WPIAL Saturday’s Scholastic Starz

By: Bruce Markey
Sunday, September 13, 2015 | 10:04 AM

While Mother Nature was raining steady on Western Pennsylvania, several district high school football teams were reigning points on the scoreboard. While Mother Nature showed some mercy with downpours becoming light trickles before tapering off, three of the five WPIAL football winners on Saturday invoked the mercy rule on their opponents. While we show no love to Mother Nature here, we do show some love for those players who overcame the wet conditions to slip and slide their way to victory.

Lionel Deanes – Seton-LaSalle

Get to know the name because Deanes means business. The super sophomore from Seton-LaSalle was a one man wrecking crew in the demolishment of South Allegheny Saturday night in a Class AA Century Conference battle of the unbeaten at Peters Township High School. Deanes rushed for 295 yards on only 9 carries while scoring three touchdowns on runs of 68, 13 and 50 yards…all in the first half as the Rebels routed the Gladiators 49-6.  

Jason Dambach – Riverside

While the Riverside football team is a close knit group that if off to a 2-0 start in 2015, their senior quarterback did his best to make the second victory a family affair. Jason Dambach hit on 13 of 23 passes for 284 yards and five touchdowns, three of which were thrown to sophomore receiver and younger brother Austin Dambach in a 49-0 rout of the host Western Beaver Golden Beavers in the Panthers Class A Big 7 Conference opener.

Noah Hamlin – Clairton

On a day when lots of rain was the backdrop, it only makes sense that Noah was one of the stars on the field. While we tip our cap to Clairton QB Aaron Matthews, who threw for over 300 yards and RB’s Harrison Dreher and Lamont Wade who each rushed for over 100 yards, junior receiver Noah Hamlin earns the top star with six catches for 189 yards and three touchdowns in the Bears 72-6 Class A Eastern Conference thumping of the host Wilkinsburg Tigers.

Hunter Waskin – Shenango

Neshannock has been a dominant force not only in the Class A Big 7 Conference the last three years, but also overall in the classification with three straight Final Four trips. However county rival Shenango is trying to ‘hunt’ them down and take over their conference crown. Hunter Waskin broke a scoreless tie through two quarters by returning the opening kickoff in the second half 78-yards in helping the host Wildcats upset the Lancers 20-12 in a Single-A dandy.

Amaan Bridgett – Bishop Canevin

After losing their season opener in a non-conference game last week, Bishop Canevin had another Class A non-conference tune-up Saturday and did not want to fall to 0-2 before their Black Hill Conference opener next week. So Amaan Bridgett stepped up to make sure that wouldn’t happen with 157 yards rushing and book-end touchdowns in a 24-point first half in leading the Crusaders to a 31-6 triumph over the visiting Union Scotties.

Tags: Bishop Canevin, Clairton