With rivalry rematches and intercity matchups, Super Bowl Saturday is full of storylines. See which ones you must follow.
1.) Central and Longmeadow will add another chapter to what is becoming a healthy and vibrant Western Mass. football rivalry. After years of dominance without a true competitor, the Lancers narrowly escaped last year's Div. I Super Bowl between the two teams with a win. In the regular season meeting this year, Central upended Longmeadow --- handing the Lancers their first league loss in quite some time. The final rematch of the 2011 season seems to have been in the plans all along...
2.)...Also, note that in the preseason, The Varsity Voice made a handful of bold predictions. Chief among them? I predicted that Central would beat Longmeadow in the Div. I Super Bowl. We shall see.
3.) Springfield will be well-represented on Super Bowl Saturday. Putnam and Commerce will do battle in the Division II Super Bowl and supreme bragging rights that'll be sure to rule State Street for the next year. Also, Longmeadow running back Terry Norris, who hails from Springfield, will be butting heads with Sacoy Malone and the rest of the Central team.
4.) McCann Tech and Pioneer Valley will battle in a game both teams finally hope to win. For the top-seeded Hornets, it's only been one year of torture as they fell in last year's Division IV playoffs before the amazing 2011 run. For Pioneer, though, this final chance at the Super Bowl has been a long time coming and the Panthers hope to erase bad memories from Super Bowl losses in each of the last two years.
5.) Commerce's Dayvon Williams says what he means and means what he says. How else can you explain his vow to win the Super Bowl back in August? As Terrence Payne noted following the Red Raiders' win over Hoosac Valley in the Division II playoffs, the Commerce quarterback predicted the team's postseason success. Could he have enough magic up his sleeve to upend powerful Putnam?