Alle-Kiski Valley high school football notebook: Showdown looms for Leechburg

By: Michael Love
Saturday, October 5, 2024 | 8:47 PM

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Leechburg and Clairton took care of business in a big way Friday night.

The Blue Devils raced past Frazier, 62-16, and the Bears routed Springdale, 71-0.

Now, the Eastern Conference leaders, both 4-0, will meet this week in a game that could go a long way in deciding who wins the conference title.

“We’ve been trying to take it one week at a time, and the kids have done a great job of dialing into that,” Leechburg coach Randy Walters said.

“It’s not an easy thing to do when you’re high school kids and are in a community that is so invested in our program. We were hoping to get to this point and have the opportunity to be undefeated going up against a great Clairton team. What we have in front of us is a great football team with a tremendous amount of talent. Coach (Wayne) Wade and his staff do a great job of preparing their guys to play each week. That is why they are as good as they are. It’s going to be a heckuva challenge.”

Clairton has won 29 of the 30 games in the series. The teams tied 6-6 in 1991.

Blue Devils senior Jayden Floyd threw for 100 yards and ran for 143 more Friday, keeping him on track to become the third quarterback in WPIAL history to reach 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 passing in two different seasons.

Floyd surpassed 1,000 rushing yards Friday and owns 731 yards passing with three regular-season games remaining along with at least one playoff game.

Defense doesn’t rest

Freeport has won four of its last five games, and it scored 40-plus points in three of them.

On Friday at Highlands, Freeport (5-2, 3-1) limited a potent Golden Rams attack to just seven points in a 28-7 win.

Five sacks and a pair of turnovers helped the defense make another statement in the midst of the team’s overall turnaround this fall.

Highlands came in averaging 38 points, but the Yellowjackets held the Golden Rams scoreless until Menage Lucas completed a 5-yard TD pass to Montrell Johnson with less than two minutes left in regulation.

Highlands (2-4, 1-3) finished with fewer than 50 yards rushing. An interception by Madden Wisniewski set up what turned out to be the winning points, a 65-yard connection from Ross to Danny King that made the score 14-0.

“Coach (Todd) Durand said all week that we had to have 11 hats to the ball and make sure we got to the quarterback (Menage Lucas),” Freeport coach John Gaillot said.

“With his defensive scheme, the kids executed it very well. They were tenacious. What stood out is how resilient they are and how hungry they were. It was almost like someone poked a hornets nest and really (annoyed) 11 kids.

“We saw there was a prediction that we would give up 42 points, and by rights, that was fair with all the numbers (Highlands) had put up. But the kids said that wasn’t happening on their watch, and they went out and really backed that up.”

Coury does it again

With his 53 carries for 266 yards and two touchdowns in Burrell’s 15-6 Battle of the Bypass win at Valley on Friday, sophomore tailback Trey Coury has 505 yards and four scores on 104 carries combined the past two weeks.

Coury said even with that heavy workload again, he felt fresh and could have continued to carry the ball with effectiveness behind what he called a confident offensive line.

Through seven games, Coury owns 1,047 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 220 carries. That is 4.8 yards per attempt.

He is enjoying a breakout season after six carries for 19 yards last year as a freshman in a veteran backfield that included the now-graduated Devin Beattie and Tyler Maglisco.

Seeking that 1st win

Valley, Springdale, and Apollo-Ridge enter Week 7 searching for that elusive first victory.

Valley, which fell to 0-7 overall and 0-3 in conference play with Friday’s loss to Burrell, hopes to break through this week as it hosts conference foe East Allegheny (0-7, 0-4).

Apollo-Ridge, 0-6 overall and 0-3 in the Class 2A Allegheny Conference, will try to solve conference leader South Allegheny (6-1, 3-1) and its high-powered offense that has averaged 40.1 points through seven contests.

It doesn’t get any easier for a youthful Springdale team (0-6, 0-4 Eastern Conference), which will match up Friday against Greensburg Central Catholic at Burrell’s Buccaneer Stadium.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Burrell, Deer Lakes, Freeport, Leechburg, Springdale, Valley