Trib HSSN football player of the week for Oct. 26, 2025

By: Don Rebel
Sunday, October 26, 2025 | 10:14 PM

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Trib HSSN football player of the week – Bobby Fadden

School – Mohawk

Class – Senior

Height/Weight – 6-foot-1, 170 pounds

Positions – Quarterback, defensive back

#Earned – One month ago, Mohawk had faded to the back of the pack in the 2A Midwestern Athletic Conference with four straight losses. However after a split of conference games with a win against Union and a loss to New Brighton, the Warriors righted the ship with an upset of conference champion Western Beaver and a shutout of Freedom. Heading into a Week 9 battle at Riverside, senior quarterback Bobby Fadden helped to make sure the boys of Bessemer would not be left out of the district postseason. Fadden completed 15 of 18 passes for 218 yards and three touchdown tosses to Joey Nail of 6, 12 and 12 yards, plus he rushed for 52 yards and touchdowns of 1 and 2 yards as the Warriors clinched third place and a playoff berth with a victory over the Panthers, 35-24.

Background – Fadden accomplished something last week that only one other player has done in WPIAL history. Fadden started his Mohawk career as a wide receiver as a freshman and sophomore, then the past two seasons, he has been the Warriors quarterback. He has surpassed 1,000 career yards in receiving, running and passing. He has 1,404 yards in receptions, 1,114 yards in rushing and now 3,033 yards throwing the ball. Darius Wise, who graduated from Beaver in 2017, was the first to accomplish this triple crown. This season, Fadden has thrown for 1,237 yards and 12 touchdowns, and he is second on the team in rushing with 474 yards on the ground and nine touchdowns. Fadden is a five-sport athlete, playing golf and football in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball and track in the spring. Last month, Fadden finished 28th overall in the 2025 WPIAL Class 2A boys individual golf championships with an opening-round 83 and a final round of 86 for a total of 169. Fadden isn’t sure what college he will attend next year, but he plans to major in business.

What coach says – “I have been watching Bobby have big-time performances for four years now,” Mohawk coach Tim McCutcheon said. “We don’t take it for granted, but it was Bobby being Bobby for this past Friday. Specifically, I would say the completion percentage of 83%, but he also threw three touchdowns, ran for two and had one 2-point conversion as well. Defensively, he had an interception and was in the top couple in tackles.

“I typically would answer that nothing surprises me about Bobby, but that stat is unreal,” McCutcheon said about Fadden hitting 1,000 career yards in passing, rushing and receiving. “Considering the number of big-time athletes that have come through the WPIAL, including big-time college and NFL players, it is surprising and impressive. It speaks to his versatility athleticism and compete level. It also speaks to his unselfishness as an athlete as he did not blink when we needed to move him from receiver to quarterback to make us a better team. He embraced the challenge and always puts the team first.

“Three thousand yards is impressive for any quarterback in two years. His improvement stems back to the fact that he wants to be the best and he wants to win. Specific to this season, we had two receivers move up to more important roles in our passing game that he had to jell with and learn to trust to go along with our tight end who he has connected well with for the last two years. He’s also improved in trusting his timing to go along with his footwork, which has helped him connect with the other receivers.

“Well, Bobby doesn’t blink, and when you’re the captain quarterback and leader, ‘doesn’t blink’ is a big deal. So he and the rest of the team showed up ready to practice every week and never really showed any negative emotion. All of our losses came within the last two minutes of the game with us, having an opportunity to win all of them. That and losing our feature back and inside linebacker were certainly difficult for the team, and I do believe it impacted us initially but you couldn’t tell by reading Bobby.

“He’s a great human being that is fun to be around. He spends a lot of time with all of the coaches and helps the kids with the most unfortunate circumstances in the school. He makes everyone feel appreciated.”

WPIAL Week 9 Honorable Mentions

Giovanni Rothrauff – Norwin

A week after Norwin quarterback Tristyn Tavares received honorable mention, his offensive backfield mate gets some love from Week 9. Junior running back Rothrauff set a school record with 265 yards rushing on a workmanlike 32 carries as Norwin won a Class 6A showdown at home against Mt. Lebanon to secure third place and a playoff berth with a victory over Mt. Lebanon, 14-7. Rothrauff has rushed for 1,424 yards this season on 237 totes.

Jaydon Oliver – Armstrong

It was not a “win and you’re in” game for Armstrong, but it knew a victory at home in Week 9 would allow it to finish no lower than fourth place in the 5A Big East, so it would be on the playoff bubble. River Hawks junior quarterback Oliver was near perfect as he connected on 17 of this 18 passes for 256 yards and two touchdowns on tosses of 42 and 39 yards as Armstrong cruised past Franklin Regional, 41-14. On Saturday, the Hawks flew into the playoffs as a wild card.

Kymarr Freeman – Seton LaSalle

One of the big games in Week 9 was the 2A game of the Century for the conference championship between Washington and Seton LaSalle at Dormont Stadium. The Rebels secured a victory thanks in part to the efforts of sophomore running back Freeman, who sliced up the Little Prexies defense for 257 yards on 26 carries to go along with bookend touchdown runs of 5 yards to begin the scoring and 3 yards to help wrap up a second straight conference crown 27-14.

Malachi Peak – California

In Week 9, the leading rusher for California put on a peak performance in helping his team secure its spot at the peak of the Class A Tri-County South Conference. Trojans senior Malachi Peak rushed for 270 yards on 32 carries for an average of 8.5. He ended four of those runs in the end zone on carries of 9, 4, 10 and 16 yards as the Trojans clinched the conference championship outright with a victory at 2024 Tri-County South winner Jefferson-Morgan, 36-14.

2025 HSSN Players of the Week

Week 8 – Tyler Eber, Thomas Jefferson

Week 7 – Matt Sieg, Fort Cherry

Week 6 – Marino Graham, New Castle

Week 5 – Jonah Williamson, Trinity

Week 4 – David Dennison, Bethel Park

Week 3 – Scoop Smith, Woodland Hills

Week 2 – Joey Felitsky and Logan Schade, North Catholic

Week 1 – James “BooBoo” Armstrong, Hopewell

Week Zero – Gabriel Jenkins, Imani Christian

Tags: Mohawk