Unbelievable. That’s the only word I can think of when describing how the City Series football season is unfolding.

Buchtel is 0-5, 0-2 in the City Series. What happened to the perennial league powerhouse that usually blows City rivals away with lopsided wins?

North is 4-1, 2-0 in the City Series. The Vikings defeated Buchtel for the first time in 23 years with a 24-0 win Friday night. North was 1-9 last season. What is going on?

Firestone is 3-2, 2-0 in the City Series. One week after Ellet defeated Buchtel 14-12, Firestone defeated Ellet 27-7. It was the first time Firestone defeated Ellet since 1996.

THE CITY SERIES HAS BEEN TURNED UPSIDE DOWN!

Firestone, North and Garfield (the Golden Rams defeated East 49-27 Saturday) are the only teams that are undefeated in league play. They are now the favorites instead of last season’s co-champs and traditional powers Buchtel and Ellet.

Here are some other Week 5 scores that caught my attention:

Stow 40, Medina 22

*The Bulldogs are 5-0. They were 2-8 in each of the past two seasons. Medina is a good team. The Bees made the playoffs for the first time in school history last season but that didn’t stop Stow from thrashing them.

Tallmadge 34, Cloverleaf 0

*Both teams entered this game with 4-0 records, but the Blue Devils showed they’re still the team to beat in the Suburban League.

St. Vincent-St. Mary 21, Napoleon 15

*There are usually two ways of measuring the character of a team: how it handles adversity and how it handles success. The Irish broke a nine-year losing streak against Archbishop Hoban in Week 4. St. V-M then followed that emotional win with a victory against a very good Napoleon team to stay undefeated.

Canton Central Catholic 19, Bedford St. Peter Chanel 0

*In another showdown between two previously undefeated teams, the Crusaders proved this will be a special season for them.

Hillsdale 21, Norwayne 20

*This game really surprised me. Both Wayne County Athletic League teams entered the matchup undefeated, but I still think Hillsdale was considered the underdog because of what Norwayne did last year(8-2 in 2006) with a lot of returning players. However, Hillsdale won this nail-bitter that might ultimately decide the WCAL champion.

Mogadore 34, Garrettsville 31

*I was lucky enough to cover a great game Friday between last season’s Portage Trail Conference County Division co-champs. Both teams fought very hard, but Mogadore showed it has a running back duo that can’t be stopped (seniors Cody Destro and Ryan Brodie) and that was the difference.

Northwest 24, Canton South 7

*Northwest is still undefeated and looking like it could be a serious contender in the state playoffs.

Walsh Jesuit 44, Parma Padua Franciscan 27

*Walsh coach Gerry Rardin earned his 200th career win Saturday, and the Warriors remained undefeated despite losing star sophomore running back Cameron Ontko to mono.

PAUL TOPLE/Akron Beacon Journal

Tallmadge senior tight end Aaron Donze breaks a tackle during the Blue Devils’ win over Cloverleaf on Friday night.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 at 4:15 pm and is filed under ABJ thoughts, Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.