Turkey Day predictions: I just hope they let me in at Northampton

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's 6:45 a.m. as I begin to type this. This is one of the few days of the year that I don't mind being up ahead of the sun. I love Thanksgiving Day football. Today, I will cover what I believe will be my 31st Thanksgiving Day game in my career Morning Call career.

My first one was in 1981 when I was home from Penn State on semester break and then-sports editor Paul Reinhard sent me as a stringer to Upper Perk for the Souderton/Upper Perk game. I had no idea where Upper Perk was at that time, and quite, frankly, 30 years later, I'd still need directions.

Looking back, I covered two of those Souderton/Upper Perk games, one Quakertown/Pennridge game, one Emmaus-Whitehall game, one very special Easton-P'burg game (the 100th edition back in 2006) and six Allen-Dieruff games.

But the Thanksgiving Day game I've covered the most is the Northampton-Catty game. This will be my 20th game between the Konkrete Kids and Rough Riders that I will cover and to me it is fitting that I've covered this one the most because it would make my grandmother proud.

The late Margaret (Apple) Groller was a proud member of Northampton's class of 1934. She loved her school, her hometown, the Roxy. And she loved this game.

When I was a kid, she'd always want to know what the score of this game was. And then later as an adult when I was always late to dinner after covering a Thanksgiving game, that was always her first question to me when I'd see her. "Who won the game?"

I got that even before I got a "Happy Thanksgiving Keith!"

It also added to the dinner time conversation years ago when my great uncle Edward Apple, who was my grandmother's brother, had a grocery store and soda fountain on Race Street in Catasauqua. He was a Northampton grad, but rooted for Catty because that's where his customers lived. So, that got to be a pretty lively discussion between them when it came to analyzing which was the better school, the better town, and yes, the better football team.

Same thing happened years later between my father -- a member of Allentown High's class of 1959 -- and his brother and my uncle -- a 1966 Dieruff High graduate. Talk about family tension over sports. Wow. Will never forget it.

We all have Thanksgiving memories related to sports. These are some that shaped my life, and my professional career.

I had one more memory earlier this week and it was at Northampton.

I was asked to speak at a class and running late -- what else is knew -- I left my wallet in my car. When I went to enter the building at Northampton, the security guy wouldn't let me in without showing ID. Already late, I definitely didn't want to have to trek back to the parking lot for my wallet.

But he wouldn't let me in. You Northampton tax payers can be proud your security people are so diligent.

Fortunately, I had some Morning Call items to give away to the kids and in my bag was that day's Morning Call. Without an ID, I just grabbed The Morning Call sports section. I turned to page C3 where I had a column and I begged the guy -- "See that picture? That's me!" He studied the photo for a few seconds and then, thankfully, let me in the building.

Phew.

Let's hope they let me in at Northampton today for the game.

I know there are a lot of high school games today, but I will just go with the four that I think that matter the most to most people around here and throw in the three NFL games.

On the high school picks, plus Lehigh-Lafayette, I was 7-1 last week to bring me to 188-50 on the season (78.9 percent).

On the NFL picks last week, I was 12-1 outright, 9-3-1 against the spread, but a horrid 3-9-1 on the totals. For the season, I am now 108-47 outright, 83-69-3 against the spread and a dismal 72-80-3 on the over/under totals.

Here we go:

Northampton 21, Catasauqua 14 -- Another good, hard-fought game in this series and the Roughies will give it all they got. But the truth of the matter is: if the Konkrete Kids were in the Colonial League they probably would have only lost to Pen Argyl, and possibly, Northern Lehigh, this season. That's the disparity in size and strength when it comes to the Lehigh Valley Conference and Colonial League.

Eastn 20, Phillipsburg 13 -- The Red Rovers swear they're not thinking about Nazareth until this one's over and I believe them. Congratulations by the way to the new P'burg Hall of Famers, including the great coach Bob Stem, who I still consider to be one of the best coaches we've ever had around here. Here's the link to the complete list of new Hall of Famers:

Download P'burg Hall of Famers

Stroudsburg 41, East Stroudsburg South 20 -- Rob Bennie showed me in the playoff game against Parkland that he's one special athlete, and the Mounties, as a whole, showed me something that night. They truly deserved to be MVC champs. They won the first meeting between these two by a 59-19 score. There's no reason to think this one won't be as lopsided. Only overconfidence by Stroudsburg will keep it close.

Pennridge 28, Quakertown 14 -- Another competitive game. The Rams are 6-5 and the Panthers are 5-6. The difference is that since the end of September, Quakertown has won just once (over Saucon Valley) while Pennridge is 6-2 after an 0-3 start.

Now, in the NFL, here we go with the best schedule of Thanksgiving Day games I can remember.

HOME TEAMS IN CAPS:

Green Bay (-6.5) 31, DETROIT 24 -- Under the 56 -- The Lions will definitely get to roar some against the Packers defense, but until somebody somebody slows down Aaron Rodgers, the Packers aren't going to lose.

Miami (+7) 27, DALLAS 20 -- Over the 45 -- I am hardly a homer, but the Eagles are still the best team in the NFC East and this one will help to inch them back closer to the top. The Dolphins can probably kick themselves for some of their close, early losses because they're playing as good as anybody right now. And, by the way, how many times are we going to see the Leon Lett mistake from the Thanksgiving Day game between these two in the snow back in 1993? The over/under on that is three.

BALTIMORE (-3.5) 20, San Francisco 13 - Under the 40 -- This Harbaugh family reunion is a made-for-TV special, and perfect for this day. But don't get the idea that this is a Super Bowl preview. Both teams are flawed and this one may not be the most attractive game if you like offense.

Enjoy your turkey and Black Friday. Be safe out there.

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