Alle-Kiski Valley high school football notebook: Highlands takes care of business

By: Michael Love
Saturday, October 8, 2022 | 9:04 PM

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It’s never an easy proposition playing a football game at the venerable Wolvarena in Turtle Creek.

But Highlands stepped away from Greater Allegheny Conference play Friday and took care of business with a 38-23 victory at the home of Class 5A Woodland Hills.

The Golden Rams, who average 32.1 points, improved to 7-0 and kept pace with the 2014 Highlands team that went 9-0 in the regular season and finished 10-1.

Last week, junior Aaron Randolph ran wild and accounted for six touchdowns. This week, it was senior Chandler Thimons who enjoyed a standout evening against the Wolverines.

He let his legs do a lot of the talking with TD runs of 11, 7 and 1 yards. He also threw a touchdown of 7 yards to Rondeal Hewlett.

The three ground scores give Thimons four on the season, and he has thrown for seven TDs.

Landon Signorella recovered a punt in the end zone, and Burton Babinsack booted a 23-yard field goal, his third of the season.

Highlands led Woodland Hills, 24-7, at halftime.

The Golden Rams hope to go eight for eight Friday as they return to conference play against Kiski Area.

Freeport run game raises its game

Through six games this season, the Freeport rushing attack averaged 165.2 yards.

In Friday night’s Allegheny 6 clash for first place with East Allegheny, the Yellowjackets ran past that number.

Freeport running backs and senior quarterback Gavin Croney collected a season-best 407 yards on the ground as it rolled over East Allegheny, 35-13.

Senior Ben Lane set the pace with 263 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries, Croney added TD runs of 11 and 2 yards and collected 50 rush yards and senior Zach Clark rushed for 66 yards.

Lane has 646 rushing yards and nine touchdowns, and Croney has scored five rushing TDs.

Freeport (6-1, 2-0) hopes to keep it going Friday at home against rival Knoch (0-7 0-2).

Points parade continues

When Leechburg gets rolling, the points usually pile up.

That continued Friday in a 58-21 rout of Jeannette.

Leechburg has scored at least 56 points five times in seven games en route to a 5-2 record. It will enter Friday’s home game against Riverview averaging 51 points.

That is the most points scored per game in the WPIAL. The next closest is Class 2A Steel Valley at 47.3 per game.

Sophomore Jayden Floyd connected with senior Logan Kline on touchdown passes of 27, 5, and 47 yards, Kline returned a fumble for a touchdown, senior Braylan Lovelace recorded two touchdown runs and a punt return for a score and junior Brandin Gilmer capped the night with an 18-yard run.

Raiders raid under the lights

One time each year, Riverview owns the opportunity to play a night game under the lights in front of its home fans at Riverside Park.

Homecoming in this atmosphere always gets the players extra pumped up, Raiders coach Trevor George said. That was no exception Friday as Riverview rolled past Summit Academy, 40-12, for its third win of the season.

The Raiders running attack was on point as juniors Landon Johnson and Carlo Buzzato combined for 363 yards and six touchdowns.

Riverview is 6-4 in its past 10 games under the lights at Riverside Park with victories over Imani Christian, Jefferson-Morgan, Greensburg Central Catholic, Serra and Wilkinsburg.

Stepping up through adversity

Kiski Area coach Sam Albert said he never has had as many starting players leave the lineup in a season because of injury or other circumstances.

“We are down to our fourth-team corner,” Albert said. “We lost our defensive end and our tight end. We’re down to our third-team quick tackle. We lost our quarterback, both outside linebackers, one inside linebacker and (Friday) we lost (senior) Dom Dininno, who has done everything for us.”

But through the challenges and despite his team’s 0-7 record after a tough 47-28 loss to Mars on Friday, Albert said he also feels a sense of pride in his players for not giving up when he said it would be so easy to do so.

“I think every coach at every level follows the philosophy of next man up. You hear it all the time,” he said. “I can’t say enough about the kids who are stepping up in all positions, including freshmen and sophomores. We have a sophomore quarterback in Carson Heinle who has come in, and last night he threw for 280 yards. He’s been unbelievable coming in and giving us what he has.The week before he first started, he was playing JVs.

“It would be so easy for all of these guys to give up and say it’s not worth it, but they’ve grown closer. As frustrating as it has been to see all who we’ve lost, it’s also rewarding to see these kids keep working hard and giving all they have.”

Notable presentation

There will be a special addition to Armstrong’s homecoming ceremonies Friday night.

River Hawks quarterback Cadin Olsen, winner of last season’s Willie Thrower Award as Southwestern Pennsylvania’s top passer, will donate a replica of the trophy to Armstrong High School for permanent keeping in the school’s trophy case.

Olsen still will have his trophy, a 29-pound version of the Willie Thrower statue that sits inside Valley High Memorial Stadium.

The award, which began in 2020, is named after the NFL’s first Black quarterback and a native of New Kensington. Thrower helped lead the Red Raiders to back-to-back WPIAL titles in 1946 and ’47 before becoming the Big 10 Conference’s first Black quarterback in 1952.

On Oct. 18, 1953 while playing for the Bears, Thrower became the first Black quarterback to take a snap in an NFL game.

Olsen was selected last year by the vote of a panel of coaches and media members.

Armstrong (6-1, 3-0) will take on Mars in a Greater Allegheny Conference game.

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: Armstrong, Freeport, Highlands, Kiski Area, Leechburg, Riverview