South Hills football notes: Brentwood selects 4 captains

By: Ray Fisher
Tuesday, August 21, 2018 | 8:06 PM

Notebook items from the WPIAL Class 2A football division:

• Four players will serve as co-captains of the Brentwood football team this season.

The foursome consists of seniors Nick Czerwien (OL/LB), Drew Wilson (WR/DB), junior Ian Thomas (RB/LB) and sophomore Aiden Wardzinski (RB/LB).

“Our coaches always say, ‘Win the conference and make the playoffs,’ and I have the same goals,” said Wilson, who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 155 pounds. “I’m also hoping we can make it to RMU, but we have to take it one game at a time and trust the process.”

The 5-7, 190-pound Czerwien mans the center position on offense for the Spartans.

“My expectations for our team this year are to have a successful season and make the playoffs,” he said. “I would love for us to win the conference, and I feel pretty confident that we have the ability to pull it off.”

• There are 31 teams in Class 2A this season with three eight-team conferences: Century, Midwestern and Three Rivers; and one seven-team conference: Allegheny.

The WPIAL Class 2A final is slated for Nov. 24 at 1 p.m. at Robert Morris University.

Washington is the defending champion in 2A. The Little Prexies socked Steel Valley, 37-10, in last year’s finals.

• Former Seton LaSalle running back Lionel Deanes plans to attend Assumption College in Massachusettes, where he will major in pre-med.

Two seniors on the 2017 squad at Seton LaSalle, running back Nistal Baldwin and tight end George Mike IV, will attend Waynesburg this fall.

Other former Rebels gridders who will be college freshmen this year include OL Josh Blamer (Case Western), OL Nick McNally (Washington & Jefferson), TE Shane Dugan (Marietta) and QB Matt Banbury (Wilbraham & Monson Academy in Massachusetts).

• There are four quarterbacks on the Brentwood football team; none are seniors.

John Milcic, a 6-4, 165-pound junior, will be backed up by sophomore Brendan Wertz, and two freshmen, Mitchell Fox and Jase Keib.

• Eight players at Seton LaSalle are listed at 220 pounds or more on the team roster.

Senior lineman Dean O’Toole, who stands 6-6 and weighs 347 pounds, is the Rebels’ biggest player.

Other burly team members include seniors Rob Matthews (6-3, 290), Mike Kutschke (6-0, 280), Andrew Yurick (6-0, 240), Logan Baldinger (6-1, 230), Jesse Byerly (6-0, 230), freshman Liam Halligan (6-0, 220) and sophomore Nathan Patsey (5-11, 220).

• Four of the five quarterbacks on the Seton LaSalle squad are juniors — Max Schipani, Joey Ranft, Nick Roell and Nick Carrick.

Griffin Malloy is a sophomore signal caller for the Rebels.

• Brentwood has only four 200-pound players on its 2018 roster.

OL/DL Matt Veatch (5-9, 220), RB/LB Ian Thomas (6-2, 205) and OL/DL Luke Bauer (5-10, 200) are juniors.

Kiran Gurung (5-11, 200) is a sophomore lineman.

• There are 55 players in the Seton LaSalle football program this season.

Ray Fisher is a freelance writer.

Tags: Brentwood