Scholastic Notebook – 09/28/2012

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, September 28, 2012 | 3:01 PM

Not only did Seneca Valley’s 34-7 victory against Pittsburgh Central Catholic Thursday night give Seneca Valley a leg up on second place in the Northern Eight Conference, it was a monumental win of sorts for the Raiders.

* For the first time in a while, the Raiders won a big game against an upper-echelon Class AAAA team. A year ago, Seneca Valley won a WPIAL playoff game for the first time since 2002. This time, the Raiders defeated a Central Catholic team that was ranked No. 4 in Class AAAA by MSA Sports.

* The win broke Central Catholic’s 26-game regular-season winning streak. The Vikings’ last regular-season loss was to Woodland Hills, 27-3, on oct. 2, 2009.

* The 34 points Seneca Valley scored was the most against a Central Catholic team since Woodland Hills defeated the Vikings, 36-3, in the 2009 WPIAL quarterfinals.

* One week after setting a school record for most yards in a single game, Seneca Valley running back Forrest Barnes set the school record for career yardage. The old record was 2,314 yards by Brian Buerkle in 1989.

The win came in front of a Root Sports television audience. The win also might have done some good for Barnes in a few college coaches’ eyes.

“Youngstown State just called this morning,” Seneca Valley coach Don Holl said Friday. “They weren’t going to take another running back, but they said they now want to come in and talk to Forrest. I know the Lafayette guys like him a lot, too. I don’t know about getting any big scholarship offers, but he is certainly getting some love from some people.”

New Kid on the Block

Robert Foster gets much of the attention on the Central Valley football team, and rightly so. He is ranked among the top receivers in the country.

But the “new kid” throwing the ball to Foster is putting up some impressive statistics.

Nathan Climo is in his first year at Central Valley High School after transferring from Crestview High in Ohio. He is completing a whopping 69 percent of his passes this season. He is 37 of 54 for 570 yards. It will be interesting to see how Climo does tonight in a big game against West Allegheny.

Foster, by the way, has caught 22 passes for 350 yards.

Down to Three

Speaking of Foster, last week he narrowed his college choices to three – Pitt, Ohio State and Alabama. He got rid of Michigan, Michigan State, Oregon and Southern California on his final list.

Ending a Streak

It is guaranteed that a long losing streak will come to an end Friday night.

Canon-McMillan plays Plum in a WPIAL Class AAAA game. Plum has lost 11 games in a row. Its last win was in 2010. But Canon-McMillan’s string of futility is even longer. The Big Macs have lost 20 in a row, the longest current streak in the WPIAL.

One-Two Punch

The Peters Township girls’ soccer team is a WPIAL power – and is being fueled this season by a potent scoring duo. The Indians have two of the top eight goal-scorers in the entire WPIAL. Olivia Roberson is third and Veronica Latsko is eighth.

The Mars boys team also has a strong scoring duo. Spencer Posey leads the WPIAL in scoring while teammate Matt White is 11th.
Battle of champions?

Peters Township is the reigning PIAA Class AAA girls soccer champion. Cumberland Valley, located in Mechanicsburg, is the reigning PIAA Class AAA girls soccer champion. And they will meet in a game Saturday.

Confused? Here is the story: Peters Township has won the past two PIAA Class AAA championships that were played in the fall.

However, the PIAA also had spring soccer for some teams in the East, and Cumberland Valley won the spring Class AAA title in 2012.

This is the first school year that there is no spring soccer in the PIAA. These two teams will meet Saturday at Peters Township at 4 p.m.
Cumberland Valley is ranked No. 5 in the country by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America while Peters Township is ranked No. 16. Both teams are undefeated.

Where Are They Now?

The No. 22 and 23 rushers in all of NCAA Division III football are from different colleges, but played against each other in the WPIAL.
Grove City’s Shane Kaclik played at Mars and is No. 22 with 500 yards on 104 carries.

Meanwhile, Washington & Jefferson’s Tim McNerney played at Knoch and is No. 23 with 373 yards on 69 attempts.

Mars and Knoch play in the Greater Allegheny Conference of the WPIAL.

Tags: Canon-McMillan, Central Valley, Knoch