School Football Picks, 10/19-10/20

Last week: 24-11

Season: 116-54

Be sure to verify schedules with a second source, because I'm not...

FRIDAY GAMES...

South Shore at Blue Hills, 4

South Shore kids are flatlanders, and that hurts their performance when they play up in the mountains

BH, 17-14


Holbrook-Avon at West Bridgewater, 6

Westie is 5-1 and Holbrook is looking like the next Scooby Snack.

The WB, 31-14


Coyle Cassidy at Atlantis 6

If you think your commute is bad, CC will need a submarine to get to Atlantis if what I read in The Odyessy is correct.

CC, 41-17


Monomoy at Keefe Tech, 6

Harwich to Framingham bus rides require one to start the Bottles Of Beer On The Wall song in the hundred thousands.

Monny, 14-10


Sandwich at Dennis-Yarmouth, 6

In an alternate universe, Sandwich wins the game and people say, "I'm hungry, I think I'll have a peanut butter Dennis Yarmouth."

DY, 20-7


Cape Cod Tech at Martha's Vineyard, 6:30

Kids from CCT handle the ferry ride better than inland kids, but that only goes so far.

MV, 15-13


Hamden Hall at Marshfield, 6:30

Hamden, Connecticut, in case you didn't know.

Vegas, 24-13


Barnstable at Dartmouth, 7

Barney had a rough start, but can be 5-2 if they handle Dartmouth.

Barnstable, 24-16


Old Rochester at Case, 7

Two undefeated teams fight it out with South Coast bragging rights at stake.

Case, 21-20


Dighton Rehoboth at Seekonk, 7

My new phone has yet to adjust her auto correct to local school names, which means that A) the game will be won by Right on Regolith and B) the auto correct is now writing my punchlines.

DR, 24-13


Greater New Bedford at Wareham, 7

Wareham has to beat someone, why not Run-GNB?

Wareham, 14-13


Pembroke at Plymouth South, 7

Pembroke and Silver Lake have rotten records, and probably should have stuck together.

PS, 20-17


Silver Lake at Duxbury, 7

Duxbury has progressed wildly since I watched Vegas tear them to pieces last Thanksgiving.

Duxbury, 24-3


Weymouth at Braintree, 7

Weymouth broke the ice last week, but there is a frost warning this week.

Brains, 30-17


Hanover at North Quincy, 7

Hanover may regret that tie earlier in the season when the state's odd tournament gets going.

Hanover 19-17



Hull at Carver/Sacred Heart, 7

I wonder if, when Carver and Sacred Heart joined teams, Carver was like "Well, at least we'll have God on our side if he have to throw a Hail Mary."

Hull, 7-6



Bishop Feehan at Bishop Stang, 7

If there were more Satan-themed schools, you wouldn't have to make Bishops fight.

Feehan, 34-33



Mansfield at Oliver Ames, 7

 The football team doesn't win much, but the archery team never loses at Oliver Ames.

Manny, 41-6



Norwell at Middleboro, 7

Middleboro is a spooky town to drive through on a dark October night, but I don't think that Norwell will commute to the game down Route 105.

Norwell, 17-16



Attleboro at Franklin, 7

Franklin is beyond this site's coverage area, so eff them.

Atty, 24-17



Somerset Berkley at Fairhaven, 7

The schedule was not kind to SB early this season, and they will make up ground now.

SB, 14-10

New Bedford at Brockton, 7

I hate to bet against our South Coast office, but I hate to lose bets more.

Brockton, 21-14



St John Paul I at Austin Prep, 7

I wonder if the AP kids hold up AUSTIN 3:16 signs like WWE fans used to.

SJPI, XV-XI


Taunton at King Phillip, 7

Not really digging Taunton right now...

KP, 38-6



Apponequet at Bourne, 7

I may go to this one, so no betting against the home team.

Bourne, 23-21



Whitman Hanson at Plymouth North, 7

Half of Plymouth can beat two small towns.

PN, 17-14



Falmouth at Nauset, 7

Falmouth tries to stay undefeated.

Falmouth, 21-20



Scituate at East Bridgewater, 7

Scituate can think tournament if they don't lose again.

Scituate, 38-21



Abington at Cohasset, 7

Game of the week on the South Shore.

Abbs, 30-28



Mashpee at St. Mary's, 7

Mashpee goes to the City of Sin, and they come out the way they went in... Undefeated.

Mashpee, 20-19



St John's Prep vs Bridgewater Raynham, 7

BR with the upset!

BR, 20-16

SATURDAY

Rockland at Pentucket, 12

It seems silly for Rockland to drive to wherever the f*** Pentucket is while Marshfield is, during the same week, playing a Connecticut team.

Pentucket, 21-14


Old Colony at Upper Cape, 12

You don't come into the B and put an L on Upper Cape Tech. Not on this Saturday.

UC, 15-14



Nantucket at Southeastern, 1

Nantucket washes ashore looking for blood.

Nanny, 18-17



Diman at Tri County, 1

It's not easy being Di man.

TC, 20-10



Tabor at Governors Academy, 2

After the game, the Tabor kids will be free to explore Byfield.

Tabor, 12-10



Quincy at Hingham, 3 PM

It's never fun betting against Capital Q.

Hingham, 24-9

Cranberry Harvest, Plymouth MA, 10/16

We visited some cranberry bogs in Plymouth County during harvest season. This one is in Wareham, but most of the other pictures are from Plymouth.

Massachusetts was once the leading producer of cranberries in America, and therefore the world. Wisconsin has wrested that title from us, although most Americans still associate cranberries with Thanksgiving, and, therefore, Massachusetts.

Cranberries were being cultivated by the Narragansett people long before European colonization. They called them sasemineash, and used them for both dye and pemmican.

Plymouth and the town's of Plymouth County are chock full of cranberry bogs. I don't have the numbers handy, but Carver and Middleboro may have the most per capita.

Ocean Spray was founded in Massachusetts, based on a giant bog in Hanson.

White berries are sold separately, after they divvy up the colors.

European colonists often called them Bearberries, as bears would fatten upon them just before hibernating.

October is generally harvest season for cranberry farmers. The harvest can be early/late/mid October, depending on when the frosts come.

If you poured enough milk in there and floated a gang of blueberries in the upper left hand corner, you could make a pretty cool Old Glory.

A quick look at the name if this website is all the prompting you'd need to guess that we shall do several of these articles before Thanksgiving is past us. I need to do more sunny day cranberry photography.

Back Acre Farms In Middleboro

Pumpkin patch? I'm in!

Ladies and gents, Back Acre Farms. It's on the Middleboro/Lakeville line, on the Middleboro side, I believe.

Specialty? Pumpkins!

They have other stuff, too.

As you can tell...

They will drive you to the patch on a sort of hayride. Here it comes...

... and there it goes.

You could buy your pumpkin from a bin at Wal Mart, but this website strongly recommends going to a farm. I have difficulty imagining Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin near a big cardboard box in a supermarket.

It looks a bit like someone buried Donald Trump or Beavis up to his forehead.

The owner of the farm, who just took over for his father, was cool enough that he finished my sentence when I said, "You ought to get...". Yes, the end of the sentence was "a cannon to shoot pumpkins." He was thinking slingshots, but Visionary stuff is why I make the big money.

They are located off the Nemasket River, and here is their website.

Check them out!

South Shore/Cape Cod Leaf Peeping, 10/12-10/13

A warm autumn has slowed down the usual leaves-changing-color process. 

We traverse the region for this site, and have a pretty good idea of where color is showing.

It is a slow change. Most of Plymouth, Bristol and Barnstable Counties are still very green.

You may live in one of these areas, and you may be saying "Hey, I live in one of those areas, and I see orange/red/yellow up in some trees in my neighborhood," and I would agree. This picture, and the two above it, are from the Outer Cape. However, peak season isn't here yet.

If you go up Route 3 from Bourne to Quincy for whatever reason, the trees will be almost 100% green until you get north of Duxbury. By Weymouth or so, you have color, and if you go inland, you have even more color. It hasn't peaked there either, but you escape that Sea Of Green vibe that Plymouth has.

Eastern Massachusetts is pretty flat, and it is loaded with pine. You can't get those views of foliage that you see in New Hampshire, where you are looking down on a wide valley where the colors suggest that some mammoth supreme being has poured Lucky Charms on top of a forest.

Nope... You are pretty much after individual trees here. As you can see in the first picture at the top, we even settle for individual branches of trees, especially early in the season.

These pics are from Wellfleet, Eastham, Brewster, Weymouth and Braintree. We do a lot of leaf peeping, and will share our findings with you as the season progresses.

Cape Cod Surf Check, 10/12/18

As former Hurricane Michael moved out to sea south of Cape Cod, our intrepid photographers headed out to Eastham to see what was happening.

First stop: Coast Guard Beach

We went at low tide... Which, judging by these dunes, may have been a good thing.

Check the video below...

No surfers, the waves were bunched together poorly for even the most gallant goofy-footer.

You may think that I am trying for a profound shot of the Coast Guard station, but in reality, I just took this pic as I was leaving, so I would know when my pics stopped being from CGB and started being from Nauset Light Beach.

We haven't had a surf check article with destruction since April in Duxbury.

Still, we love waves of all sizes.

Ahhh... Love. Must be nice. It's my birthday today, and I am as alone as a man can be. The girl I see decided that the best way to celebrate my birthday was to go to Salem without me, my family is at a funeral and I will probably spend my birthday staring at my office's walls or hanging out at the hotel with some cocaine people I know. I don't like cocaine personally ("Just what I need... a drug that makes me babble!"), but they are as nocturnal as I am, and it beats talking to Bay Bay Cat in my squalid office during a dark October witching hour. Those two people in the picture look happy, though... God bless 'em.

HS Football Picks, Schedule 10/11-10-13

We  went 24-10 for the second week in a row, bringing our record for the season to 92-43.

The guy who normally does this article is in Facebook jail. The guy who normally advises him is in real jail. This week, it falls to Stacey. Stacey is actually the originator of this column, and she was so good at it that we had Stephen and Abdullah take over.

If Stacey dies or goes 11-23, the column goes to Jessica, who doesn't watch football. If she falters, it goes to Teresa, who watches football but is straight-arrow enough that she had a priest bless her cats this weekend... not the kind of girl who you want involved in highly illegal gambling on high school football.

If Teresa demurs, the job goes to the cheerleading coach at Bourne High School, who is 100% unaware that she is sixth in line to this throne.

On to this week's action...

THURSDAY

Middleborough at Abington, 7 PM

If Mashpee wasn't on their schedule, Abington would be a good bet to run the table this year.

Abington, 24-13


FRIDAY

Bridgewater-Raynham at Barnstable, 6 PM

If they played football in summer school and scheduled a game for Friday night at 6, B-R would have to leave at like noon or something, lest they go to start the game and one team isn't there. There would be a sort of high drama as, just before the forfeit is announced, the team bus pulls onto the field and the kick return team runs off the bus and gets into formation.

B-R, 13-12


Hanover at Falmouth, 6 PM

There would be high drama if the bus got stuck in traff... hey, wait, we just used that joke.

Falmouth, 22-21


West Bridgewater at Monomoy, 6 PM

One of the sure signs of true Autumn is when teams schedule Friday night games at Cape schools.

WB, 20-14


Somerset-Berkley at Apponequet, 6:30 PM

We bet against SB last week and took the L... not again.

SB, 14-13


Whitman-Hanson at Silver Lake, 7 PM

Never bet against a school that even sounds like Crystal Lake on Friday the 13th, especially in October. Fortunately for the Panthers, it's the 12th.

WH, 21-9



Pembroke at Scituate, 7

Pembroke got win #1 last week, so I don't feel badly going with the Scituation.

Scituate, 28-12


Dighton-Rehoboth other at Greater New Bedford, 7

Run-GNB took some of our money last week, but so did D-R.

DR, 17-14


Framingham at Weymouth, 7

Weymouth has to beat Somebody, but there is unfortunately no school named Somebody High.

Framingham, 20-10


Martha''s Vineyard at Carver/Sacred Heart, 7

Carver kids get superpowers during cranberry harvest season.

Carver, 10-9


Attleboro At Mansfield,  7

When in doubt, bet the home team.

Mansfield, 27-24


Case at Wareham, 7

5-0 vs 0-5.

Case, 28-7


Bourne at Seekonk, 7

Me not being sure if Seekonk has a hospital is the only thing holding back a "most of the Seekonk kids were Born at Seekonk" joke.

Bourne, 30-23


Duxbury at Quincy, 7

More than one member of the staff here is a DHS alum, so Duxbury will run the table this season, at least in this column.

Duxbury, 38-7


Nauset at Sandwich, 7

Tough year for the Earl.

Nauset, 30-7


Norwell at Rockland, 7

We have wasted a few picks waiting for Rockland to break the ice, why not one more?

Rockland, 9-7



Cohasset at Bishop Stang, 7

Stang lost in a huge upset lat week, while Cohasset's loss was more expected. Thusly, Stang will be and play angrier.

Stang, 21-20


Plymouth North at Hingham, 7

One of our staff taught at PN, so we choose them.

PN, 21-16


Fairhaven at Old Rochester, 7

Fairhaven is going to the OR.

OR, 28-15


East Bridgewater at Cambridge R+L, 7

One may wonder how CRL chose which Bridgewater to play. They had like 3 choices.

EB, 14-7


Franklin at Taunton, 7

" He was dirty and filthy and covered with fleas, and he took his woman by the twos and threes"...Hunter Thompson, about Ben Franklin

Taunton, 17-14


Marshfield at Dennis-Yarmouth, 7

Marshfield's super bowl this year will be trying to wipe out Duxbury again on Thanksgiving.

DY, 39-17


Plymouth South at North Quincy, 7

I have no idea why Plymouth puts the town first in there name, or why Quincy leads off with the compass point.

PS, 12-10


Hull at Mashpee, 7

The Mash is at around 25 games without a loss.

Mashpee, 35-7


Southeastern at Diman, 7

South has one loss this year, and it was on a 2 point conversion on the last play of the game.

SE, 15-8


New Bedford at Dartmouth, 7

The blind man's girl told him to kiss her where it smelled like fish, so he took her to New Bedford.

NB, 7-6


Brockton at Durfee, 7

Unlike Stephen, I am not all ga-ga over a girl who went to Durfee, and can bet against them with impunity.

Brocktober, 21-10

SATURDAY

Blue Hills at Upper Cape, 11 AM

UC isn't taking much sh*t this year.

UC, 21-9


Coyle Cassidy at Bishop Feehan, 1 PM

"Coyle Cassidy" sounds like two thirds of a law firm.

CC, 27-19

Bristol Plymouth at Old Colony, 1

Seeing as we kicked England out in the 1780s, any Colony is old by now.

The OC, 28-21


Cape Cod Tech at South Shore Tech, 1

CC is playing better than their record.

CC, 21-6


Holbrook/Avon at Tri-County, 1

Slash vs Hyphen, place your bets.

TC, 21-20


Nantucket at Boston Latin, 2

Nothing like a ferry trip, followed by a ride into Boston, then a football game, then a ride to Hyannis and a ferry home. Should be rough seas, too. If Latin wasn't 0-5, I would choose them. However, they are, and I'm not.

Nantucket, 41-20


Buckingham, Browne and Nichols at Tabor, 3

Too bad I already made a "sounds like a law firm" joke.

BBN, 12-11


Pope John XXIII at St John Paul I, 6


Boy, that Pope John the 23rd was something, Pope John 22 had nothing on him.

SJPI, 21-18

Hurricane Michael Could Impact SE Massachusetts

Remnants of powerful storm to approach New England...

Tropical Storm Michael is expected to become Hurricane Michael later today. It could hit the Florida panhandle as a major hurricane, move inland, then head back to sea off the Mid-Atlantic states later in the week.

Where it goes after that is why we have the weather desk working at 5 AM.

It will likely head out to sea south of us, harmlessly... at least harmlessly to us. However, there is a chance that we get in on her northern fringe, which changes the game somewhat.

Let's use a paragraph here to say that no weather model I have seen shows anything even approaching a direct hit. We can take that off the table.

A complete miss is more likely, and remember that you're hearing this from a guy who makes more money if you're frightened.

You may be able to golf happily on both Thursday and Friday. It could still rain, but the rain would be from a different area of low pressure that saps some of Big Mike's tropical rain.

However, there is a worst case scenario where Michael emerges off of Delaware as a strong tropical storm. She (I have a conflict with my tendency to refer to storms as "she," even if they have a male name) maintains/gains/only loses a little strength, and we get her northern fringe. That would mean tropical storm conditions for Cape Cod, the Islands, the South Coast and even parts of the South Shore.

This would mean soaking, windswept rain, gusts high enough to disrupt electrical service and moderate-to-major coastal flooding.

The storm surge would happen during the astronomically high tides of a waning new moon.

The winds could screw up the SE Massachusetts fall foliage season, as the leaves would get blown off the trees.

The storm is still sitting between Cuba and Mexico, and a lot can happen between now and Friday. The storm's track could change wildly, in a game where even a wobble makes a big difference.

Just don't say that we didn't get you an early warning. We will be back later in the week with an update if the situation merits it.

Our graphics are borrowed from the National Hurricane Center .