TOP OF THE CROP

Football

1: (1) Columbia 8-0 2: (2) Avon 6-2 3: (3) Keystone 6-1 4: (4) Olmsted Falls 6-2 5: (5) Avon Lake 6-2 6: (7) Rocky River 5-3 7: (8) Elyria Catholic 6-2 8: (6) North Olmsted 6-2 9: (9) Firelands 5-3

10: (10) Elyria 4-4

Watch list: Bay 4-3, Midview 3-5, Wellington 4-4 Crop Comments: It’s fitting that the penultimate Crop of 2021 is so similar to the one from Week 8 as through the first eight weeks of this football season only 13 teams have made it into the top ten. That’s just over half of the football coverage area, and only 17 teams have made it to either the Watch List or the Crop proper. … No. 1 through No. 5stayed the same as every team in that range won their Week 8 game. Week 9 offers some interesting matchups between top five teams. The game of the week is a duel between No. 1and No. 3 with the Lorain County League title game on the line. Columbia is rolling into Week 9without a loss and Keystone has a league winning streak dating back to the creation of the LC8 in 2019. … No. 5 Avon Lake and No. 4 Olmsted Falls face off in a giant game for the Bulldogs. Falls can keep the hopes of their first league championship since 2010 with a win and can make it a reality with a win over Berea-Midpark in Week 10. … The only shakeup in the Crop comes from the three Great Lakes Conference representatives in the top ten. Rocky River moves from their No. 7spot despite a loss to Glenville. The Pirates had their game with Westlake canceled and were forced to find a new opponent. They held their own against a very good Tarblooders team. The big change came at Elyria Catholic as the Panthers handed North Olmsted their first league loss of the year. The win threw a big wrench into the divisional championship race with all three teams still alive. The most simple scenario is a Rocky River win over North Olmsted, which means the unbeaten Pirates are GLC West Champs. A North Olmsted win doesn’t guarantee an Eagles championship, as the first tiebreaker is head-to-head games. So North Olmsted needs a win and an Elyria Catholic loss to earn a spot in the Week 10 title game. Elyria Catholic would win the league with a win and a Rocky River loss.

Note: records as of Oct. 9