In showdown with Greensburg Central Catholic, Leechburg looks for share of conference crown

By: George Guido
Wednesday, October 26, 2022 | 5:49 PM

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Much has been made over the past several seasons about Leechburg football’s to-do list.

There still are some boxes to be checked.

On Friday night, the Blue Devils have a chance to earn at least a share of their first conference title since winning the AIC North in 1978.

Should Leechburg (7-2, 4-1) defeat Greensburg Central Catholic (7-2, 5-0), both will be tied atop the Eastern Conference. Add a Clairton win over Jeannette, and it means a three-way tie for the conference title. All three schools would receive a section-winning plaque, per WPIAL policy.

Blue Devils coach Randy Walters sees the importance of what’s on the table.

“Whenever there’s something extra, it’s not only to go and play GCC, which is a great team and a great challenge, especially just before the playoffs, the fact that we have a chance to share the conference, it’s another thing that this group of kids can accomplish that a lot of kids before them just couldn’t,” Walters said.

While a number of Leechburg players have recognizable star power, Walters quickly points out that the whole team has contributed to the No. 4 Class A team in the TribLive HSSN rankings.

“It’s everybody,” Walters added. “We have freshmen that are contributing mightily to this season. But it’s special to this group of seven seniors. They’ve gone through good and bad times. When it’s all said and done, the numbers I’ll be able to read off at the team banquet are special.”

Last year, Leechburg defeated the Centurions in the regular-season finale with 46 seconds left on a 2-yard jump pass from Braylan Lovelace to Logan Kline. The win earned the Blue Devils a playoff home game for the first time.

Greensburg Central, however, still owns a 13-3 lead in the all-time series.

“Leechburg is one of the highest-scoring teams in the WPIAL,” Centurions coach Marko Thomas said. “We have our work cut out for us. They have some great players over there: a nice receiving corps, a running back, a quarterback and coach Walters knows how to run an offense.”

The linchpin of the offense is Lovelace, a Pitt commit who has 4,123 career rushing yards. He needs 91 yards to catch Valley’s Brandon Williams for fourth on the all-time Alle-Kiski Valley rushing list. Williams also played linebacker at Pitt, the same position Lovelace is projected at.

“It’s just super exciting and an honor to be part of that,” Lovelace said. “I owe it to my coaches and the guys who block for me. We know we have to focus up this week. They’re a good opponent. We want to play one more home game.”

GCC has a younger version of Lovelace who can beat opponents in a number of ways in freshman Samir Crosby.

Last Saturday at Riverview, Crosby caught touchdown passes of 38 and 36 yards, returned an interception 88 yards for a TD and ran for a 50-yard score during a brief quarterback appearance.

The WPIAL has said that the highest-seeded teams will play at home to start the playoffs, not necessarily the top teams in the conference standings.

Tale of the tape

Greensburg Central Catholic leads the all-time series, 13-3, but Leechburg has made some recent progress. Here are the results of the last five games:

2021: Leechburg 31, GCC 27

2020: Leechburg 55, GCC 37

2019: GCC 42, Leechburg 41 (3OT)

2018: GCC 29, Leechburg 0

2017: GCC 36, Leechburg 13

Tags: Greensburg C.C., Leechburg