Tag: Woodland Hills

WPIAL Friday Night HighLights – Week Nine 2015

October 31, 2015

WOW! There was a lot of offense on the final Friday of the regular season. Some were great tune-ups for the upcoming high school football postseason. Other were wrapping up the season and going out with a blaze of glory. Whether the driving force coming into the game was a conference title, a home game, a playoff berth or just plain old civic and school color pride, here are some of the top performances on a night we could sprain our arm tipping our cap to all who deserved it. Miles Sanders - Woodland Hills

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Scholastic Notebook – 10/25/2015

October 25, 2015

The irony of it. Deer Lakes came into Friday night’s game with the leading rusher in the entire WPIAL this season Hunter Burns. When it ended, Apollo-Ridge had the top rusher ever in a WPIAL game. Duane Brown, a junior at Apollo-Ridge, put himself in the history books when he rushed for a WPIAL record 460 yards in a 56-35 victory over Deer Lakes. Brown was certainly a workhorse in the game, carrying the ball 47 times. Brown broke a 15-year-old WPIAL record. Connellsville’s Marcus Furman ran for 455 yards in a 2000 game. What’s funny is that Apollo-Ridge coach John Skiba and his team had no idea how many yards Brown had or that he had broken the WPIAL record until an announcer from your very own MSA Sports staff came on the field and told him after the game.

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WPIAL Friday Night HighLights – Week Eight 2015

October 24, 2015

What a night for high school football in District 7. The skies were clear and the temps above average for late October, some teams clinched conference titles while others earned home field advantage in Round One and others still earned the right to participate in the upcoming postseason. Plus it turned out to be a record setting night for one junior running back. All this and the real fireworks don't begin for another two weeks. Here are some of the top standouts from the eighth Friday of the WPIAL football season. Duane Brown - Apollo-Ridge

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Chicks Picks – Week 8

October 22, 2015

Welcome to Week 8 of the high school football season. This week, we officially made it to the future.  Wednesday, October 21, 2015 marked the date when Marty McFly and Doctor Emmett Brown traveled into the future in Back to the Future Part II.  After so much talk about which of the movie’s predictions came true, Chick’s Picks took a moment to reflect on what she was doing back in the days of when the movie was set.

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WPIAL Big Game Hunting – Week Eight – 10/21/2015

October 21, 2015

Week Eight arrives and we can smell the playoffs now. The post season party is just around the corner at the MSA World Headquarters, in fact pairings shows and medals are already making their appearances. But football is the biggie, the one where everyone shows up and Chix Picks prepares the fresh sushi bar. The Football pairing show is always likely to trigger a Schaasy and Mike Azadian argument about schools from Lawrence County versus schools from Allegheny County. Usually we have two people per classification and there is just enough sushi and just the right amount of seats to avoid problems. Next year though, six classifications for the first time, THAT could be a disaster at headquarters. Just another in the long list of reasons this particular reporter dislikes the move so much.

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WPIAL Friday Night HighLights – Week Seven – 2015

October 17, 2015

On the seventh Friday of the high school football season, there was a chill in the air throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania. Or maybe based on the below performances, there was a thrill in the air. Friday marked the start of the 'Stretch Run' of the 2015 campaign, where the pressure starts to mount over the final three weeks as we inch closer to the on-ramp to the Highway to Heinz...much like real life, where we hope that on-ramp is not closed due to construction. Anyway, here are those players that shined in victory on a mid-October eve. Ronnie Jones - Pittsburgh Central Catholic

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Scholastic Notebook – 10/16/2015

October 16, 2015

Aliquippa is the only school in the WPIAL to have four running backs rush for more than 4,000 yards in their careers. There will likely be one for the thumb by the end of the season. Aliquippa senior running back Kaezon Pugh went over 3,000 yards two weeks ago and now has 3,210. Barring injury, Pugh should get 4,000 this season. He has three regular-season games left and Aliquippa should play at least two playoff games. The Quips are undefeated and played in the WPIAL Class AA championship seven years in a row. What’s impressive about Pugh is his yards-per-carry average. It’s almost 10 for his career. Pugh has 3,210 yards on 324 carries (9.9 average).

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Chicks Picks – Week 5 – 2015

October 1, 2015

Welcome to Week 5 of the high school football season.  After missing out on last Friday night’s football action due to a scheduling conflict, Chick’s Picks came down with a nasty case of the somethings on Saturday.  When this bug continued to wreak havoc for a few days, Chick’s Picks decided it was time to seek help from the good doctor.  At the exam, Chick’s Picks began explaining her symptoms to the doc.  He seemed as bewildered as she was, unable to pinpoint the cause of the illness.  The doc continued his questioning though, “Chick’s Picks, give me a timeline of your last few days before the illness hit you.”

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Scholastic Notebook – 09/25/2015

September 25, 2015

It’s a Zane-y world out there in WPIAL football so far this season. After the first three weeks of the season, Zane Dudek is atop the WPIAL in rushing yards – and also points scored. Dudek is a 5-foot-10, 180-pound junior running back at Armstrong High School. This is Armstrong’s first year of existence after Ford City and Kittanning merged to form Armstrong. Dudek is certainly bringing some attention to the Riverhawks. Dudek has rushed for 736 yards on 67 carries, an average of 10.9 yards a carry. No other WPIAL running back has 600 yards rushing. Dudek is tied for the scoring lead with Beth-Center’s Tony Welsh at 72 points.

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Scholastic Notebook – 09/18/2015

September 18, 2015

To the PIAA, more is better. At least in football. The landscape of Pennsylvania football – and the WPIAL – might be changing real soon. The change will be significant. On Wednesday, the PIAA strategic planning committee and the PIAA football committee voted to recommend to the PIAA board of directors that football in Pennsylvania go to six classifications, starting next year. It was a noteworthy vote because the PIAA board of directors usually – but not always – does what the strategic planning committee recommends. The PIAA board has already passed this 6A idea twice and needs to pass it only one more time Oct. 19 for it to go into effect for the 2016-17 school year.

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