Improvement remains battle cry of area WPIAL football teams
As the high school football season reaches its halfway point, Upper St. Clair coach Jim Render recalled the adage regarding progress.
“A team either gets better or worse. It never stays the same,” he said. “We are still getting better.”
Improvement is the signature of Mt. Lebanon, Bethel Park, South Fayette and Peters Township as they, like USC, prepare for this week’s action. The Almanac’s game of the week has the Panthers hosting Chartiers Valley at 7 p.m. Sept. 29.
Upper St. Clair
The Panthers are 4-1 overall and 4-0 in the Allegheny Nine Conference. USC is fresh off a dramatic contest, won in the last minutes, 28-24, on the road against Fox Chapel (1-4, 1-3).
“We knew it would be tough,” Render said of securing the victory.
Outside forces, such as illness, made it tougher for the Panthers. For example, despite sickness, Jake Slinger, rebounded and made “marvelous” plays in the pivotal fourth quarter where Dominic Cepullio hooked up with Matt Kissinger for a 2-yard TD with 19 seconds to play.
Jake Hansberry completed 7 of 15 passes for 179 yards and a scoring strikes of 74 yards to Tom Kyle, who has 132 yards in receptions. Hansberry also rushed for a 12-yard touchdown. Hansberry has thrown for 762 yards and six scores this season.
Colin McLinden rushed for 121 yards against the Foxes. He scored on a 35-yard run. McLinden leads USC with 459 yards rushing and five TDs.
“We had a lot of great efforts and a lot of guys sucked it up and played tough,” Render said. “It was something we needed to learn to do and something we learned about ourselves.”
The win also demonstrated another lessons. In the Allegheny Nine Conference, there are a lot of unknowns because of the plethora of new coaches and there is balance as Moon’s win over North Hills and Baldwin’s tough play against West Allegheny indicated.
Chartiers Valley, with first-year head coach Dan Knaus, is an “unknown” for the Panthers. Though 0-5, the Colts boast Reed Bruggeman, who passed for 881 yards and eight scores in his first four games. The Colts were shut out last week by Woodland Hills, 31-0.
“He’s a threat and not to be taken lightly,” Render said of Bruggeman. “CV is dangerous because we don’t know as much about them as we would like to know. They show signs of being well-coached and getting better.”
The Colts view the Panthers in much the same light.
“We are excited about the opportunity to play another great football team,” Knaus said. “They are extremely well coached in all three phases of the game. Their backs and QB are extremely athletic and we have to find a way to contain them.”
South Fayette
The running game and defense have been keys to South Fayette’s success this season and a reason why the Lions extended their regular-season winning streak to 52 games after a 52-14 win against Knoch. With the triumph, the Lions improved to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the Northwest Nine Conference in the WPIAL’s Quad-A classification.
Johnny Beck rushed for 105 yards and scored three touchdowns in the victory. He rushed for scores of 65 and 5 yards. He also returned a fumble 64 yards for the other TD. Beck leads the Lions in rushing with more than 500 yards this season.
“Johnny has done well. I’m proud of him and I am proud of our defense,” said Joe Rossi of the Lions, who have allowed just 27 points.
The Lions will again get to flex their muscle when they host Blackhawk at 7 p.m. Sept. 29. The Cougars are 1-3 and showcase Payton Stewart, who operates from a QB run spread system. On defense, they bring pressures and have good cover guys in the secondary.
“They are a young team like us, having graduated 28 seniors, but as they get more experience, they are getting better every week,” Rossi said. “When you are a young team that happens.”
Though a four-year starter, Drew Saxton continues to get better. He ranks among the WPIAL passing leaders. He threw for 270 yards and TD passes of 51, 14 and 4 yards to Mike Trimbur and Noah Plack. Saxton, who has passed for more than 5,000 career yards, has thrown for 1,065 yards and 10 scores this season.
“Drew is doing a good job and offensively, each week, we are getting better,” Rossi said. “We are good and it’s exciting watching the players as a group improve and take part in our success. But, we have to continue to make the stops and be disciplined.”
Bethel Park
While the Hawks lost big to one of the best teams in the state, the 54-20 defeat to Pine-Richland revealed areas where they need to improve and Bethel Park (3-1, 2-0) sets out to do just that when it visits Hempfield (1-4, 0-3) for a 7 p.m. Sept. 29 Southeastern Conference clash.
“We’ve got to play better if we are going to play with those guys,” said Jeff Metheny of the Rams, who showcased the skills of Notre Dame recruit Phil Jurkovec. He passed for 355 yards and two scores and also rushed for three more touchdowns. “We did not adjust and we had too many turnovers. We know that they are an awfully good football team but we’ve got to get better. We revealed some areas of weakness and people are going to study them. But really, we can’t turn the ball over and we can’t have five or six penalties a game. That hurts you. That had a cumulative effect. We have to clean up things.”
Behind BP’s offensive line, the Hawks have managed a tidy 275 yards rushing. Johnny Doleno (99 yards) and Jehvonn Lewis (107 yards) led the attack against the Rams. But Tanner Volpatti is another cog in the ground attack.
The longer the Hawks keep the ball, the less time Justin Sliwoski will have to challenge the BP defense. The all-conference quarterback is back after suffering a shoulder injury earlier this season.
“He’s a good player and played well in that position. Hempfield’s given Peters Township and Canon-McMillan a tough time. So we have to have good plays and play well in all three phases of the game and not turn the ball over,” Metheny said.
Mt. Lebanon
Because they played well in all phases of the game, the Blue Devils rolled up an impressive victory, 63-14, against Altoona. Mt. Lebanon (4-1, 3-0) looks to continue the trend when it hosts North Allegheny (3-2, 2-1) at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 29.
“We are starting to round into shape,” said Mike Melnyk. “(Altoona) was our most complete game on offense, defense and special teams. So (NA) will be another measuring stick for us to see how well we are progressing as a team.”
Against the Mountain Lions, James Stocker continued to show progress after sustaining a knee injury earlier in the season. He completed 12 of 16 passes for 286 yards and three touchdowns in a half of work.
Aidan Cain hauled in five receptions for 144 yards and one score. Austin Graybill and Lucas DeCaro had three catches each for 89 and 49 yards respectively. Defensively, DeCaro had four tackles and an interception while Michael Palmer had eight tackles, four pass breakups and one pick.
Additionally, John Naylor rushed for three touchdowns. Tony LaSota rushed for 96 yards on nine carries.
Cornerbacks Charlie Gordon and Sam LaSota played well in their first starts.
“They did a nice job in coverage,” Melnyk said. “I was very pleased with them.”
Melnyk will be pleased if the Blue Devils duplicate their efforts against the Tigers, who have a penchant for running the football.
“NA is doing what NA has done for many years, run the ball,” Melnyk said. “They will challenge you physically on both offense and defense. They are well-coached and very sound fundamentally. We will need to be efficient on offense and play very physically up front on both sides of the ball. We will need to play our very best game of the year to compete.”
Peters Township
The Indians played one of their best game of the season in beating Hempfield, 23-15. Peters Township (4-1, 2-1) plans to continue that trend when it travels to Norwin (3-2, 2-1) for a 7 p.m. kickoff Sept. 29.
In the win against the Spartans, Ryan Magiske rushed for 104 yards and touchdowns of 44 and 5 yards. Jake Cortes completed 7 of 14 aerials for 109 yards. He rushed for a 3-yard score. Zach Sepich also kicked a 23-yard field goal.