Allderdice wins rematch with Brashear, returns to City League championship

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, October 21, 2021 | 11:49 PM

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Using Jaerone Parker as a wildcat quarterback was a new wrinkle Allderdice added to its game plan this week while preparing to face Brashear for the second time in eight days.

Last time, Parker largely played only defense.

“They didn’t know what they were going to get this week,” said the junior, who carried a team-high 17 times and scored two rushing touchdowns Thursday night in a 22-8 victory over Brashear in a rainy City League semifinal at Cupples Stadium.

“They beat us last week,” Parker said. “We had to make some adjustments this week in practice.”

The win takes Allderdice to the finals for the fourth time in five years. Westinghouse and University Prep play in the other semifinal at 7 p.m. Friday.

The City League championship is 1 p.m. Oct. 30.

“I think it’ll be a good contest next week,” Allderdice coach Jerry Haslett said. “We’re used to being in the championship, so we’re going to make the best of it.”

Brashear also used multiple quarterbacks Thursday night but not always by design. The Bulls lost their starting quarterback for the third time in three games when senior Daquan Griffin injured an ankle on the first snap.

That left Brashear’s offense sidetracked early.

Star junior Ta’Mere Robinson was lost for the season last game with a knee injury, and senior Branndon Pazzelle was hurt a week earlier.

“That’s three weeks in a row our quarterback went down in the first quarter,” Brashear coach Andrew Moore said. “The last two weeks we were able to persevere. Today, unfortunately we weren’t able to.”

Last week, Brashear defeated Allderdice, 38-22.

Brashear committed three turnovers in the rematch and had a bad punt snap inside their own 15-yard line lead to another short field for Allderdice. The Dragons scored their three touchdowns on consecutive second-quarter possessions. Two of the three touchdown drives started in Brashear territory.

“Losing (Griffin) hurt,” Moore said. “He’s been a playmaker for us all season. He ran for 170-plus and two touchdowns last week from the quarterback position. We lost a lot of depth defensively, but we also made a lot of mistakes.”

One of Allderdice’s touchdown drives covered only 13 yards and another was only 30, both ending with touchdowns by Parker, who scored on runs of 13 and 9 yards. He finished with a game-high 78 rushing yards.

Allderdice started with sophomore quarterback Azerick Jetter behind center but turned to Parker early in the second quarter. On a wet, windy night, the Dragons largely stuck to the ground with Parker in the wildcat.

“We’ve been running it for a couple of weeks,” Haslett said of Parker’s wildcat package. “We knew when we were bringing it out.”

Parker often sees limited snaps in practice, his coach said, but makes the most of his game-day chances.

“Jaerone has a different mindset than everyone else,” Haslett said. “He stands back at practice and doesn’t take too many reps. But when he gets in the game, he knows what he’s doing. It’s pretty wild.”

Robert Brown scored Allderdice’s first touchdown on a 2-yard run early in the second quarter. Allderdice led 22-0 at half.

Brashear’s lone touchdown was scored by its defense. Emanuel Myers recovered a third-quarter fumble in the end zone.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Allderdice, Brashear