Birdie shakes off bad luck, makes pick for last A-K Valley team standing

By: The Birdie
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 | 5:51 PM

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Last week: 2-3

Season: 98-18 (84.5%)

It should come as no surprise The Birdie isn’t exactly a movie buff.

Thanks to midweek MAC-tion, he does pretty much nothing but watch football every night in the fall and winter. In the spring and summer, he scours YouTube for old high school games from other states.

But he will make an exception for sports movies, and “Moneyball” is one of his favorites.

In that movie, Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane has a memorable quote.

“My job is to get us to the playoffs. Everything after that is luck,” Birdie recited, leaving out a word that is not appropriate for fledglings.

Highlands, Leechburg and Apollo-Ridge know what Beane means. They all lost playoff openers last week in close games that could have gone either way.

A penalty call here. A fumbled snap there. Before you know it, the coach is collecting equipment and making offseason plans.

Birdie brings this up not to explain away his 2-3 record last week, but to make a point: This was a pretty good season for A-K Valley football.

Teams competed for conference championships and earned playoff berths. Star players showed out, and young players emerged. Couple of playoff losses can’t erase the positive memories made in the past few months.

And get this: Freeport has a chance to make some more memories Friday night. Here’s Birdie’s pick for that game.

West Mifflin (6-5) at Freeport (9-1): This is nowhere near the mismatch the records might indicate. West Mifflin is a dangerous offensive team. Quarterback Shai Newby had as good a night passing in a first-round win over Southmoreland (9 for 9, 351 yards, four touchdowns) as you’ll ever see.

The Birdie likes the Yellowjackets, though, because of the trajectory of their season. They’ve been building slowly since a Week 3 loss to Armstrong. This is the moment they’ve been building toward. Freeport, 27-20

Tags: Freeport, West Mifflin