5 things we learned in high school football Week Zero: Kick returns liven up openers

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, August 24, 2024 | 9:05 PM

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The spread offense. The no-huddle. The Gatorade shower.

High school football has borrowed plenty of trends from the college and pro ranks, but the NFL’s new kickoff format is one that traditionalists hope never makes its way to Friday nights.

They say a long kickoff return nowadays is a rare thing of beauty.

“I think it’s one of the most exciting things in the game,” Kiski Area coach Sam Albert said. “Because they’re so hard to get, and when you do, it’s just excitement.”

Albert would know.

Kiski Area junior Aven Shirley returned the opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown Friday, sparking the team to a 42-7 win over Knoch. Shirley’s kick-return touchdown, which the junior predicted before the game, was one of six scored by WPIAL players in Week Zero.

The longest was a 99-yard kickoff return by Woodland Hills’ Scoop Smith, who flashed the speed as a reigning WPIAL 100-meter dash champion.

Southmoreland’s Cameron Phillips returned a kickoff 84 yards for a touchdown, New Brighton’s Michael Veon scored on a 59-yarder, Waynesburg’s Teagan Crouse had an 89-yarder and Hopewell’s Brody Rock took one back 85 yards to the end zone.

“For us, it totally changed the momentum of the whole game,” Southmoreland coach Tim Bukowski said. “When he ran that kick back, it sparked us and we took control of the whole game.”

The NFL this season unveiled a new system called the Dynamic Kickoff Rule meant to reduce the number of touchbacks while maintaining player safety. It looks little like the kickoffs seen on high school fields.

“I get why they did it,” Bukowski said, “but I’m still a football traditionalist. I’d prefer it stay the same at the high school level.”

Kiski Area had started slow in its scrimmage a week earlier, so Albert was encouraging his team to start fast Friday. That was when Shirley spoke up.

“He said, ‘I’m going to run the kickoff back,’ ” Albert said. “I was like, ‘All right, I’ll take that.’ Sure enough, he took it to the house. We were going crazy. What a way to start the season.”

There is no current movement to change the way high school teams kick off. But Albert said he wouldn’t be surprised if someday there was.

“Everything trickles down,” he said. “Next you’ll see it in college, and then it’ll be us.”

New Brighton snaps streak

As they’d done many times in the past two seasons, the New Brighton players arrived at the school Saturday still recovering from a hard-fought game the night before. But first-year coach John Macuga said they saw this week how much better it feels after a win than a loss.

“There were a lot of guys sore in the locker room today, but they came in on a high note,” Macuga said after New Brighton won its first game in more than two years.

The Lions defeated Shenango, 9-7, in their Week Zero opener to snap a streak of 21 straight losses. The win was the team’s first triumph since a 21-20 playoff victory over Washington on Nov. 5, 2021. The Lions lost in the next round of the playoffs that year before going 0-10 in 2022 and ’23.

New Brighton scored all nine of its points in the first quarter Friday — on a safety and a kickoff return — and then held on defensively.

“It was pure excitement from the time the clock said zero,” Macuga said. “They were hooting and hollering. It was a really good feeling for them.”

Running a 300-yard dash

California’s Lee Qualk was best known as a standout track athlete and WPIAL long jump champion, but he safely can be called a multi-sport star. The senior running back carried the ball 37 times for 372 yards and six touchdowns Friday in a win over Serra Catholic.

His yardage was the most by a WPIAL rusher in Week Zero.

“He’s one of those kids you hopefully get every couple of years,” California coach Ed Woods said. “He’s just a standout athlete, has a really good work ethic, is very strong for his size and, obviously, he can fly.”

Qualk won the long jump title at the WPIAL 2A track championships last spring with a leap of 22 feet, 2½ inches. He also placed seventh in the 100 meters at 11.24 seconds. As a junior on the football field, Qualk rushed for 560 yards on 44 carries and scored 14 touchdowns.

Dashing debut for some

Sixteen first-year head coaches in the WPIAL and City League made their debut this weekend with close to half of them having a victorious night.

The group combined went 7-9 with wins by Allderdice’s Mark Matson, Blackhawk’s Jack Wickline, Hopewell’s Matt Mottes, New Brighton’s John Macuga, New Castle’s Fred Mozzocio, Neshannock’s Mike Bongivengo and South Fayette’s Marty Spieler.

Two more coaches could join the list next week. Aliquippa’s Vashawn Patrick and Springdale’s Chad Walsh didn’t have games in Week Zero.

Points on the board

Count the scoreboard operators among those who got tested in Week Zero.

There were seven games where the teams combined for 75 points or more. That was up from last year when there were only three. The highest-scoring game was New Castle’s 49-47 victory over General McLane for 96 combined points.

The others were California over Serra Catholic, 62-26; Greensburg Central Catholic over Shady Side Academy, 46-40; Mars over Boone (Fla.), 47-35; Neshannock over Mohawk, 42-37; Armstrong over Highlands, 38-37; and Thomas Jefferson over Baldwin, 63-12.

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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