Aug 29, 2017 By Eleanor Bailey 3 min read

ESPN televised what is likely to be the first of many national appearances for Phil Jurkovec. The senior signal caller led Pine-Richland to victory, 41-0, against Wayne, Ohio, Aug. 27 in Week Zero of the high school football season.

The 6-foot 5, 215-pound quarterback accounted for 356 yards of offense. He completed 14 of 20 passes for 250 yards and three touchdowns. The effort pushed him over 6,000 yards for his career.

The Notre Dame recruit also ran for 106 yards on seven carries and scored three touchdowns, one on a 64-yard run.

This week, Mt. Lebanon gets to see Jurkovec in person. The Blue Devils take to the road for a 7:30 p.m. Sept. 1 non-conference clash against the Rams.

“(Jurkovec) is a talent and you will see him play at ND and on Sundays,” Lebo skipper Mike Melnyk safely predicted of his inevitable NFL career.

Jurkovec may not be the only eventual professional in his senior class. His basketball teammate, Andrew Petcash recently committed to Boston University. The Rams were WPIAL champions and PIAA runners-up last winter.

This fall, the football Rams are ranked first in the WPIAL and are considered a top teams in the state.

“If not the country,” Melnyk added. “Pine-Richland is one of the elite teams.”

The Rams are outstanding not just because of Jurkovec. He is surrounded by other D1 kids and that makes them nearly unstoppable.

There’s Jordan Crawford, who gained more than 700 yards on 40 catches last season as well as Raymond Falcone, who led the WPIAL with 1,229 reception yards. Plus, Kenny White was a 1,000-yard rusher and standout defensive back for WPIAL champion West Allegheny before he transferred to Pine Richland. Junior tackle Andrew Kristofic is a D-I prospect and he helps anchor a line that includes veterans Michael Katic and Michael Dorundo.

Lebo, however, is not hyped about Pine-Richland’s personnel.

“We just have to worry about ourselves and improve our play, not only for this week, but for the weeks to come,” Melnyk said.

That improvement must come in many facets of the game as the Blue Devils almost flunked their first test of the season against Fox Chapel in Week Zero. Lebo needed a late touchdown to pull out a 32-27 win against the Foxes.

“I mentioned that turnovers, penalties and special teams can lead to a loss early in the year and we failed in all of those areas so it is a credit to our kids that we dug out a victory despite our errors in those areas,” Melnyk said.

Bright spots in the win against the Foxes included Aidan Cain’s performance at wide out as well as Seth Morgan’s showing at quarterback. Cain caught 11 passes for 235 yards and three touchdowns. Morgan connected on 18 of 35 aerials for 289 yards.

Melnyk was pleased with the efforts of both Morgan, who subbed in for the injured James Stocker, and Cain.

Stocker hurt his knee in camp and will be out 4-6 weeks. He had surgery on his other knee during the spring so Morgan ran the offense during that time and throughout the summer, during 7-on-7 passing camps.

“Seth played like he is capable and what we expected. We are very proud of him. Aidan is a Division I talent and is finally healthy,” said Melnyk, noting his two ACL surgeries in his career. “He is a great kid and showed everyone else what he can do.”

Additionally, Austin Graybill hauled in a 7-yard TD pass and John Naylor registered the go-ahead score on a 1-yard plunge into the end zone.