Battle lines drawn: Hempfield-Greensburg Salem could come down to play in trenches

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, August 22, 2018 | 7:18 PM

Previous Next

Previous Next

It’s no secret why Hempfield has won the past two meetings in the storied rivalry with Greensburg Salem.

The Spartans dominated the line of scrimmage.

Hempfield won last year, 49-21, and in 2016, 28-21.

When the two central Westmoreland County rivals meet for the 54th time at 7 p.m. Friday at historic Offutt Field, it will again be decided by the big guys in the trenches.

“That’s our strength of the team for sure,” Hempfield coach Rich Bowen said. “I was pleased how we performed in our scrimmage against Penn-Trafford.

“It was an excellent effort, and we were very pleased with our run game. We ran it very well. Defensively, we felt we played very physical.”

One of Hempfield’s top linemen is junior Dillon Ferretti, who started as a sophomore. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound guard said he’s looking forward to the battle against their closest rival.

“You know of everyone on their team, and it’s a lot bigger game than a school two hours away,” Ferretti said. “Playing at Offutt Field is a good environment because everyone will be there. A ton of people will be watching the game and both teams will be playing, as hard as they can because you don’t want to lose.”

Ferretti said while Greensburg Salem seems to be much improved up front, so are the Spartans’ lines.

Greensburg Salem coach Dave Keefer was pleased with the early part of his team’s scrimmage against Latrobe on Saturday, especially the first 20 plays when they forced a couple turnovers.

“The line play is one of our big question marks every year,” Keefer said. “The big difference between us making the playoffs the last couple years and us making it this year is our line play.

“I was very happy. Our line for the most part is a newer line, and I thought we did a good job against a good defensive line. I was pleasantly surprised in how well they performed. I thought it was solid effort.”

The Golden Lions’ returning starters up front are senior center Jack Merola-Lapsen and junior left guard Collin Pasko. Senior Zach Houston, who missed last season with an injury, is slotted at left tackle.

The Golden Lions feature more size up front this season. Houston is 280 pounds, Pasko is 270 and Merola-Lapsen is 215. They have nine players listed at 240 pounds or more. Hempfield also has some big guys, with 14 players listed 240 pounds or more.

“Hempfield has a very good offensive line, and its defensive line looks very impressive.” Keefer said. “They did a good job against Penn-Trafford. It’s going to be a big task for us. We’re going to find out what kind of line we have.

“One thing we lacked in the past was size on the field. Now we have some size and presence this year. Now, we’ll see if we can enforce that on other people.”

The Golden Lions made too many mistakes in the skill areas, which cost them against Latrobe.

“We had a lot of timing errors, and we missed at least four or five by our quarterback in the run game,” Keefer said. “We did throw the ball fairly well. We were about 55 to 60 percent in the passing game.

“There were positives in the offense, but we have a long way to go. Defensively, we stuck with the basics. The three things we wanted them to do were to be physical, play with emotion and play fast. I thought we did that in our first 20 plays.”

Both teams feature experience at quarterback. Hempfield’s Blake Remaley started three games when Justin Sliwoski went down with an injury, and Greensburg Salem’s Trent Patrick finished the season after Jacob Hoyle was injured in Week 6.

Both are similar: tall and physical players. Both weigh about 220 pounds, and Remaley is 6-2 and Patrick is 5-10.

Paul Schofield is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paul at pschofield@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Schofield_Trib.

Tags: Greensburg Salem, Hempfield