WPIAL Friday Night HighLights – Week Nine 2015

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, October 31, 2015 | 9:42 AM

WOW! There was a lot of offense on the final Friday of the regular season. Some were great tune-ups for the upcoming high school football postseason. Other were wrapping up the season and going out with a blaze of glory. Whether the driving force coming into the game was a conference title, a home game, a playoff berth or just plain old civic and school color pride, here are some of the top performances on a night we could sprain our arm tipping our cap to all who deserved it.

Miles Sanders – Woodland Hills

Welcome to The Club Miles Sanders. It may seem like the Woodland Hills senior running back and Penn State University recruit has run for miles and miles in his career, but its only just over two miles as Sanders rushed for 190 yards and a one-yard touchdown run as the visiting Wolverines ran past the rival Penn Hills Indians 31-13 to seal the deal on an outright Class AAAA Southeastern Conference championship while Sanders eclipsed the 4K plateau rushing for his career as he enter the postseason at 4,163.

Tommy Smith – Fox Chapel

While others needed a Week Nine win to gain a playoff berth, Fox Chapel was just looking for any win to avoid getting shutout in the victory column for the campaign. First year coach Tom Loughran’s team made sure there would be no losing streak carrying over to 2016 thanks in part to Tommy Smith, who rushed for 298 yards and scored four touchdowns on runs of 5, 1, 1 and 15 yards as the Foxes beat the playoff bound and visiting Hempfield Spartans 42-28 in a Class AAAA Non-Conference contest.

Kurt Reinstadtler – Central Valley

Since the first year of Central Valley football five years ago, there has been a major feel for matchups against West Allegheny. Whether they are Class AAA Parkway Conference battles for regular season bragging rights or as has been the case the last two years, they are meeting for district supremecy at the big house on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, CV vs WA is always A-OK! Friday was no different. Trailing 13-8 in the fourth quarter, the Warriors Kurt Reinstadtler etched his name into the lore of this great matchup with a 90-yard kickoff return that proved to be the winning score in a 23-13 upset of the host and top-ranked Indians.

Jaquan Brisker – Gateway

Everything seemed to fall into place for Gateway as they needed an upset of Class AAA Greater Allegheny front-runner Franklin Regional and get some help to qualify for the district playoffs. They took care o their business thanks in part to a couple of big plays by Jaquan Brisker who scored both of the Gators touchdowns, first on a 21 yard scoring pass from quarterback Brady Walker then on a fourth quarter 69-yard punt return for a touchdown that proved to be the winning points in a 15-12 stunner of the visiting Panthers. Alas though, tiebreaker points denied Gateway the Class AAA wild card.

Sheldon Jeter – Aliquippa

You know things have changed in Western Pennsylvania high school football when Aliquippa is throwing the ball all over the field. What’s next, double digit passes for McKeesport? In a huge Class AA Midwestern Athletic Conference championship game in front of an overflow crowd at Geneva College, quarterback Sheldon Jeter hit on 9 of 11 passes for 261 yards and three long touchdown tosses of 64, 54 and 38 yards, plus he scored on a pair of touchdown runs as the Quips rolled to a sixth consecutive undefeated regular season with a 44-21 conquest of the Beaver Falls Tigers.

Darius Wise – Beaver

The WPIAL football brackets will be released on Monday evening here on MSA Sports and there is a strong sentiment amongst playoff teams in the Class AA field. First, NOBODY wants to be in the same quadrant as South Fayette and Aliquippa. Second, look ahead to the Quarterfinals or Semifinals if you draw Beaver in the opening round would be an un-Wise move. Quarterback Darius Wise continues to put up dazzling number as he rushed for 272 yards and four scoring runs while passing for 118 yards and three touchdowns as the Bobcats rolled to a Midwestern Conference 48-17 victory over the visiting Ellwood City Wolverines.

Jordan West – Washington

If you get a chance this weekend or sometime before the district postseason begins, read up on how Wash High conquered the Class AA Interstate Conference. The title of the book for the second half of the season could be ‘How West Was One’. senior running back Jordan West rushed for 306 yards leaving him 12 yards shy of 1,000 for the year and he scored five touchdowns on runs of 16, 71, 73, 29 and 5 yards as the host Little Prexies capped off a perfect 9-0 regular season in style with a 42-7 victory over the playoff bound McGuffey Highlanders.

Gio Vonne Sanders – Jeannette

Things did not look good for Jeannette early on in their fierce rivalry with Greensburg Central Catholic that was also a battle for second place in the Class A Eastern Conference after leading rusher Kareem Hall injured his ankle in the first two minutes of the game. However quarterback Gio Vonne Sanders stepped up and did the heavy lifting for the red and blue as he hit on 9 of 13 passes for 105 yards and two touchdown tosses of 7 and 43 yards, plus he rushed for 100 yards and scored on jaunts of 36 and 2-yards and the Jayhawks held on to knock off the host Centurions 49-35.

Zach Chandler – Avonworth

Sometimes a record goes down with a solid night at the office or a bigger game than usual. Then in the case of the single season regular season passing record in the WPIAL, it was broken Friday with a BANG. Avonworth senior quarterback Zach Chandler hit on 17 of 26 passes for 365 yards and fired four touchdowns passes of 8, 29, 21 and 40 yards, then for good measure, added three touchdowns runs of 11, 9 and a game winning 8-yard run late in the Antelopes thrilling 50-49 come-from-behind triumph over the host Northgate Flames in a Class A Black Hills Conference classic.

Anthony Welsh – Beth-Center

A battle for second place in Class AA and Class A means win and you host a playoff game in Round One, lose and you hit the road in the postseason to who-knows-where-ville. That was at stake in a Class A Tri-County South Conference matchup off high scoring teams in Bentworth and Beth-Center and neither disappointed. B-C leading rusher Anthony Welsh put on the ritz, running for 353 yards and scoring on three long touchdown runs of 21, 93 and 15 yards as the Bulldogs out-smashed the visiting Bearcats 52-40.

Tags: Aliquippa, Avonworth, Beaver, Beth-Center, Central Valley, Fox Chapel, Gateway, Jeannette, Washington, Woodland Hills