (0-1) Oakwood
(0-1) Bethel at (0-1) Kenton Ridge
(1-0) Covington vs (1-0) Mechanicsburg
(0-1) Miami East at (1-0) Carlisle
(0-1) Lehman at (1-0) New Bremen
(0-1) Troy Christian vs (0-0) Hillcrest Academy
 
I think Northridge always starts out pretty good, then the other coaches figure them out and it goes downhill from there.
MU typically hammers them, but this year might be a different story. Maybe playing the smaller schools will give them a little juice to win a few more. Riverside is the impressive team along with Milton and Northridge. Milton should have whipped up on Trail in my opinion. Friday went as expected.
I think Troy Christian will be really good this year.
PS, my expectations of Milton are sky-high this year. I always expect the Bulldogs to win. The coaches and the kids are the one's that work hard and have the ability to win this game. Doesn't matter what I think.
 
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BlessEmAll's TRC power rankings...

1. Riverside, beat a very good Ansonia team.
2. Milton-Union, beat up a very weak and outmanned National Trail. True text this week.
3. Troy Christian, lost a close game to a very good Tri Village team.
4. Northridge, whipped up on Dixie. Not staying much for the Bears.
5. Covington, beat up by a strong St Henry squad.
6. Miami East, East got beat by what is supposed to be a good Preble Shawnee team.
7. Bethel, played Waynesville very close till the second half.
8. Lehman, Cavs outmanned by Perry.
 
BlessEmAll said:
I think Northridge always starts out pretty good, then the other coaches figure them out and it goes downhill from there.
MU typically hammers them, but this year might be a different story. Maybe playing the smaller schools will give them a little juice to win a few more. Riverside is the impressive team along with Milton and Northridge. Milton should have whipped up on Trail in my opinion. Friday went as expected.
I think Troy Christian will be really good this year.
PS, my expectations of Milton are sky-high this year. I always expect the Bulldogs to win. The coaches and the kids are the one's that work hard and have the ability to win this game. Doesn't matter what I think.
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One thing with Oakwood/Northridge, there is next to 0 following on here by the Jacks. I never have a good feel for how up or down their team will be due to that. The same could be said for Northridge. I just don't have a feel for how down the Jacks might be vs. how up the Bears could be. No one ever doubts Northridge having talent, that's for sure.

In 2020, Northridge was 0-9 including a loss to Dixie. Oakwood's 2020 record was 3-7, including a win over Northridge. BUT, Oakwood only beat Northridge 25-14. So it was a competitive game.
 
I would go with:

(1-0) Riverside vs (1-0) Northeastern
(1-0) Milton-Union vs (1-0) Valley View
(1-0) Northridge at (0-1) Oakwood
(0-1) Bethel at (0-1) Kenton Ridge
(1-0) Covington vs (1-0) Mechanicsburg
(0-1) Miami East at (1-0) Carlisle
(0-1) Lehman at (1-0) New Bremen
(0-1) Troy Christian vs (0-0) Hillcrest Academy
 
BlessEmAll said:
BlessEmAll's TRC power rankings...

1. Riverside, beat a very good Ansonia team.
2. Milton-Union, beat up a very weak and outmanned National Trail. True text this week.
3. Troy Christian, lost a close game to a very good Tri Village team.
4. Northridge, whipped up on Dixie. Not staying much for the Bears.
5. Covington, beat up by a strong St Henry squad.
6. Miami East, East got beat by what is supposed to be a good Preble Shawnee team.
7. Bethel, played Waynesville very close till the second half.
8. Lehman, Cavs outmanned by Perry.
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These are good rankings. Not only are the good after Week 1, they'll probably be very similar come Week 10. I would have MU as #1 now and I expect them to stay there. Riverside and TC will battle for second in my opinion. Northridge is the one team in the rankings I just can't put my figure on just yet. I would like to see how they do against Oakwood and Carlisle in Week 3.
 
So my reaction/over reaction for the conference is as follows:
Milton will win the league year in and year out. Random teams each year will get a stud athlete that will surprise everyone or be willing to challenge the bulldogs for the title. If Milton continues to schedule only one tough game a year then they will go 9-1 or 10-0 each year and get a false sense of achievement/ confidence and get bounced early in the playoffs. Similar to what would happen to Tipp in the CBC. I think with the expanded playoffs it would be beneficial for the bulldogs to schedule Clinton Massie, Wyoming, teams of that nature to really gauge how good they are. I don't see many challenges for the bulldogs. We are talking about Northridge being one of the tougher teams in the league then we have some problems, no disrespect to those kids but history tells us they are not a quality program. I hope these teams can really gear up to put a good product on the field. All the wins last week were only against WOAC opponents I believe. I hope this league holds itself to a higher standard than them. Like I said my opinion, my reaction.
 
SmallTownFootball said:
So my reaction/over reaction for the conference is as follows:
Milton will win the league year in and year out. Random teams each year will get a stud athlete that will surprise everyone or be willing to challenge the bulldogs for the title. If Milton continues to schedule only one tough game a year then they will go 9-1 or 10-0 each year and get a false sense of achievement/ confidence and get bounced early in the playoffs. Similar to what would happen to Tipp in the CBC. I think with the expanded playoffs it would be beneficial for the bulldogs to schedule Clinton Massie, Wyoming, teams of that nature to really gauge how good they are. I don't see many challenges for the bulldogs. We are talking about Northridge being one of the tougher teams in the league then we have some problems, no disrespect to those kids but history tells us they are not a quality program. I hope these teams can really gear up to put a good product on the field. All the wins last week were only against WOAC opponents I believe. I hope this league holds itself to a higher standard than them. Like I said my opinion, my reaction.
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Well let’s just cancel the season since Milton beat a bad NT team. Pretty sure Milton probably ran out of options as to who the can schedule I wouldn’t be counting your wins off one game.
 
Yeah, week one opponents were hard to come by. They tried several schools, including the MAC, and had no luck.
I'm one that prefers weaker d2-3 schools to challenge yourself. Greenville, Butler, would be good challenges for Milton. But you have to get them to schedule you. With success you will get more takers. Let Milton have a 10-0 season and watch how many schools want to schedule them. I agree with the Massie, Wyoming analogy to a point. Problem is the travel.
I'm sure Troy, Tipp, Sidney, etc are the same level of challenge as Massie or Wyoming. Milton is not going to compete with these schools. Massie and Wyoming have kids moving into the district to play there.
Milton is using homegrown kids. I respect that about MU. I would like to see better scheduling, i.e no more Oakwood or National Trails.

If Covington and East were up to speed, this would be a very, very tough conference and it will be, eventually. Milton needs to dominate something. It's been awhile. 1982, was the last undefeated season.
 
TC week 1 was not as close as the scoreboard showed. 4 Patriot touchdowns got called back on some of the worst officiating possible! Of course, officials are part of the game as are penalties, however, Sarver went down in the first quarter and TV still handled themselves.
TC could be a very solid team this year, showed a lot of positives.

(1-0) Riverside vs (1-0) Northeastern
(1-0) Milton-Union vs (1-0) Valley View
(1-0) Northridge at (0-1) Oakwood
(0-1) Bethel at (0-1) Kenton Ridge
(1-0) Covington vs (1-0) Mechanicsburg
(0-1) Miami East at (1-0) Carlisle
(0-1) Lehman at (1-0) New Bremen
(0-1) Troy Christian vs (0-0) Hillcrest Academy
 
OutsideTheWire said:
TC week 1 was not as close as the scoreboard showed. 4 Patriot touchdowns got called back on some of the worst officiating possible! Of course, officials are part of the game as are penalties, however, Sarver went down in the first quarter and TV still handled themselves.
TC could be a very solid team this year, showed a lot of positives.

(1-0) Riverside vs (1-0) Northeastern
(1-0) Milton-Union vs (1-0) Valley View
(1-0) Northridge at (0-1) Oakwood
(0-1) Bethel at (0-1) Kenton Ridge
(1-0) Covington vs (1-0) Mechanicsburg
(0-1) Miami East at (1-0) Carlisle
(0-1) Lehman at (1-0) New Bremen
(0-1) Troy Christian vs (0-0) Hillcrest Academy
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I expect toughness from a Steve Nolan coached team. TC will be fine and will push everyone this year.
 
OutsideTheWire said:
TC week 1 was not as close as the scoreboard showed. 4 Patriot touchdowns got called back on some of the worst officiating possible! Of course, officials are part of the game as are penalties, however, Sarver went down in the first quarter and TV still handled themselves.
TC could be a very solid team this year, showed a lot of positives.

(1-0) Riverside vs (1-0) Northeastern
(1-0) Milton-Union vs (1-0) Valley View
(1-0) Northridge at (0-1) Oakwood
(0-1) Bethel at (0-1) Kenton Ridge
(1-0) Covington vs (1-0) Mechanicsburg
(0-1) Miami East at (1-0) Carlisle
(0-1) Lehman at (1-0) New Bremen
(0-1) Troy Christian vs (0-0) Hillcrest Academy
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Bingo. Tri-Village had 4 TD's called back including 3 on the series that Sarver was hurt. TC did not score until roughly 4 minutes left in the game.
 
This is why I never put much into final score. Unfortunately, it usually doesn't tell the whole story.
Many years, Milton would be up by 35-42 points in the 3rd quarter and pull the starters. Final would end up 42-21, 35-21, etc.
This would be one of the reasons why we see scouts attending games.
 
I couldn't find this thread yesterday without deep-sea scrolling but here are my week 2 picks: Kenton Ridge over Bethel
Mechanicsburg over Covington
New Bremen over Lehman Catholic
Miami East over Carlisle
Valley View over Milton-Union
Northridge over Oakwood
Riverside over Northeastern
Troy Christian over Hillcrest (43 for the tie-breaker)
 
SmallTownFootball said:
So my reaction/over reaction for the conference is as follows:
Milton will win the league year in and year out. Random teams each year will get a stud athlete that will surprise everyone or be willing to challenge the bulldogs for the title. If Milton continues to schedule only one tough game a year then they will go 9-1 or 10-0 each year and get a false sense of achievement/ confidence and get bounced early in the playoffs. Similar to what would happen to Tipp in the CBC. I think with the expanded playoffs it would be beneficial for the bulldogs to schedule Clinton Massie, Wyoming, teams of that nature to really gauge how good they are. I don't see many challenges for the bulldogs. We are talking about Northridge being one of the tougher teams in the league then we have some problems, no disrespect to those kids but history tells us they are not a quality program. I hope these teams can really gear up to put a good product on the field. All the wins last week were only against WOAC opponents I believe. I hope this league holds itself to a higher standard than them. Like I said my opinion, my reaction.
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I do feel like this is a bit of a knee jerk reaction. For 2021, this is going to end up probably being true. The Week 2 Valley View game will be MU's toughest opponent of the season. From that week moving forward, MU should be favored in their remaining games. However, having a broad scale view, I wouldn't entirely write the league off just yet. First, Covington has been a perennial playoff team for the better part of 20 years. In 2021, obviously they have a new staff and low numbers. Historically, you would think that's an anomaly rather than the norm. Miami East is another school that was a good game for MU not long ago. I think they're also capable of being a playoff type team. Both TC and Riverside have the potential to at least field quality teams so often. In a lot of ways, I view Milton Union as a type of program that never bottoms out with horrible seasons, often has a quality team, and every so many years fields a very strong team. I do agree that MU needs to look at beefing up their non-conference. Taking the league into consideration, but mostly the fact the new playoff situation. A team like Valley View is a quality game. I would just rather see them replace that National Trail game with another DVII-DIV type of playoff team. Teams such as VV, Waynesville, Clinton Massie, Indian Hill, Wyoming, Brookville, Springfield Shawnee, Mechanicsburg, Anna, Minster, New Bremen, Fort Loramie, Fort Recovery, St. Henry, Tri-Village, etc. Many of those would be winnable games to at least games you expect them to compete well in. If they can do that, it'll definitely prepare them better for the playoffs.

As far as the playoffs go, it'll be like any other year, based on matchups. If MU draws a program that's a playoff power, they could struggle in Week 11. I also believe they could win 1-3 games if things fell right for them too. That's definitely not out of the question.
 
ex_dc_atc said:
I do feel like this is a bit of a knee jerk reaction. For 2021, this is going to end up probably being true. The Week 2 Valley View game will be MU's toughest opponent of the season. From that week moving forward, MU should be favored in their remaining games. However, having a broad scale view, I wouldn't entirely write the league off just yet. First, Covington has been a perennial playoff team for the better part of 20 years. In 2021, obviously they have a new staff and low numbers. Historically, you would think that's an anomaly rather than the norm. Miami East is another school that was a good game for MU not long ago. I think they're also capable of being a playoff type team. Both TC and Riverside have the potential to at least field quality teams so often. In a lot of ways, I view Milton Union as a type of program that never bottoms out with horrible seasons, often has a quality team, and every so many years fields a very strong team. I do agree that MU needs to look at beefing up their non-conference. Taking the league into consideration, but mostly the fact the new playoff situation. A team like Valley View is a quality game. I would just rather see them replace that National Trail game with another DVII-DIV type of playoff team. Teams such as VV, Waynesville, Clinton Massie, Indian Hill, Wyoming, Brookville, Springfield Shawnee, Mechanicsburg, Anna, Minster, New Bremen, Fort Loramie, Fort Recovery, St. Henry, Tri-Village, etc. Many of those would be winnable games to at least games you expect them to compete well in. If they can do that, it'll definitely prepare them better for the playoffs.

As far as the playoffs go, it'll be like any other year, based on matchups. If MU draws a program that's a playoff power, they could struggle in Week 11. I also believe they could win 1-3 games if things fell right for them too. That's definitely not out of the question.
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I would think Brookville/MU week 1 would be a great game for both teams. I would think this could/would develop into a great rivalry game with huge attendance. I don't see a downfall to this game.
 
formercardinal said:
I would think Brookville/MU week 1 would be a great game for both teams. I would think this could/would develop into a great rivalry game with huge attendance. I don't see a downfall to this game.
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Agreed. They are both old rivals and very similar schools. Problem is that Brookville has that Tri County North game scheduled every year, then Anna.
MU got Trail when no one else would take the week 1 game with MU.
Trail is a 2 year deal from what I can see. Arcanum, Greenon, Greenville, Butler, Celina, Etc would be great. I don't see MU scheduling south of 70 very much going forward.
Greenon, Graham or any CBC school should be great
 
BlessEmAll said:
Agreed. They are both old rivals and very similar schools. Problem is that Brookville has that Tri County North game scheduled every year, then Anna.
MU got Trail when no one else would take the week 1 game with MU.
Trail is a 2 year deal from what I can see. Arcanum, Greenon, Greenville, Butler, Celina, Etc would be great. I don't see MU scheduling south of 70 very much going forward.
Greenon, Graham or any CBC school should be great
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Greenon will be open weeks 1 and 2 starting in 2023. let your contacts know so they can get something together for week 1.
 
buckeyes4445 said:
Bingo. Tri-Village had 4 TD's called back including 3 on the series that Sarver was hurt. TC did not score until roughly 4 minutes left in the game.
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And what do we do about the 4 times TC drove inside the 10 yard line and got nothing? I fill the real score with no injuries and both team outside of fist game jitters is about TV 35 - TC 21. There is a chance these two meet again in the playoffs. Would be a very cool contrast in styles.

TC moved the ball easily from what I have been told.
buckeyes4445 said:
Bingo. Tri-Village had 4 TD's called back including 3 on the series that Sarver was hurt. TC did not score until roughly 4 minutes left in the game.
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