CTK 2012 – WPIAL AA Century Conference Preview

By: Bruce Markey
Tuesday, August 21, 2012 | 5:06 PM

Two years ago, South Fayette was the king of the Century Conference and ended up as the golden boys in the end with a WPIAL championship to show for their efforts. Last year, it was Seton-LaSalle that was perfect through the regular season until their hopes of a district title ended with a Semifinals loss to Jeannette.

Who will rise to the top in what has been one of the more balanced conferences in the WPIAL here in 2012?

There was some off-season tweaking as the conference grew from eight to nine teams for the next two autumns. The Washington Little Prexies have returned to the Class AA Interstate Conference while a pair of teams move down as both the South park Eagles and the McGuffey Highlanders come into the conference from the Class AAA Big Eight Conference.

Here is a look at the 2012 edition of the Century Conference.

BURGETTSTOWN BLUE DEVILS:

A new coach will kick off a new era of Blue Devils football as Terry Havelka takes over for Matt Taylor, who left after eight seasons manning the Burgettstown sideline. Havelka brings over 30 years of coaching experience to his new job.

The Blue Devils have big shoes to fill under center with the graduation of Ryan Dupain. Another Ryan, senior Ryan Glover will take the first crack at it. His biggest job early on may be just haning the ball off to senior running back John Dugas, who led the team in rushing a year ago.

Burgettstown also will have some experience back at both wide receiver and up front on the lines. Seniors Graham Lescallette and Joe Grayson return at wide out and defensive back while seniors Josh Mack and Chris Braham lead both the offensive and defensive lines. 6'1, 255-pound sophomore Jim Reedy is one to watch one both lines.

The Blue Devils will be in the dark in 2012…which is a good thing. A year after playing all of their home games on Saturday afternoons becuase of issues with the stadium lights, Burgettstown will play all but one of their home contests (homecoming game on October 6th vs Seton-LaSalle will be on a Saturday afternoon) on Friday nights.

KEYSTONE OAKS GOLDEN EAGLES:

Gone is Nick Kamberis, who as a young coach, helped turn the Golden Eagles football program into a perennial contender in the Century Conference. The year-round factor and having a young family were part of the reasons Kamberis decided to step away after last year following a dozen years on the Dormont Stadium sidelines.

Enter Matt Taylor, who always seemed to get the most out of his modest talent at Burgettstown. The former Blackhawk grad hopes to continues to keep the Golden Eagles flying high.

A year ago was a rare miss from the postseason for KO as they finished 4-5 and in fifth place in the conference. Five starters on each side of the ball return in the hopes of getting back onto the postseason stage.

Sophomore Kobe Phillippi looks to have the inside lane to the quarterback position. He will lean heavily on two returning seniors to help the offense roll in running back Dale Klobuchir and all-conference wide receiver Cory Sevacko. The Golden Eagles do have some experience up front with 6'2, 240-pound senior Brett Templeton, 6'1, 280-pound senior Ryan Carroll and 6'2, 265-pound junior Chris Grecek.

The apparent loss of junior stand out receiver Ricky Rogers doesn't help the Eagles. Rodgers, who was home-schooled and lived in Dormont, transferred to Gateway High School where the WPIAL ruled him ineligible to play this fall because they felt the transfer was in part for athletic reason. Rogers has appealed to the PIAA.     

McGUFFEY HIGHLANDERS:

Ed Dalton has been there, done that before. He has helped breath new life into a struggling program in the past and the former Mount Pleasant and recently Trinity head coach will try to do it again at McGuffey after taking over for Derek Bochna, who spent the past ten years at the helm of the Highlanders.

The turnaround task won't be easy as the Highlanders were winless last year and have lost ten games in a row dating back to 2010. But even though McGuffey returns only 3 starters on offense and four on defense, they are blessed with plenty of size up front.

5'10, 220-pound senior center Zach Vinski leads the offense up front while 5'10, 215-pound junior Cody Haines returns on the defensive line. The offensive line averages 230-pounds with the likes of Ryan Ward, Anthony Mussolino, Nick Matheny, Kyler Main and Dakota Spalding. Zach Herrie and Caleb Reihner join Haines on the d-line.

Other returning starters include seniors Brent Balarczyk at fullback and Jake Seabright at wide receiver on offense and Balarczyk at linebacker and seniors cornerbacks Dylan Fuller and Chris Keith.    

QUAKER VALLEY QUAKERS:

Quaker Valley may be a program on the rise. Seems funny since they finished in seventh place in the eight-team conference a year ago, but their overall record of 3-7 marked the second most wins this century and the most since they won four games in 2008. Also, second-year coach John Tortorea was able to get a lot of production from young players a year ago.

With a talents group of juniors and sophomores, seniors Burke Moser (QB, DB) and Rocco Brown (G/DE) will try to help lead the way on a team with plenty of talented underclassmen, including junior linemen Marcus Coury, Sebastian Gordon and Matt O'Neil. 

Three other young returning starters counted on for big contributions on both offense and defense are junior running back/inside linebacker Jake Travota, sophomore fullback/inside linebacker Aaron Cunningham and sophomore wide receiver/safety Chris Conlan.

Cornell High School no longer has a football team, so an influx of some former Raiders will help the cause as well, including sophomore sensation Dane Jackson, who will see time at quarterback, slot back and defensive back. Also running back/outside linebacker Trevon Marshall will help try to fill the shoes of the graduated Jordan Vescio, who led the Quakers in rushing, receiving and touchdowns scored.     

SETON-LaSALLE REBELS:

in 2004, Seton-LaSalle went the distance and beat Aliquippa at Heinz Field to win a WPIAL championship under former coach Lou Cerro, who left the following season to take the Montour job. Enter long time assistant coach Greg Perry to take the Rebels reigns. A year ago, Perry guided Seton-LaSalle to within two wins of a perfect championship run. However the 11-0 Rebels lost to Jeannette in the district Semifinals.

While Kevin Hart and J.J. Beggan have moved on to college football,  the Rebels have six players back on both sides of the ball and are one of the favorites to repeat in the Century Conference.

Quarterback Luke Brumbaugh returns under center. The senior, who took home a blue arrow as part of being voted to the MSA Sports/Kennywood Preseason All-Star team, threw for over 1,100 yards and 11 touchdowns in the regular season a year ago. He'll have plenty of weapons to throw to including Pitt recruit, 6'5, 250-pound tight end Scott Orndoff along with senior wide outs Lou Rotunda and Tim Blair.

Junior Tom Rizza will take over at tailback for Hart while senior fullback Nick Sywyj returns to help lead the way and help out returning linemen J.T. Colosimo and Rob Beck, both whom are seniors.

All of the above will see action on defense as well, along with senior Nick Agliori. A couple of sophomore newcomers to watxch at linebacker are Ricky Mellick and Dequay Broadwater.

SOUTH ALLEGHENY GLADIATORS: 

The old silver fox, Pat Monroe begins his fifth season as the head coach at South Allegheny, taking over in 2008 after Duquesne High School closed its doors for good. The transition from powerhouse Duquesne to struggling South Allegheny has been a tough one as there have been no quick fixes of the Gladiators program.

After winning five games in his first season in 2008, the Gladiators have won only three games combined over the last three years, including a last place finish in 2001 with a mark of 1-9.

To add to the woes for South Allegheny is the absence of one of their top players in recent years. Tight end Jesse James graduated and is now at Penn State University.

SOUTH FAYETTE LIONS:

2011 was a good season at South Fayette, one that in the past, they would have hung their heads high after finishing in third place with a 6-3 regular season record, a First Round playoff win over traditional power Beaver Falls before being eliminated in the WPIAL Quarterfinals by conference rival Seton-LaSalle 21-13.

However 2011 was coming off the heals of their magical 2010 season which produced the schools first WPIAL football championship since 1964. So what about 2012? Well it might not be as golden as 2010, but many feel it will be better than what Joe Rossi's Lions did one year ago with the experience garnered by a young team in 2011.  

Quarterback John Lerda threw for over 1,000 yards a year ago, but he has graduated. No worries for South Fayette fans though as another Brumbaugh started the final three games, including two playoff contests last year as a freshman and is ready to take over. How good Brett Brumbaugh is remains to be seen, but he is not afraid of playing out of the shadow cast by former South Fayette QB Christian Brumbaugh (who led the Lions to the 2010 title) and current Seton-LaSalle quarterback Luke Brumbaugh. 

He'll have plenty of weapons to throw to in what could be a great aerial attack with the likes of senior wide receivers Mike Fetchet, Shane Girman and Division I recruit Zach Challingsworth. Challingsworth, who has made a verbal commitment to Pitt, had an average of 16.5 yards per catch a year ago. The junior duo of Grant Fetchet and Darrell Williams should keep things going on offense when the Lions decide to keep the ball on the ground.

SOUTH PARK EAGLES: 

It was a tough stint for South Park in Class AAA. They often could not match the depth of our teams in the Class AAA Big Eight Conference because of the roster numbers and struggled to stay around .500. Last year the Eagles finished in sixth place with a 4-6 overall record. However veteran coach Tom Loughran feels back at home in the Century Conference.

The Eagles have a hole to fill at quarterback and will turn to junior signal caller Mike McLaughlin. He will have a pair of experienced wide receivers to throw to in seniors Carter Grote and Brandon Kmonk. South Park will turn to another newcome to lead the way on the ground with senior tailback Jared Becker expected to get most of the totes.

South Park does have some experience back on the lines in seniors Dave Martin and Josh Faust along with sophomore Robbie Wolak. Two more players to watch are a pair of junior defensive backs in Stefon Isbell and Greg Pantuso.

While South Park has proven to be a much more competitive team in Class AA than in Class AAA, it has been a while since the Eagles have qualified for the postseason. In fact, the last time South Park qualified for the 'Fall Ball' known as the WPIAL playoffs was in 2005 when they went the distance and won it all in AA.

STEEL VALLEY IRONMEN:

There were soaring expectations after the first two weeks last season when Steel Valley raced out to a 2-0 mark with victories bu a combined score of 99-19. But those gaudy numbers evened out once the Ironmen got into Century Conference play and Rod Steele's team ended up finishing in fourth place with a 5-4 record. The season ended with a First Round playoff loss to eventual champion Aliquippa 44-14.

Steel Valley has qualified for the playoffs three straight years, however they have bowed out in Round One all three times. Seven starters back on offense and five on defense have some feeling this could be the year the Ironmen enjoy some success if they make it back to the postseason.

HUGE shoes need to be filled though with the graduation of one of the top rushers in the WPIAL last year, Dontez Williams who rushed for 1,573 yards in the regular season last year with 24 touchdowns. Senior Kaman Chandler and junior Deandre Pickens will each try their hand at leading the running game. Senior Patrick O'Malley at quarterback and junior wide receiver Derrick Taylor are a nice one-two punch for the passing game.

There is plenty of experience on the lines returning for the Ironmen including senior Richard Brooks, juniors Corey Pinkerton and Shane King and sophomore Vinny Steele.

MSA Sports Predicted Order of Finish:

1.  South Fayette Lions

2.  Seton-LaSalle Rebels

3.  Steel Valley Ironmen

4.  South Park Eagles

5.  Keystone Oaks Golden Eagles

6.  Quaker Valley Quakers

7.  McGuffey Highlanders

8.  South Allegheny Gladiators

9.  Burgettstown Blue Devils

Tags: Burgettstown, Keystone Oaks