Easton, Central Catholic return as LVC favorites

FROM THE MORNING CALL

Last year ended with every Lehigh Valley Conference football team idle the weekend the PIAA held its state finals.

"Then [the league] wasn't that good," joked Easton coach Steve Shiffert two weeks ago.

Well, not quite.

Despite not sending a team to Hershey for the first time since 2004, the LVC featured plenty of power last season. Easton (Class 4A) and Central Catholic (Class 3A) shared the league title and reached the state quarterfinals in their classification. Parkland advanced to the District 11 Class 4A final, losing to Easton. Nazareth and Liberty both qualified for districts in 4A, while Whitehall (4A) and Bethlehem Catholic (3A) won Eastern Conference titles.



In surveying the league's coaches during the preseason, no one expects a drop-off this season.

"We got the league schedule a few weeks ago," Freedom coach Jason Roeder said. "When you look at it, it's hard to even pick the marquee games of the week, there's so many. I say it all the time — it's just gotten so competitive. The players and the coaches in the league are working so hard. To keep up with everyone else, it's just gotten so competitive."

Most of the LVC's teams enter the season trying to catch up to Central Catholic and Easton. Easton has an experienced senior quarterback in Justin Pacchioli, a returning league co-MVP in defensive lineman Dave Caldwell and a winning tradition.

Central Catholic brings back Morning Call all-area quarterback Brendan Nosovitch. He leads a talented junior class that will complement senior standouts such as tight end/defensive end Shane McNeely and offensive lineman/defensive lineman Jared Pitts.

Central Catholic coach Harold Fairclough won't take any LVC team lightly no matter how his Vikings are viewed. They proved last year how much can change in one season, going from the bottom third of the league standings in 2008 to co-champs in 2009.

"If we start talking about state championships right now and talk about winning championships, we're in for a rude awakening," he said. "I respect this conference too much to start thinking about that type of stuff."

While Central Catholic and Easton figure to stay near the top of the standings this fall, they expect challengers aplenty to step forward. Parkland graduated running back and Morning Call player of the year Andre Williams but never seems to have a down year.

Two teams that missed districts last season — Whitehall and Freedom — were also mentioned as LVC contenders by multiple coaches. Whitehall has perhaps the league's best quarterback-running back-wide receiver trio in Chris Polony, Eric Fiore and Tyler Artim. Freedom will try to follow the path Central Catholic and Nazareth took last year in making the jump from the bottom half of the league standings one season to a district playoff berth the next year.

Noticeably lacking from the list of expected contenders is Liberty. The Hurricanes qualified for districts for a sixth straight season last year but face a season of change with a new coach (Dave Brown takes over for Tim Moncman) and a young group of skill players.

Liberty, Nazareth, Emmaus, Northampton and Bethlehem Catholic form the second tier of LVC teams who will be trying to surprise and crack the league's top group.

"It's a good league every year," Pacchioli said. "You can't really look down on that. I think the league's going to do really well this year."

stephen.miller@mcall.com

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