Connelly: Plenty to know before Week 1

With the start of each high school football season in the Valley comes a new opportunity for so-called experts, like myself, to tell you what’s going to happen.

So without giving away my Vegas picks for winners and losers this season (just kidding — a world where high school football can be bet on legally sounds like a scary world), I instead offer you a glimpse into my crystal ball.

Here’s what I know, what I think I know, and what I don’t know about the 2014 high school football season:

What I know

There’s no team in the area with more talent than Hubbard. Aside from the two Division I running backs in the backfield — Larry Scott and George Hill — the Eagles will have playmakers on both sides of the ball. Isiah Scott, Larry’s brother, has the size (6-foot-3) and speed (really fast 40-yard dash) to cause problems at wide out and be a ball hawk in the secondary. When Toledo linebacker Tyler Taafe is the fourth player mentioned, the sky’s the limit for this Eagles team.

South Range will win the Inter Tri-County League Tier One, easily, with All-Ohio ball carrier Joe Alessi back for one more year. Along with Ryan Miller returning at quarterback, the second-highest scoring team in the area from a year ago will run away from the competition again. They also have a fun game on the schedule against ITCL Tier Two reigning champion Western Reserve.

Speaking of the Blue Devils, they will be a force on Friday nights again this season. Just because Western Reserve lost two first team All-Ohioans — QB Nick Allison and LB Dan Zilke — doesn’t mean this lightning rod of a program can’t get back to where it was last year. I just wouldn’t bet against head coach Andy Hake, that is if I were a betting man.

What I think I know

Cardinal Mooney will be playing its best football by Week 10. Doesn’t everyone know that by now? The Cardinals proved last year that just because they look average in the middle of the season, doesn’t mean P.J. Fecko won’t have his team rolling into, and through, the playoffs. Look for C.J. Amill to assume the roll Mark Handel did last year: get in the end zone by whatever means necessary.

Ursuline will be better this year, even without quarterback Chris Durkin. Before disagreeing, hear me out. There was something off about last year’s Irish team, and in the offseason returning players alluded to a lack of leadership. I’m not saying that all falls on Durkin — after all he’s a heck of a football player who’s now at Virginia Tech — but I’m not sure he was the leader Ursuline desperately needed last year.

Lakeview will win the All-American National Division. The Bulldogs lost their first three games of last season only to win out and finish 7-3, and more importantly 7-0 in the conference. I don’t think they can count on doing that again this year, but with virtually the same schedule maybe Lakeview’s a team that just needs to be under pressure to succeed. Either way, Liberty and Girard could be preparing for a drop off record wise, allowing the Bulldogs to win the division with a bad start again.

What I don’t know

Nothing. I’m a sportswriter. I know everything.

Kevin Connelly is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write him at kconnelly@vindy.com and follow him on Twitter, @Connelly_Vindy.