Friday HighLights for Week Five

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, October 1, 2016 | 11:06 AM

As Friday night of Week Five of the 2016 campaign began, most pre-games and kickoffs had to deal with passing rain showers. But as the games went on, the skies cleared, the temps dropped and the stars started to shine. However in a day and age when most of the star are found in the sky, or at least doing damage through the air, it was a night of success for those who love to pound on the ground as eight running backs in the district surpassed 200 yards rushing, including one massive record setting performance.

Zane Dudek – Armstrong

That we are tipping our cap to Armstrong senior running back Zane Dudek AGAIN is not surprising, but what he did to the Plum defense Friday…YIKES! The MSA Sports Pro Grass September Player of the Month ended the ninth month with a bang, rushing for a WPIAL single game record of 492 yards (eclipsing the old mark by 32 yards) while scoring six touchdowns as the River Hawks bounced back from their first loss with a 56-28 thrashing of the host Mustangs in a Class 5-A Big East Conference history maker.

Troy Fisher – Pittsburgh Central Catholic

While his number pale a bit in comparison to his higher profile counterpart under center (Pine-Richland’s Phil Jurkovec 24 of 35 for 335 yards with two touchdown passes and two scoring runs), the bottom line is the ‘W’. That being said, Pittsburgh Central Catholic quarterback Troy Fishers numbers were ‘not to shab’, He connected on 6 of 10 passes for 232 yards with a pair of touchdown tosses and a touchdown plunge as the top-ranked Vikings held off the visiting second ranked Rams 48-35 in a Class 6-A Northern Seven Conference dandy.

Ethan Maenza – North Allegheny

While some of the Class 6-A non-conference battles between Northern Seven Conference teams and squads from the Southeastern Conference have been competitive, the end results has been a near clean sweep thus far by teams from what was dubbed the ‘Super Conference’ before the season even started. That string continued Friday when North Allegheny quarterback Ethan Maenza rushed for 219 yards and scored three touchdowns to spark a big fourth quarter comeback as the host Tigers edged the Mount Lebanon Blue Devils 22-15 to give the Northern Seven a 7-1 edge in non-conference frays.

Micah Morris – Fox Chapel

While there are a lot of familiar names that we see each week on the HighLights, a new name has emerged from a team tasting victory for the first time this season. Through the first five games for Fox Chapel, running back Micah Morris had a healthy 8.2 yards per carry and 335 yards on the ground. his VERY healthy Friday will add to those totals as he gained 205 yards with two touchdowns as the Foxes enjoyed a 47-27 Class 5-A Allegheny Nine Conference triumph over the visiting Moon Tigers.

Joey Koroly – Trinity

While the Class 4-A Big Nine Conference has quickly become the Big Four with Thomas Jefferson, Belle Vernon, West Mifflin and Ringgold jumping out to hot starts, Trinity is trying to make the chase for the postseason somewhat competitive and turn it into a Big Five chase. Joey Koroly is doing his part, rushing for 254 yards while scoring three touchdowns on runs of 14 and 36 yards as well as a 25 yard scoring reception from Dylan Kern in the Hillers 41-14 victory over the host Uniontown Red Raiders.  

Quinton Hill – Thomas Jefferson

As stated above, while defending champion Thomas Jefferson, Belle Vernon, West Mifflin and Ringgold have cruised out to quick starts and some separation in the Class 4-A Big Nine Conference with the five other teams, there are still a lot of head-to-head games to be played, The second of those battles (Belle Vernon beat Ringgold in Week 3) came Friday at Joe Montana Stadium where it was all down Hill for the visiting Jaguars. Quinton Hill rushed for 229 yards  and scored five touchdown on runs of 4, 69, 3, 18 and 20 yards as the Jags beat up on the Rams 55-14.

Drew Saxton – South Fayette

There have been few close games for South Fayette in amassing 42 consecutive regular season victories in a row with most of those wins going to the mercy rule. There was little mercy on Friday with a big time scare for the green machine on the brink of Halloween season. However, thanks in part  to the big plays in the second half by quarterback Drew Saxton, SF continued its winning ways in the regular season. Saxton hit on 21 of 41 passes for 316 yards and four touchdowns, three of them to Dan Trimbur as the Lions erased a 21-0 halftime deficit to comeback and beat the host Blackhawk Cougars 28-21 in a Class 4-A Northwest Nine Conference thriller.

Dustin Shoaf – Yough

bookend victories was all Yough High School fans had to celebrate in 2015 when the team finished 2-7, which was still better than a winless 0-9 campaign in 2014. But don’t look now as that is the green and orange quietly rising up the Class 3-A Interstate Conference standings thanks to a big effort by Dustin Shoaf and his mates on Friday.  Shoaf rushed for 237 yards and scored four touchdowns on runs of 28, 15, 9 and 45 yards…all in the second half as the Cougars improved to 2-1 in the conference and 3-2 overall with a 31-7 eye-brow raising win over the visiting McGuffey Highlanders.

Mario Latronica – Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic

A lot of talk in this high school football season of change has been a bout the lost rivalries with the expansion to six classifications. One rivalry that was ‘saved’ by the WPIAL was Avonworth vs Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic. in recent years, these two teams not only battled in the old Class A Black Hills Conference, but they usually met again in the Class A playoffs. The spark was gone however when these two met for a Class 2-A Non-Conference game, but the performance of Mario Latronica was electric as he rushed for 293 yards and twice in the Trojans 50-13 whooping of the visiting Antelopes.

Joseph Headlee – Jefferson-Morgan

Once week after losing to West Greene in a result that snapped the Pioneers long 18-game losing streak, Jefferson-Morgan made plenty of headway in trying to improve throgh the week in search for their first win of the season. Joseph Headlee enjoyed a monster game in rushing for 370 yards, which tripled his year output through five games of 117 yards on the ground, plus he scored four touchdowns on runs of 71, 20, 27 and 29 yards in the Rcokets 59-34 scorching of the visiting Avella Eagles in a Class 1-A Tri-County South Conference win.

Tags: Armstrong, Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, Fox Chapel, Jefferson-Morgan, North Catholic, Yough