5 takeaways from Week 7: Keystone Oaks QB tops 500 total yards in extraordinary effort

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, October 12, 2019 | 7:01 PM

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Keystone Oaks coach Greg Perry wasn’t too surprised, but quarterback Logan Shrubb didn’t seem tired when he arrived Saturday morning to lift weights.

“The kid’s got some energy to him,” Perry said. “He keeps chugging away. Me or you, we’d still be in bed.”

Shrubb had quite a workout Friday night.

The dual-threat junior carried the football 46 times and produced more than 500 yards of offense in a 42-14 nonconference victory over Deer Lakes that ranks among the season’s best individual efforts.

“I felt good, actually,” Shrubb said. “Wasn’t sore at all.”

Shrubb led all WPIAL rushers with 331 yards in Week 7 and scored three times. He added 181 passing yards and threw for two more touchdowns.

The performance saw Shrubb top 1,000 yards in rushing and passing, a rare feat in the WPIAL regular season. Shady Side Academy’s Skyy Moore and Pine-Richland’s Phil Jurkovec accomplished it in recent years.

Shrubb has 1,147 yards rushing and 1,145 passing with two regular-season weeks left. He almost reached the double-1,000 last season when he topped 1,500 passing and came within 50 of 1,000 rushing.

“He has a drive in him,” Perry said. “He’s one of those kids that just likes to play and have fun with his buddies.”

Keystone Oaks (5-3, 2-3), which starts eight underclassmen, is fifth in the Tri-County West.

Perry is best known for building potent passing attacks, but Shrubb is also a good runner, so the quarterback has the option to pick either in Keystone Oaks’ spread offense.

Defenses often use man coverage, Perry said, so that leaves plenty of room for Shrubb to run. However, Perry was fairly certain 46 carries was a record for anybody he’s coached.

“In the heat of the moment, I wasn’t really thinking about it,” Shrubb said. “My coach told me (the stats) after the game. I thanked my line and let them know how good they did.”

2. Class A back to normal

Has the power balance in Class A shifted back to the Eastern Conference?

It appears so, after Clairton’s 49-7 victory Friday over West Greene. The seven Eastern teams are 9-0 combined this season against opponents from the Big Seven and Tri-County South. That includes a Week 2 victory by Leechburg over Rochester, the WPIAL runner-up a year ago.

The Big Seven had two teams in the WPIAL finals last season, but the Eastern has controlled the WPIAL’s smallest classification for more than a decade. An Eastern team has won the WPIAL title in 11 of the past 14 seasons (with nine by Clairton).

Big Seven and Tri-County South teams have four regular-season chances left to defeat the Eastern. That includes a Week 9 matchup between Sto-Rox (8-0) and Imani Christian (0-8).

3. Another streak ends

For the second time in three weeks, one of the WPIAL’s longest losing streaks ended. Summit Academy stopped its streak at 18 losses with a 14-0 victory Saturday over Valley.

It was Summit’s first victory since Oct. 27, 2017.

Ringgold ended an 18-game losing streak in Week 5.

The WPIAL’s longest active streak belongs to Uniontown, which took its 30th consecutive loss Friday. Others with extended losing streaks are Northgate (23), Butler (18), Fort Cherry (16) and Ambridge (15).

4. Crowded conference in Class 2A

The Three Rivers champions will be crowned next week when Brentwood visits Burgettstown. That’s the easy part. The rest of the conference could take time to sort out.

There are four teams with three losses after Serra Catholic and Seton LaSalle celebrated wins in Week 7 that created a logjam in the standings. South Side Beaver (3-3 in conference) has a one-game lead over Serra (2-3), South Allegheny (2-3) and Seton LaSalle (2-3).

The top four reach the Class 2A playoffs.

Serra Catholic defeated South Allegheny, 21-17. Seton LaSalle defeated South Side Beaver, 35-21.

5. Wild outcome for Fox Chapel

Fox Chapel’s win was wild in more ways than one.

When the Foxes upset Mars, 30-28, they likely improved the Northern Conference’s chances for claiming the Class 5A wild card. The top five teams in each Class 5A conference qualify for the playoffs along with one sixth-place wild-card team.

Fox Chapel (3-5, 2-3), Kiski Area (3-5, 2-3) and Shaler (3-5, 2-3) are tied for fourth in the conference with two games left. It’s possible they all finish with three conference wins.

Currently, the other wild-card contenders are Plum (1-5) in the Big East and West Allegheny (2-4) in the Allegheny Eight.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

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