WPIAL Big Game Hunting – Week Six 2014

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, October 1, 2014 | 12:44 PM

The tension is starting to mount here in the 2014 WPIAL football season. On the field, in the standings and, yes sometimes in the plush MSA Sports World Headquarters as some of the MSA gang have occasionally wandered too close to Mike Azadian’s “Friday Night Eats”. Mitch tends to respond to people taking his pizza the way the 2014 Clairton Bears have responded to not picking up their sixth straight WPIAL championship in 2013, angrily and emphatically. So as we get set to go Big Game Hunting here in week six I warn you Don’t poke the Bears, and don’t eat that last chocolate chip cookie, it’s for your own safety.

AAAA Southeastern Conference:
#9 Mount Lebanon Blue Devils (3-1)(4-1) vs #8 Bethel Park Black Hawks (2-1)(3-2) Friday October 3^rd at 7:30 pm @ Black Hawk Stadium on the campus of Bethel Park high school broadcast on the MSA Sports Network and 1410 AM KQV by Lanny Fratarre and Bob Orkwis

This is going to be a great battle between two bounce back teams. Lebo bounced back from their first loss of the 2014 campaign, a week four 41-21 defeat to Penn Hills, with a convincing win last week over Peters Township 42-6. Bethel Park meanwhile has bounced back from an 0-2 start with three straight wins including a thrashing of Chartiers Valley last week 55-13.

The Hawks are “getting better every week” says head coach Jeff Metheny. It is true you can see the offensive line coming together when you watch them play and that is opening things up for running back Alex Minton and quarterback Levi Metheny. “We start four juniors and a freshman up front and we can see our young linemen are growing up” Jeff Metheny told Big Game Hunting.

Levi Metheny is as happy as anyone that the line is coming together. The junior quarterback was running for his life in weeks one and two, but now, given time and space – the numbers are coming around in a big way for the lefty. Metheny has completed 45 of 79 passes for 565 yards and six touchdowns. He has thrown three interceptions but only one since the week one against Pittsburgh Central Catholic. 

On the ground Alex Minton is putting together another great season at running back. Minton has carried 106 times for 563 yards, he is also a receiving threat with seven catches for 76 yards. He has scored five touchdowns on the year.

Jake Lewis and Charlie Davis are big play threats at receiver for Metheny, the duo has combined for 19 caches and 307 yards catching the ball.

The Hawks defense has been great from the start led by two great linebackers in Minton and Connor McGinnis.

Lebo meanwhile has developed into a fantastic offensive club in Mike Melnyk’s third season. The Blue Devils are averaging a Southeastern Conference high 42.2 points per game that makes them the third highest scoring team in AAAA.

Junior quarterback Eddie Jenkins is a great thrower of the football who has tossed for over 600 yards and 10 touchdowns but he is also a threat with his legs with seven rushing touchdowns and nearly 300 yards rushing.

The run game is a three headed monster with Jenkins joined by sophomore David Harvey and senior Joey Stabile. That duo has combined for 11 touchdowns and over 600 yards rushing.

Nick Tommasi is a big play threat any time he gets the ball as the leading catcher of the football for Lebo. Tommasi has twice as many catches as any other Blue Devil, and has scored five touchdowns. Also keep an eye on Alex Englert who is averaging over 30 yards per catch on the offensive side of the ball for Mt. Lebanon.

Defensively Mount Lebanon has been tough allowing just over 13 points per game.

Mike Melnyk tells Big Game Hunting, “Our defense, led by linebacker Ben Bruni, has been stingy and played much more physical this season.  It will be a slugfest befitting a Mt. Lebanon-Bethel Park matchup.”

We have a saying here at BGH, “The coach is always right.” The usually refers to Coach Johnny Lee but in this case it counts for Mike Melnyk as well.

AAA Greater Allegheny Conference:
#5 Franklin-Regional Panthers (4-1)(4-1) vs #4 Hampton Talbots (4-0)(5-0) Friday October 3^rd at 7:00 pm @ Hampton Talbot Stadium on the campus of Hampton Township high school broadcast on the MSA Sports Network and the Hampton Talbot Sports Network by Dennis Fischer and Sean Malone.

They don’t get much better or easier to pick for BGH than #5 at #4 in AAA.

Franklin-Regional has rattled off four straight since beginning the season with a road loss at Knoch.

The Panthers have a dandy at quarterback in junior Santino Birty. Birty has completed 28 of 55 passes for 359 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He has also been a threat to run rushing for 234 yards and another two scores on the season.

Senior wide receiver Zach Iovino is a tough match-up for opposing defense the 6’4’’ Iovino is fast and strong. He leads the Talbots with seven catches for 54 yards. One of these weeks Iovino is going to have a breakout game when the Panthers need it the most, could it be this week?

On the ground the Panthers rely heavily on senior Brett Zanotto who is just a monster. Zanotto has 60 carries for 598 yards and 11 touchdowns, he is in the nightmares of every linebacker in the Greater Allegheny Conference. Senior Dom Giannangeli will contribute on the ground as well with over 200 yards rushing.

Raise your hand of you had the Talbots rolling into this game unbeaten through the first five weeks of the 2014 campaign.

Returning starter at quarterback Nick Grabowski has been the real deal for the Talbots this season despite losing his two best wide outs from last season to graduation. Grabowski has thrown for over 300 yards and rushed for over 200 yards already in 2014. He has had a hand in double digit touchdowns as well.

Hampton focuses on the ground game led by junior Matt Rech who leads the team in yardage and touchdowns (8). But the Talbots will keep running fresh legs at you. Andrew Siford, Alex Bianco, Dan Coholich and Nick Worobij all have double digits in carries on the season.

AA Century Conference:
#10 Steel Valley Ironmen (4-1)(4-1) vs #1 South Fayette Lions (5-0)(5-0) Friday October 3^rd at 7:00 pm @ South Fayette Lions Stadium on the campus of South Fayette high school broadcast on the MSA Sports Network by Nick Farrell and Adam Hoerner

Sometimes I overthink this job. Week to week I am trying so hard to bring readers and football fans insight, and numbers and tidbits that maybe they don’t have access to, and honestly it gets occasionally to feel like real work.

I get reminded that it is pretty simple sometimes as well. I was reminded of that this week when I emailed South Fayette Head Coach Joe Rossi for his thoughts on this game, and he did my job in about six minutes. Here is his response in its entirety.

“SAM,

THANKS FOR THE EMAIL.

STEEL VALLEY OFFENSE IS THE THREE HEADED MONSTER (#3, #4 AND #1) THEY ARE

ALL CAPABLE OF BREAKING THE LONG RUN AT ANY MOMENT.  HAVE TO TRY TO LIMIT

THE BIG PLAY.  ON DEFENSE, THEY FLY TO THE BALL AND PLAY TREMENDOUS RUN

DEFENSE. 

BRETT IS 85 YARDS AND 3 TD’S AWAY FROM BREAKING BOTH OF THOSE WPIAL RECORDS.

NICK PONIKVAR HAS COME ON OF LATE FOR THE LIONS AND IS A THREAT TO GO THE

DISTANCE WHEN HE TOUCHES THE BALL.  OFFENSIVE LINE HAS BEEN OUR STRENGTH

THIS SEASON ALONG WITH BRETT.  THEY ARE ANCHORED BY THREE YEAR STARTER

ANTHONY DAVIDSON.”

I will translate for you, but first a huge thanks to Coach Rossi for making this one easy for me!

The three-headed monster for the Ironmen is quarterback Tyrone Freeman wearing number four, running back DeWayne Murray wearing number three and wide-out Trey Earl Edwards wearing number one.

Freeman has rushed for 286 yards and four scores on the year. He has completed 17 of 43 passes for 360 yards and another two scores. To give you an idea of how tightly the threesome is woven together in this offense Murray and Edwards have combined to catch 15 of the 17 completed passes for 322 of the 360 total yards passing.

Murray is just a sophomore and this kid is going to be a huge star. He has 55 carries on the season for 682 yards and has scored a team-high 14 touchdowns. 

Steel Valley is 0-9 in Rod Steele’s tenure as head coach against Seton-LaSalle and South Fayette. The Ironmen want this win badly. Their defense is very good, they gave Seton every once that the Rebels wanted a couple weeks ago in Munhall but did not take care of the football well enough to get the win.

South Fayette fans will have all eyes on senior quarterback Brett Brumbaugh who has completed 63 of 93 passes for 1078 yards and 15 touchdowns on the season. Look for Brumbaugh to become the WPIAL’s all-time leading passer in terms of yards and touchdowns during this football game.

Junior wide out Nick Ponikvar has 16 catches for 282 yards and a pair of scores. Logan Sharp a great tight end has 15 catches for 257 yards and six scores while senior Roman Denson has become a deep threat with a team-high 308 receiving yards on just 11 catches and he has scored seven touchdowns. He is averaging over 28 yards per catch.

On the ground Hunter Hays has 378 yards and nine touchdowns in his 44 carries on the year, and Jasper Wolfe has 148 yards in just 12 carries.

But again you don’t need all this stuff from me, Coach Rossi’s breakdown is much more efficient.

A Eastern Conference:
#5 Jeannette Jayhawks (5-0)(5-0) vs #2 Clairton Bears (4-0)(5-0) Friday October 3^rd at 7:30* pm @ Neil C. Brown Stadium in Clairton, Pennsylvania broadcast on the MSA Sports Network by Sam Hall and Steve Nagler

*Note: This start time has changed from 7:00 PM

Last week in this very space I complained loudly about the 7:00 pm starts that have swarmed the WPIAL in recent years. Wow! I had no idea the power of Big Game Hunting until they changed this start time once they found out I was broadcasting the game. No, I don’t want to know the real reason I am content with the one I have made up in my head.

The Jayhawks and the Bears two of the most storied football programs in the history of the WPIAL. Jeannette has 694 wins as a program while the Bears have 628. Both of those rank in the top 25 in the State for all-time wins.

Shocking stat of the night? This is the first meeting between these two teams since… 1915 a game that ended in a scoreless tie. I think you will have trouble finding that one in the MSA Sports Archives but I believe Don Rebel was on the call.

The Hawks have been impressive in jumping to the 5-0 start scoring nearly 50 points per game and allowing less than ten points per game.

The Bears have been breath-taking, scoring nearly 75 points per game while allowing 2.6 points per game, only Springdale has scored on the Bears this year. The defense has pitched four shut outs.

Senior quarterback Julian Batts is a dual threat for Jeannette. Batts has completed an amazing 24 of 26 passes a completion rate of 92%, for 317 yards and seven touchdowns without throwing an interception. Batts has also rushed 24 times for 371 yards and four touchdowns.

Senior wide receivers Terrell Canady and Zack Altieri have combined for 13 catches and 219 yards on the season.

On the ground in addition to Batts, the Jayhawks have a sophomore running back in Kareem Hall who has amassed 293 yards on the ground and eight touchdowns in his 25 carries.

For the Bears senior Ryan Williams at quarterback has impressive numbers, completing 48 of 78 passes for 1060 yards and 16 touchdowns while only throwing a single interception. You know when first year head coach Wayne Wade lays his head down on the pillow every night he is resting easy knowing his senior quarterback is taking care of the football that way.

Aaron Matthews slides from quarterback last season to his more natural position at wide receiver and he has been spectacular. Matthews keads the Bears with 15 catches for 260 yards and has scored nine touchdowns on the year. Senior wide receiver Jame Hines is averaging 25 yards per catch on the year.

On the ground the Bears have a pair of young superstars in the making. Harrison Dreher and Lamont Wade are both underclassmen but they are not playing like it. Dreher a junior, leads the team with 620 yards rushing on 36 carries. Yes he is averaging over 17 yards per rush. Lamont Wade, a sophomore has 352 yards on 24 carries, he is averaging nearly 15 yards per attempt.

Ramone Clifford is just a monster playmaker on both side of the football last week he had a touchdown catch and a 42 yard interception return for a touchdown as well.

Weather will be a factor this Friday everywhere with heavy rain expected for the area. Maybe more so on the natural surface at Neil C. Brown Stadium.  

Tags: Bethel Park, Clairton, Franklin Regional, Hampton, Jeannette