There's not much mercy in the Xcellent 25 – one bad game, and all of a sudden you're on the outside looking in.
St. John Vianney of New Jersey, for example, was comfortably in the 12th spot, looking ahead to a big game this weekend in New York City when unheralded (but unbeaten) St. Rose came from 11 down early in the third quarter and won going away, 49-41.
And even though Norcross of Georgia got a very nice win over Hoover of Alabama on Saturday, 49-44, a loss earlier in the week to North Gwinnett, one of those pesky league rivals, was enough to drop the Blue Devils out.
Moving back in is four-loss Riverdale Baptist of Maryland. "Four losses?" a perceptive reader might note. "No one else has more than two." But all of Riverdale Baptist's losses are to teams in the Xcellent 25 (Bolingbrook of Illinois, Potter's House of Florida, Princess Anne of Virginia and Archbishop Spalding of Maryland), and wins over St. Mary's of California, Monarch of Colorado, Oak Hill Academy of Virginia and H.D. Woodson of the District of Columbia are impressive. It also doesn't hurt that Riverdale Baptist plays pretty much anyone anywhere, and strength of schedule is a big factor in the rankings.
And speaking of strength of schedule, Riverdale Baptist will add even more this weekend at the PSAL/John F. Kennedy Challenge in New York City. The Crusaders will play St. John Vianney Saturday at 5 p.m. at John F. Kennedy High School, and then turn around to play Bishop Ford of New York City at 10:30 the next morning. Obviously, the Vianney game is a big one, as Vianney would most likely move back into the Xcellent 25 with a win, while Riverdale Baptist could make a case to move into the top 20 with a victory.
But that's not the only big game at the Challenge – Archbishop Wood of Philadelphia and Nazareth of New York, both on the fringes of the Xcellent 25, will play at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, and the 3:30 p.m. game matches H.D. Woodson of D.C. (another team that plays anyone anytime) and New York's Murry Bergtraum, which has faded a little from its glory days in the national top ten.
Nazareth will come back Saturday to play University of New Jersey at 7:30 p.m., while No. 9 Neptune will face New Jersey rival Trenton Catholic at 6 p.m.
Aside from Neptune, though, it looks like a quiet week for the top 10, as most states have settled into league play, with the postseason still a month or so down the road. But as St. John Vianney found out, what looks like a quiet week can suddenly turn into an upset special – even with an 11-point second half lead.
1. (1)
Brea Olinda (Brea, Calif.) 18-0
2. (2)
Long Beach Poly (Calif.) 17-2
3. (3)
Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) 17-1
4. (4)
Bolingbrook (Ill.) 15-2
5. (5)
Spring Valley (Columbia, S.C.) 19-0
6. (6)
Lake Taylor (Norfolk, Va.) 18-0
7. (7)
St. John's (Washington, D.C.) 19-0
8. (8)
Ben Davis (Indianapolis) 18-0
9. (9)
Neptune (N.J.) 9-0
10. (10)
Potter's House Christian (Jacksonville, Fla.) 23-1
11. (11)
Princess Anne (Virginia Beach, Va.) 15-1
12. (13)
Riverdale (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) 20-0
13. (14)
Heights (Wichita, Kan.) 10-0
14. (15)
Inkster (Mich.) 11-0
15. (16)
Midwest City (Okla.) 15-0
16. (17)
Troy (Fullerton, Calif.) 19-2
17. (18)
Twinsburg (Ohio) 14-0
18. (19)
North Little Rock (Ark.) 17-0
19. (20)
Shabazz (Newark, N.J.) 13-0
20. (23)
Hopkins (Minnetonka, Minn.) 16-0
21. (24)
Archbishop Spalding (Severn, Md.) 16-2
22. (25)
Our Lady of Good Counsel (Olney, Md.) 18-1
23. (nr)
Riverdale Baptist (Upper Marlboro, Md.) 20-4
24. (22)
Konawaena (Kealakekua, Hawaii) 25-1
25. (nr)
Butler (Matthews, N.C.) 17-0
Dropped out: No. 12 St. John Vianney; No. 21 Norcross.
