There was a lot of thought put behind these and we will now try and explain why we have placed each team where we did. First of all we have avoided putting teams from the same borough in matchups before the quarterfinals. That is how the PSAL has always tried to do it, and that's how we will do it.
Secondly, the PSAL has specified that the bottom two teams from each borough will not make the playoffs, but there have been talks that they will now take a 4th team from Manhattan, and only take the top 7 from Queens. We believe that may happen as well, but they also may just add the 4th Manhattan team and keep the 8th Queens team to make it a 24 team field, so that's what we are going with.
Lincoln is the easy top seed. There really is no debate about that as they haven't lost to a team from New York this season. Wings Academy should be the lock in at number two now that they won the Bronx Championship on Saturday, went unbeaten in league play, and the fact that there was an upset in the Queens Championship.
John Bowne and Queens H.S. of Teaching we have at 3 and 4 respectively. You can easily flip flop the two teams and have it reversed at 3 and 4 but we have Bowne at the 3 because in the past 10 days they have defeated QHST twice, and. The Tigers are just 9-5 in their last 14 games against all competition, a record that even against top competition, it's as quality as it could or should be.
Even though they lost in the SIHSL Championshp to St. Peter's on Friday night, we have Curtis at the 5th spot due in part that they hadn't lost to a Staten Island team all season before that, were able to beat Bowne earlier in the season, and even though they lost to QHST on the road in November, have a fairly solid non-league slate. Friday's loss though probably bumps them down from a possible 3 seed, to a 5.
WHEELS gets the nod over South Shore for the 6 seed as both lost in their Borough Championships on Saturday, but WHEELS has a head to head win this year over the Vikings giving them an edge.
We reward Springfield Gardens for a 13-3 regular season in the Queens "AA" as many felt for the first time that Queens was stronger than Brooklyn, so they get the 8/9 home game over the 3rd place team in Brooklyn which was Thomas Jefferson, who only went 8-6 in league play.
The 10 seed goes to Eagle Academy in our minds over H.S of Construction for a pair of reasons. Even though Construction got a non-league victory head to head over Eagle, Eagle advanced all the way to the Bronx Championship Game, whereas Construction fell in the Queens Quarterfinals, so valuing what Eagle did in the Borough's we give them the seed edge now.
Construction slides in at 11 and Cardozo will come in at 12, a dangerous team came close in a number of games in Queens this year and faced 6 of the 11 teams ranked ahead of them in the seeds that we have.
Boys and Girls comes in at our 13 seed as they are the 4th Brooklyn team with a resume that includes a win at South Shore earlier this season. James Monroe comes in at 14 and quite honestly we do view them as the 15 seed and we would have Paul Robeson ahead of them but since Wings Academy in the 2 seed, we can't match up a Bronx vs. Bronx game in the 2nd round, so we flip Monroe up one spot than they would normally be and bump Robeson down one spot to make things work.
The final team to host a game is Wadleigh, a team that doesn't have a great resume having lost to Manhattan Center twice, and an A team in Brooklyn Law and Tech, but they did get to the Manhattan Semifinals where they took WHEELS on the road to OT, giving them momentum going into the playoffs.
McKee/Staten Island Tech is 17 as they played one of the weaker non-leagues we have seen, only traveling off of Staten Island once this season, a loss to Robeson, and that lack of travel and marquee games pushes them down a bit even with a glossy record against SI teams.
Van Buren enters at 18 with Brooklyn Collegiate at 19. Both are teams that struggled against the best of their top heavy boroughs, and both are teams that should be able to provide a decent first round test for the higher seeded team.
Mott Haven comes in at 20, with Manhattan Center at 21. Both are teams that were in the Manhattan "AA" this season, and while Manhattan Center had a 1 game edge during the regular season, Manhattan Center lost to 2 Class "A" teams this season, and Mott Haven went one round further in the boroughs, giving them to us a slight edge here.
Truman enters at 22 due to a strong early season win over WHEELS, and even though they haven't done much since, it's the best win of the remaining teams. Francis Lewis goes over Beach Channel since they defeated them twice in the regular season, putting the Patriots at 23, with the Dolphins and their 4-12 regular season in Queens "AA" rounding out the field.
Secondly, the PSAL has specified that the bottom two teams from each borough will not make the playoffs, but there have been talks that they will now take a 4th team from Manhattan, and only take the top 7 from Queens. We believe that may happen as well, but they also may just add the 4th Manhattan team and keep the 8th Queens team to make it a 24 team field, so that's what we are going with.
Lincoln is the easy top seed. There really is no debate about that as they haven't lost to a team from New York this season. Wings Academy should be the lock in at number two now that they won the Bronx Championship on Saturday, went unbeaten in league play, and the fact that there was an upset in the Queens Championship.
John Bowne and Queens H.S. of Teaching we have at 3 and 4 respectively. You can easily flip flop the two teams and have it reversed at 3 and 4 but we have Bowne at the 3 because in the past 10 days they have defeated QHST twice, and. The Tigers are just 9-5 in their last 14 games against all competition, a record that even against top competition, it's as quality as it could or should be.
Even though they lost in the SIHSL Championshp to St. Peter's on Friday night, we have Curtis at the 5th spot due in part that they hadn't lost to a Staten Island team all season before that, were able to beat Bowne earlier in the season, and even though they lost to QHST on the road in November, have a fairly solid non-league slate. Friday's loss though probably bumps them down from a possible 3 seed, to a 5.
WHEELS gets the nod over South Shore for the 6 seed as both lost in their Borough Championships on Saturday, but WHEELS has a head to head win this year over the Vikings giving them an edge.
We reward Springfield Gardens for a 13-3 regular season in the Queens "AA" as many felt for the first time that Queens was stronger than Brooklyn, so they get the 8/9 home game over the 3rd place team in Brooklyn which was Thomas Jefferson, who only went 8-6 in league play.
The 10 seed goes to Eagle Academy in our minds over H.S of Construction for a pair of reasons. Even though Construction got a non-league victory head to head over Eagle, Eagle advanced all the way to the Bronx Championship Game, whereas Construction fell in the Queens Quarterfinals, so valuing what Eagle did in the Borough's we give them the seed edge now.
Construction slides in at 11 and Cardozo will come in at 12, a dangerous team came close in a number of games in Queens this year and faced 6 of the 11 teams ranked ahead of them in the seeds that we have.
Boys and Girls comes in at our 13 seed as they are the 4th Brooklyn team with a resume that includes a win at South Shore earlier this season. James Monroe comes in at 14 and quite honestly we do view them as the 15 seed and we would have Paul Robeson ahead of them but since Wings Academy in the 2 seed, we can't match up a Bronx vs. Bronx game in the 2nd round, so we flip Monroe up one spot than they would normally be and bump Robeson down one spot to make things work.
The final team to host a game is Wadleigh, a team that doesn't have a great resume having lost to Manhattan Center twice, and an A team in Brooklyn Law and Tech, but they did get to the Manhattan Semifinals where they took WHEELS on the road to OT, giving them momentum going into the playoffs.
McKee/Staten Island Tech is 17 as they played one of the weaker non-leagues we have seen, only traveling off of Staten Island once this season, a loss to Robeson, and that lack of travel and marquee games pushes them down a bit even with a glossy record against SI teams.
Van Buren enters at 18 with Brooklyn Collegiate at 19. Both are teams that struggled against the best of their top heavy boroughs, and both are teams that should be able to provide a decent first round test for the higher seeded team.
Mott Haven comes in at 20, with Manhattan Center at 21. Both are teams that were in the Manhattan "AA" this season, and while Manhattan Center had a 1 game edge during the regular season, Manhattan Center lost to 2 Class "A" teams this season, and Mott Haven went one round further in the boroughs, giving them to us a slight edge here.
Truman enters at 22 due to a strong early season win over WHEELS, and even though they haven't done much since, it's the best win of the remaining teams. Francis Lewis goes over Beach Channel since they defeated them twice in the regular season, putting the Patriots at 23, with the Dolphins and their 4-12 regular season in Queens "AA" rounding out the field.
