Steel Valley upsets Apollo-Ridge to keep playoff hopes alive

By: George Guido
Friday, October 11, 2019 | 11:03 PM

Steel Valley isn’t ready to relinquish its WPIAL crown just yet.

The Ironmen kept their flickering playoff hopes alive Friday night with a 20-14 upset over Apollo-Ridge at William Campbell Stadium.

Junior quarterback Ronnell Lawrence scored on a 1-yard keeper with 6 minutes, 19 seconds left to break a 14-14 tie and give Steel Valley the victory.

The Ironmen (3-4, 2-3) have to defeat Summit Academy in its final Allegheny Conference game next Friday, then hope East Allegheny loses to Shady Side Academy and Valley.

After starting out 0-3, Steel Valley is coming on strong in the second half.

“We’ve been getting better. We struggled early,” Ironmen coach Ray Braszo. “We had to figure out our team a little bit. But this is a big win for us. We really needed this. It was a good win for our seniors on their night.”

Meanwhile, Apollo-Ridge, after clinching the playoffs last week, could have secured home field for the opening round of the postseason with a victory.

“We were flat offensively and defensively,” Vikings coach John Skiba said. “We’ve got to do a lot better job moving forward. We’re still working with a bunch of young kids that don’t know how to finish things.”

Apollo-Ridge (6-2, 4-2) has completed its conference season. The Vikings have to hope Shady Side Academy loses to either East Allegheny or Avonworth to start the playoffs at Owens Field.

Apollo-Ridge will play nonconference games at home against Freedom and Charleroi to round out the regular season.

Apollo-Ridge junior Logan Harmon bulled his way to 155 rushing yards in 24 attempts. He opened the scoring with a 1-yard burst to complete a 92-yard, 14-play drive early in the second quarter.

But Steel Valley answered as sophomore twin brothers NiJhay and NyZair Burt teamed up for a 59-yard scoring play. NiJhay took a pitchout, fumbled, picked up the ball, and by then NyZair was wide open on the right side for an easy touchdown. No Vikings were within 20 yards of NyZair.

The extra-point attempt was blocked, and Apollo-Ridge held on to a 7-6 lead.

Steel Valley took the lead as NiJyah caught a short pass to the left side, tiptoed along the sideline and sidestepped several Vikings defenders en route to the end zone on a 51-yard scoring play.

“We have a really young team,” Braszo said. “We didn’t have many kids back. We’ve had growing pains, but this (win) helps the program a lot and surely helps the coaches.”

Steel Valley was set to go in for another touchdown, but Connor Weigand recovered an Ironmen fumble inside the Vikings 1.

Apollo-Ridge tied the game on a 23-yard run by Harmon on the opening play of the fourth quarter, capping a 99-yard drive in nine plays. Harmon’s 31-yard run to the Steel Valley 42 was a key play to the drive.

“He never wears down,” Skiba said of Harmon. “He just keeps chugging away.”

Harmon has 1,102 ushing yards on the season.

Apollo-Ridge got the ball back with 45 seconds left at its 49, but lost the ball on downs.

Said Skiba: “We missed a couple of blocks there at the end. Obviously, we have to get better fast.”

Jake Fello passed for 114 yards for Apollo-Ridge; Lawrence 114 for Steel Valley.

Next week will be the first Vikings home game since Sept. 6.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Steel Valley