KEITH GROLLER'S FOOTBALL PICKS

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Down to three high school teams left -- and all three sure were impressive last week. Northern Lehigh and Central Catholic destroyed their District 2 opponents and Easton was remarkable in a different way, bouncing back from that 3-0 loss to Phillipsburg to beat Whitehall and avenge their only LVC loss.

Now, it's nitty gritty time.

The blowouts should be harder to come by.

Certainly, the Philladelphia Catholic League is a force to reckon with on the PIAA landscape and two our teams go against PCL reps.

Yet, it's hard to go against Northern Lehigh and Easton after what they've done.

Last week, I was a combined 6-2 with the Turkey Day and playoff predictions. Now, I am 220-61 on the season with the high school selections and, hey, even my NFL slate got off to a good start with the Eagles winning by 10 on Thursday night.

I predicted 34-17 on the previous post and it was 34-24. I'll take that.

Now, we continue on the road to Hershey with these three teams:

Northern Lehigh 28, West Catholic 20 -- Speed kills, so they say, and West Catholic, like most Philly Catholic League schools, has it in abundance.

Plus, West Catholic is coming off a bye week, which makes them rested. But it just might make them rusty as well. At this point of the season, you want to keep playing and stay on a roll, especially when you're as hot as the Bulldogs have been. I just don't think West Catholic will face a team that will hit them as hard as Northern Lehigh will or be as determined.

CCHS 49, Clearfield 14 -- The last time I saw Central Catholic's football team play live, it was in Shamokin -- same time last year. And they lost. I don't want to be the jinx again this year.

Things have changed since last year's visit. That was against a very good Selinsgrove team that went on to win the state title. Clearfield is not Selinsgrove and this Central team is better than the 2009 version. Brendan Nosovitch, Kevin Gulyas, Shane McNeely and Co. just won't be denied this time. Traveling with LVC beat man Stephen Miller and let me just say -- Mercy me, Central. We'd love a chance to get this thing over with early so we can get our stories done fast and get out of the cold.

Easton 28, La Salle 21 -- Andy "Weave" Weaver and I are on the same page here. He's going with Easton 33-21, and I am keeping it just a little closer. La Salle's athleticism, and the snow, caught the Rovers by surprise last year.

It won't this year. This is a tough, gritty Easton team that has had time to recover emotionally and physically from that three-games-in-eight-games stuff. I know the Rovers have a great challenge on their hands. I just think there's something special about this team, and they will somehow, some way, get it done.

And in the college game I will cover on Saturday:

Delaware 37, Lehigh 14 -- It has been a terrific ride for the Mountain Hawks, who have surprised a lot of people. But this is still a major step up in class for Lehigh and while they should be proud of what they've done, there's still a need for scholarships in the Patriot League and this one will provide more proof of that.

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/