Springdale prepares for trip to Moon to face No. 5 OLSH

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, November 1, 2017 | 7:15 PM

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The Springdale Dynamos are headed for the Moon.

Moon High School's Tiger Stadium, that is.

Twelfth-seeded Springdale will face No. 5 Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the WPIAL Class A playoff opener at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

OLSH plays its home games at Moon, and the ultimate goal of both teams is to return to University Boulevard at nearby Robert Morris for the finals Nov. 25.

But there's plenty of work to do between now and then as the Dynamos will be facing the co-champion of the Big Seven Conference.

Springdale continued its postseason persistency by finishing fourth in the rugged Eastern Conference. The Dynamos are in the WPIAL postseason for the 15th time in the past 16 seasons, including an Alle-Kiski Valley-best of 11 straight seasons from 2002-12.

By comparison, the Chargers are playoff neophytes. The school's football program began in 2010, and OLSH made the playoffs for the first time last year, dropping a 44-13 decision to Imani Christian.

Despite losing five starters on each side of the ball, the Dynamos compiled a 4-3 conference mark and were 5-5 overall under first-year coach Seth Napierkowski, who made his initial appearance at the WPIAL pairings meeting.

“It's great,” Napierkowski said of his first trip to Green Tree. “It's a mere formality now with the Internet and all the media. It's cool to be down here and see all these guys and get recognized for all our accomplishments.”

After losing its first two games this season, OLSH reeled off eight consecutive victories, including wins over Big Seven foe Rochester and perennial contender Carmichaels.

“I think we've made great strides in the last two years with the program,” OLSH second-year coach Dan Bradley said. “We lost last year in the first round, and this year we hope to go further. I don't know much about Springdale except that they do make the playoffs year in and year out.”

OLSH's playoff surge the past two seasons has been led by Bradley's son, Tyler, a junior quarterback who has passed for 2,211 yards this season and is nearing the 4,000-yard mark for his career.

Solid quarterbacking is part of the family tree. Tyler's uncle is Luke Getsy, former Steel Valley great who led the WPIAL in career passing when he graduated in 2001. Getsy is the wide receivers coach with the Green Bay Packers.

Richard Banks leads the Chargers in receiving with 47 catches for 674 yards and in rushing with 111 carries for 776 yards.

Coach Bradley and his team had playoff expectations all along.

“We're a pretty good football team,” Bradley said. “Once we got over some bumps early on in the season, we played pretty well.”

Napierkowski, who was quarterbacks coach for the Dynamos last year, knew he had the personnel to make a playoff run, despite the graduation losses.

“We had a great group of kids coming back,” Napierkowski said. “That made the transition a lot easier on myself, and we had continuity with a bunch of the coaches coming back.”

Springdale is known for its ground game, and 2017 is no different.

Senior Josh Harmon has 126 carries for 770 yards. Right behind him is Scott Landis with 113 attempts and 619 yards.

George Guido is a freelance writer.

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