Da’Ron Barksdale sparks Steel Valley past Western Beaver to return to WPIAL finals

By: Ted Sarneso
Friday, November 14, 2025 | 11:25 PM

Moments after his team defeated Western Beaver, 34-7, in the WPIAL Class 2A semifinals Friday night at Dormont Stadium Friday night, Steel Valley running back Da’Ron Barksdale’s was asked how he felt.

“My life in high school,” he said, “has come full circle.”

After Steel Valley lost to Beaver Falls in Barksdale’s sophomore year and to Seton LaSalle in last year’s semifinals, he and the Ironmen are finally headed back to the North Shore looking for another WPIAL title.

“I’m just a small kid from Homestead, Pa., and I’m coming for something I couldn’t grab the last two years,” Barksdale said. “I did it this time. Not (my brother) Donald. I did it. It feels great.”

Barksdale did a lot of it himself as he ran the ball 34 times for 266 yards, returned a punt 55 yards for a score and finished with five touchdowns and 346 all-purpose yards to lead the No. 3 Ironmen (9-3), who defeated Beaver Falls for the WPIAL title in Barksdale’s freshman year, past the No. 2 Golden Beavers (10-2).

“He is really good,” Western Beaver coach Ron Busby said. “He’s a great football player and is going to Pitt for a reason. We played OK up front defensively, but he’s elusive, and the man was more than we could handle this evening.”

“He’s a great athlete. He makes us go,” Steel Valley coach Ray Braszo said.

The Western Beaver defense saw a healthy dose of Steel Valley’s engine from the jump.

On the Ironmen’s first two possessions, Barksdale carried the ball eight times for 77 yards and scored on runs of 2 and 13 yards within the first five minutes.

“Our line does a great job blocking for him. He’s a super back, and he’s hard to bring down. It’s very deceiving how strong he is,” said Braszo. “The line has done a great job for him the last two years, and they gave him just enough room tonight.”

After Western Beaver went three and out on its next possession, the Golden Beavers punted the ball to an awaiting Barksdale instead of kicking out of bounds.

As the ball bounced to him at his own 45, Barksdale said he let everything naturally play out.

“I saw the ball take a hop, grabbed it,” he said. “It was as if the play was setting itself up. I just took off.”

He shot up the far sideline and made three or four defenders miss with some well-timed jukes to put his team up 21-0 before the first quarter was even halfway through.

For as much of a tough time the Western Beaver defense had in the first 12 minutes, the offense had an even tougher time with the Steel Valley defense.

On Western Beaver’s first possession, quarterback Amari Marshall lost 4 yards on a broken play and then running back Wyatt Sparbanie fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Steel Valley’s Rayvon Price at the Beavers’ 7-yard line.

On their next possession, the Beavers went three and out and had the punt blocked.

“We had a rough start, having a fumble and a blocked punt,” said Busby. “You can’t get behind like that against a championship football team. In my estimation, they’re going to be a championship football team.”

Things didn’t get better for Western Beaver as the second quarter came around.

They put together an 11-play drive that closed up the first quarter and took a chunk of time out of the second but turned the ball over on downs, attempting to go for it on fourth-and-6.

On their next possession, the Golden Beavers began the drive at their own 10 and lost 7 yards on a bobbled snap. They went three and out.

“Didn’t play our best game,” said Busby. “Again, they’re big, strong and aggressive on defense, not just on offense. They were the better team today. We were overmatched on both sides of the ball.”

Steel Valley’s defense executed its plan of shutting down the Golden Beavers’ running attack.

“Once we did that, they began to force things,” said Barksdale. “They like to throw deep, so if we stopped the run, we could force them into three and outs.”

“Our defense was ready for them,” said Braszo. “We knew that we had to stop Marshall and Sparbanie. Our defense is playing really good, been playing very quick the last few weeks. We took away their running game. Coach Kevin Clarke made up the defense, and it was good. We were all over them.”

Marshall was able to muster 93 yards on 18 carries and a score but was held to 3 of 9 passing for 19 yards and was picked by Barksdale in the fourth quarter.

Sparbanie carried the ball nine times for minus-2 yards.

On its final possession of the half, Western Beaver benefitted from a pass interference call on Steel Valley but went backwards on successive sacks of minus-9 and minus-14 yards and once again had to punt.

The second half began the same way as the first for Steel Valley.

Western Beaver punted on its first drive and Barksdale returned it 25 yards, setting Steel Valley up at the Golden Beavers’ 39-yard line.

The Ironmen drove the field, once again behind the legs of Barksdale. Many of the run plays involved Barksdale cutting back against the grain to find open yardage.

“When you run that much, you get an instinct for where the holes could open up,” said Barksdale. “Watching film, you could see the outside was going to be there. It was just a feeling.”

Barksdale capped off the drive with a 1-yard run and added another score from 5 yards out three drives later.

Western Beaver finally got on the board after Steel Valley fumbled on its own 20.

As the ball slipped out of the hands of quarterback Tyson Barron and rolled toward the goal line, Golden Beaver Joseph Gacesa fell on it at the 2 and Marshall punched it in two plays later.

“Not the way we wanted to finish,” said Busby. “Wish we could have played a little better tonight, but we’re proud of the year we had. We’ll regroup and get ready for next year.”

Steel Valley will face familiar foe and top seed Seton LaSalle (9-3) in the Class 2A title game at 2 p.m. next Saturday at Acrisure Stadium.

“We’re going to need to watch our mistakes,” said Braszo. “We won, but had our share of miscues. We need to work on it because Seton LaSalle is an excellent team. That’s why they were the one seed.”

Tags: Steel Valley, Western Beaver