Trib HSSN high school football team of the week for 2024 Week 2

By: Don Rebel
Monday, September 9, 2024 | 7:59 PM

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Trib HSSN football team of the week – Jefferson-Morgan Rockets

Coach: Shane Ziats (3rd season)

Result: Jefferson-Morgan 49, Burgettstown 14

Record: 3-0

#Earned: The Jefferson-Morgan football pot is now starting to boil. Following years of tepid to outright cold water, the Rockets are taking off and leaving their struggling ways in the rearview mirror. Shane Ziats and his staff have helped turn the culture around as Jefferson-Morgan went from a one-win to a four-win team in his first year as head coach in 2022. Then last fall, the program finished in third place in the Class A Tri-County South Conference to clinch its first football playoff berth in 11 years. Now the Rockets are averaging nearly 40 points per game in three nonconference wins over Chartiers-Houston (2-1), Waynesburg (2-1) and Burgettstown (1-1) this past Friday, winning by five scores.

Statistical standouts: Senior quarterback Huston Guesman has been a big part of scoring 118 points in three games. He entered Week 1 with 298 yards passing and 176 yards on the ground with five scoring tosses and three touchdown runs. Against the Blue Devils in Week 2, Guseman connected on 6 of 11 passes for 185 yards and four touchdown passes, two to junior wide receiver Deakyn Dehoet and one each to senior wideouts Ryan Baker and Johnny Gilbert. Guseman also scored on runs of 73 and 20 yards while Dehoet returned a punt 74 yards for a score. Junior running back John Woodward has enjoyed success toting the ball behind an offensive line that had some questions coming into the year but have answered most of them positively a third of the way through the regular season.

Last year: The Rockets entered the 2023 season owning the second-longest football playoff drought among current WPIAL teams at 11 years in a row. Things did not look great after the team lost its conference opener to fall to 1-3 overall, but five wins in its last six Tri-County South Conference games sealed the deal on third place and a WPIAL playoff berth. The Rockets fizzled in the postseason with a loss to eventual champion Fort Cherry in the opening round, but Ziats believes that taste of the playoffs is a big part of the team’s confidence and early success here in the 2024 campaign.

Remember when: Fifty years ago this fall, Jefferson-Morgan captured its second straight and most recent WPIAL football championship. The Rockets were outstanding on defense as they shut out Midland, 20-0, to capture a second straight WPIAL Class B title. The Jefferson-Morgan defense held Midland to minus-24 yards rushing and forced five turnovers with two of them returned for scores. Kevin Martin returned a pick 12 yards for a score and Jon Culp returned an interception 85 yards for the game’s final touchdown. A year earlier in the 1973 title game, Jefferson-Morgan rolled past Western Beaver, 35-6. The last time Jefferson-Morgan won the Tri-County South Conference was in 2006 when it finished tied with Monessen and California. The last time the Rockets won the conference title outright was 35 years ago in 1989.

Week 2 Honorable Mention

Ringgold Rams

Ringgold entered the new season with a burden of a two-plus year losing streak. It was nearly tossed to the side in Week 1, but now all the losing talk is a memory. For the first time since Sept. 24, 2021, the Rams were victorious as they rallied for 14 points in the fourth quarter and then held on to edge host Yough, 21-19. The win ended the longest current losing streak in the WPIAL at 27.

Chartiers Valley Colts

In Week Zero, Chartiers Valley was shut out by South Fayette, 26-0. A week ago, the Colts’ game against West Allegheny was postponed, so they entered their Week 2 game at Indiana still looking for their first points of the new season. Once they turned the offensive faucet on, the points came flooding out. Junior running back Tayshaun Lewis rushed for 147 yards on nine carries with three touchdowns on runs of 54, 50 and 18 yards as the Colts galloped to 48 first-half points on their way to a runaway win, 62-0.

South Allegheny Gladiators

South Allegheny won its first game of the 2023 season and then lost its final nine. However, the feeling of one and done is long gone on this year’s Gladiators squad. SA senior quarterback Ryan Cortes was 14 of 22 passing for 142 yards and three touchdowns while senior running back Cam Epps rushed for 108 yards on only eight carries as South Allegheny build up a 28-0 lead at the half and went on to beat Carlynton, 37-13, to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 1977.

2024 HSSN Teams of the Week

Week 1 – Bethel Park Black Hawks

Week Zero – Blackhawk Cougars

Tags: Jefferson-Morgan