Please excuse The Birdie as he makes his Week 2 picks in A-K Valley football

By: The Birdie
Wednesday, September 7, 2022 | 7:11 PM

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Last week: 9-1

Overall: 19-2 (90.4%)

It might look like The Birdie is off to a good start picking games this season, but he holds himself to an impossibly high standard.

Two incorrect picks in two weeks is two too many, the way he sees it.

“I expect nothing less than perfection,” The Birdie said. “No excuses.

“And here’s the thing. I would have been perfect through two weeks, but some factors were conspiring against me. These are the perfectly valid reasons why I got two games wrong so far.”

• Birds are colorblind.

“How am I supposed to correctly identify who has the advantage in the trenches, for instance, when I can’t tell the difference between Burrell blue and Deer Lakes green?”

• I was being treated for ringworm.

“The early bird gets the worm. Sometimes he also gets the ringworm. The medication I was taking evidently harmed my mental acuity.”

• The cut-and-paste component was the cut-and-paste component.

“I had every intention of picking Apollo-Ridge to beat Leechburg in Week Zero, but I got the Control-V confused with the Control-C.”

As long as these issues don’t pop up again, The Birdie promises a perfect record as he makes his Week 2 selections for A-K Valley games.

Burrell (2-0) at Valley (0-2): The Birdie loves it when a high school team bucks the trend toward spread offenses and keeps the ball on the ground, and these Bucs are a team after his heart. Two games. Two wins. Four pass attempts. Valley is showing improvement under new coach Dave Heavner, but the Battle of the Bypass isn’t the spot for the Vikings to get their first win. Burrell, 14-6

Apollo-Ridge (2-0) at Deer Lakes (0-2): Here’s hoping for a return to health for the Apollo-Ridge players who left last week’s game with injuries. The Vikings have had enough bad injury luck in the last couple of seasons to last a decade. The Lancers were done in by just a couple of plays in an overtime loss to Burrell last year. They could definitely get in the win column here. Apollo-Ridge, 20-19

Beaver Falls (1-1) at Knoch (0-2): The Knights lost a heartbreaker last week at Indiana and now have to visit one of the top Class 2A teams in the WPIAL. Beaver Falls, 30-10

Bentworth (2-0) at Leechburg (1-1): Was a season-opening loss to Apollo-Ridge just a hiccup or a sign of trouble to come? This game could answer a lot of questions about the Blue Devils, since Bentworth has rolled its first two opponents. Leechburg, 21-20

Fox Chapel (0-2) at Norwin (0-2): An interesting matchup between two teams that started the season with a pair of losses to strong opponents. Fox Chapel, 19-14

Highlands (2-0) at Chartiers Valley (0-2): Momentum is building for the Golden Rams. The Colts haven’t even gotten out of the gates yet. Highlands, 30-13

Kiski Area (0-2) at Laurel Highlands (1-1): The Cavaliers have run into some of the WPIAL’s top performers in the first three weeks of the season. Rodney Gallagher is close to the top of that list. Laurel Highlands, 28-14

Plum (2-0) at Shaler (1-1): The Mustangs are off to a hot start. The Titans made a statement with a win over rival Hampton last week. Shaler, 22-20

Quaker Valley (0-1) at Freeport (2-0): The Yellowjackets rolled through a respectable South Allegheny team last week. They’re building something this season. Freeport 27-8

Summit Academy (0-2) at Springdale (0-2): It’s time for a rebuilding Dynamos team to pick up a win. Springdale, 20-6

Northgate (1-1) at Riverview (1-1): The Raiders are coming off a decisive win over Carlynton, but the Flames have an offense that’s tough to extinguish. Northgate, 34-21

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Beaver Falls, Bentworth, Burrell, Chartiers Valley, Deer Lakes, Fox Chapel, Freeport, Highlands, Kiski Area, Knoch, Laurel Highlands, Leechburg, Northgate, Norwin, Plum, Quaker Valley, Riverview, Shaler, Springdale, Summit Academy, Valley