By Frank Rizzo
SULLIVAN COUNTY — October 20, 2000 – The biggest football weekend of the year in Sullivan County is upon us. “Super Saturday” will feature four games which will have a bearing on who gets to go to the Class C and Class D championship games at Kingston’s Dietz Stadium.
Here, in no particular order, are the tilts:
• Tri-Valley (1–6, 0–1 Class D) at Roscoe (3–4, 1–1 Class D) at 2 p.m. Note the time change.
The visiting Bears, defending Class D champs, need a victory to stay in the race. If Roscoe wins, and Millbrook beats Livingston Manor, then Roscoe will play in the championship game. If Roscoe beats T-V and Livingston Manor beats Millbrook, then the October 28 game between Manor and Tri-Valley will be a factor.
• Millbrook (6–1, 2–0 Class D) at Livingston Manor (2–5, 0–1 Class D) at 1:30 p.m.
A Millbrook victory would put the Blazers into the championship game. A Manor victory, combined with a Roscoe loss to Tri-Valley seven miles up Route 17, would give the host Wildcats a chance — but they would have to beat Tri-Valley on October 28.
If all came to pass Manor’s way, then ‘we have a chance [to be in the championship game],” according to Manor coach Scott Branning.
He added, “The tiebreaking [system] is totally incomprehensible to me.”
Branning said his squad “is up and down. How we do depends on which team shows up. Millbrook runs a lot of traps up the middle and we’re not good stopping that. We’re practicing on trying to stop [those plays].”
With a healthy QB Ryan Carslon in the lineup, Manor is a competitive team, as it showed in a close 19-13 loss to Class C power James I. O’Neill last Saturday (see football roundup this page).
• James I. O’Neill (6–1, 2–0 Class C) at Liberty (6–1, 2–1 Class C), 1:30 p.m.
“That’s the whole season. It’s do or die,” Liberty coach Mike Castelli said of this game.
The visiting Raiders are enjoying their best season in years, outscoring their two Class C opponents 52-6.
The Indians have struggled to put points on the board this season, but quarterback Vince Evans and the backfield of Nick Rusin, Joe Colacurcio, and Mike Poje are threats — as are receivers Chris Winters, Todd Davis, and Tom Ditmar.
The defense, meanwhile, has yielded just 6.4 points per game.
Liberty’s Class C loss came to Sullivan West in the season opener.
“It would have been nice to start with a non-league game, but when you have only five teams in the division that’s the way it goes,” Castelli said.
Castelli revealed that he will be missing four players tomorrow due to academic ineligibility.