Five things we learned in Week 7: City League star, state’s top junior sidelined for season

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, October 16, 2021 | 10:14 PM

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One of Pennsylvania’s top football players may miss the rest of his junior season with a knee injury.

Brashear’s Ta’Mere Robinson, a four-star college prospect with a bevy of major Division I offers, revealed Saturday on Twitter that he’s sidelined with a “possible ACL/MCL tear.”

Rivals has him ranked as Pennsylvania’s top recruit in the 2023 graduating class. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound City League standout recently added South Carolina and Texas to a scholarship list that now has offers from nine schools in the Top 25.

“Doctors are still unsure of what the injury is but they told me I am unable to play again this season,” Robinson wrote Saturday. “Not how I planned on ending my junior season but I will be back and better next season!”

Robinson couldn’t be reached. He later deleted the tweet.

Brashear played Thursday at Cupples Stadium and defeated Allderdice, 38-22. Robinson was injured on a two-point conversion in the first half and left the game. Assistant coaches from Penn State, Clemson, Michigan, Notre Dame and Ohio State attended the City League game, according to social media reports.

Allderdice and Brashear rematch this week.

Brashear coach Andrew Moore said Robinson had wanted to post an update and be transparent about his status, “but now his focus as well as our entire team’s focus is on what we need to do moving forward to defeat Allderdice on Thursday night in the City League playoffs.”

Robinson is a standout safety for Brashear who projects as an outside linebacker in college. Pitt, Penn State and West Virginia were among his first college offers. He has since added Arkansas, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan and N.C. State, among others.

Rivals ranked him nationally as the sixth-best outside linebacker in the 2023 class.

‘Made it have purpose’

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so most high school football teams add pink accents to their uniforms in tribute. The Seneca Valley football team took a more personal approach by making a surprise visit to athletic director Heather Lewis’ home to support her recovery from breast cancer.

The players lined up at her door Thursday and Lewis affixed a pink-ribbon sticker to every helmet.

“Every year kids buy pink socks and all of that other stuff,” coach Ron Butschle said. “With 84 kids on your team, somebody’s been touched by breast cancer, I’m certain, but this really made the stickers have a purpose, have a meaning.”

The team didn’t use buses but instead carpooled to her house after practice.

“She has been home recovering from some surgeries, so I thought we’d surprise her and show up at her front door,” Butschle said. “She was definitely surprised.”

Butschle said the moment was emotional for everyone there. The entire team made the trip.

“Heather is a fantastic person, she’s a great friend, she is a great AD,” Butschle said, “and she’s always been so good to me and to our program and to our kids.”

The team does something similar each year with the American flag stickers on their helmets. Those are applied by members of the military, law enforcement or retired veterans.

Hampton clinches early

If Hampton has a banner for conference titles, it’s time to update it.

With two weeks left in the regular season, the Talbots became the first WPIAL team to clinch at least a share of a conference title with Friday’s 42-6 victory over Indiana. The Talbots (8-0, 5-0) have a two-game lead on the field.

The title will be the team’s first since 2014.

They’re also guaranteed to host a game in the WPIAL playoffs as the highest seed from the Greater Allegheny. That’s because they already own head-to-head tiebreakers over every opponent that potentially could tie them atop the standings.

Hampton endured some lean years since its last conference title, winning only five conference games combined over four seasons from 2016-19. The Talbots saw a resurgence last year and went 5-2 in the conference after moving down from Class 5A to 4A.

Among the other conference races, Cornell (6-1, 5-0) clinched at least a share of the Big Seven title Saturday.

The Raiders on Friday defeated Rochester, 14-7, but didn’t clinch until Our Lady of the Sacred Heart lost Saturday to Shenango, 14-7.

Drama in the Parkway

Is any WPIAL conference more evenly matched than the Parkway?

Remove Aliquippa’s usually lopsided winning scores and the margin of victory is 6.7 points per game when the five other teams play one another.

A successful two-point conversion with 39 seconds remaining gave New Castle a 22-21 victory over Blackhawk on Friday. Red Hurricanes coach Joe Cowart’s gamble on the road paid off when Chris Hood connected with Matayo Savage on the winning two-point pass.

But that wasn’t New Castle’s only close game this year. The team already owned a four-point win over Montour and a four-point loss to Beaver.

In another Parkway game Friday, Beaver defeat Chartiers Valley in overtime, 35-28. Beaver’s Wyatt Ringer scored the game-winning points on a 1-yard run for his fourth touchdown of the day.

4-way race in Northeast

Suddenly, there is a four-way tie atop the Northeast Conference, a rarity this late in the season.

Fox Chapel, North Hills, Penn Hills and Pine-Richland all are tied at 2-1 after Friday night. North Hills gets credit for keeping this a four-horse race by surprising Pine-Richland, 13-7, at Martorelli Stadium.

Statistically, Penn Hills might have the easiest path forward with remaining matchups against Kiski Area (1-2) and Shaler (0-3). Fox Chapel has games against both North Hills and Pine-Richland.

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.