High school football: Bishop Canevin brings high-flying offense to Shady Side Academy
Bishop Canevin football coach Rod Steele had no plans to keep quarterback Brady Wagner under wraps during the team’s season-opener against University Prep on Aug. 28.
But when the Crusaders stormed off to a huge first-quarter lead on the way to a 40-0 victory, Steele didn’t have a chance to show what Wagner was capable of doing.
The 6-foot-2, 180-pound senior signal caller got that chance last week against Neshannock, and he showed plenty.
Wagner completed 20 of 27 passes for 379 yards and four touchdowns and ran for another score as Bishop Canevin cruised to a 55-7 win.
Wagner and Co. will look to make it three in a row to start the season when they take on unbeaten (2-0) Shady Side Academy Friday night at SSA Farrell Stadium in Fox Chapel in one of seven games involving West Hills schools.
In other games Friday, Brownsville visits Carlynton, Cornell hosts Beaver Falls, Montour treks to South Fayette, Moon Area entertains Penn-Trafford at Robert Morris University’s Joe Walton Stadium, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart travels to meet Blackhawk and Sto-Rox takes on visiting Summit Academy. All games are scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m.
In last week’s win over Neshannock, Wagner connected with Lamier Wade on three of his four scoring passes – 61, 49 and 38 yards – and then hit Aaron Scott on a 7-yard touchdown in the third quarter. Wagner’s 7-yard touchdown run ignited the rout in the first quarter.
Steele said the goal was to get Wagner more involved against Neshannock because he had few opportunities in the opener.
“We got out in front so fast – the game was out of hand in the first quarter,” he said. “We didn’t need to throw the ball. Coming into (Neshannock) we wanted to stay balanced and get (Wagner) going. A lot of the things they were doing to us, they were challenging us to want to throw the ball.”
Neshannock got its wish. “You want to get your quarterback into a rhythm,” Steele said. “We let him get back and let him go. We wanted to be more balanced between running and throwing, and I thought we were pretty balanced.”
Steele is in his second year as Bishop Canevin’s head coach and he said the difference between this year and last year is significant.
“Last year we didn’t come in until June, so we were so far behind,” he said. “Now we have a year under our belt and the kids have a much better understanding of what we want to do. They’re hearing it and knowing what it means. Being experienced in the system has helped.”
Steele said that experience and familiarity has allowed his players to play freely and understand how to execute their assignments.
“We had a great offseason, a great winter, a great spring and a great preseason,” Steele said. “Now it’s translating on the field. The kids are playing at a high level – they’re playing fast, playing physical. There are still some things we’d like to clean up, but every coach can say that right now.”
The Crusaders are playing at a high level without two of their most potent weapons. Neuval Bone III, who rushed for 122 yards and three touchdowns in the season opener, sustained an injury early in last week’s game and Myontae Mott, who ran for over 1,000 yards last year, has been out with an injury since preseason camp.
“Those are two exceptional backs,” Steele said of that tandem. “They can break away from anywhere on the field and they’re experienced – they’ve played in some big games.”
Steele said Bone could have returned in last week’s game but there was no sense in rushing him back. The same goes for Mott.
“We’re hoping to have a long season where those two could be a great one-two along with Alex Kirk and Dennis Jackson,” Steele said. “We’re trying to make sure (Mott) is recovered to where he can come out and perform at the level he wants to perform at.”
Summit Academy (0-2) vs. Sto-Rox (1-1)
The Vikings matched their victory total from a year ago in their second game of the season, beating Rochester, 36-28, a week after dropping their opener to Cornell, 28-6.
Karic Wills rushed for 123 yards and a touchdown for Sto-Rox, and also hauled in a 40-yard scoring pass from Zaahkir Cox in the win over Rochester last week.
Ramir Valentino contributed 102 yards rushing on 15 attempts and Cox added to the ground game with 95 yards on 10 carries, and he also returned an interception for a score.
Summit Academy dropped its opener, 71-8, to Knoch and fell 14-6 to Springdale last week.
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (0-2) vs. Blackhawk (2-0)
The Chargers picked a bad time to run into the Cougars, as they’re off to their first 2-0 start in eight years. Blackhawk, which operates out of the Wing-T, has put up 96 points in its two wins, beating Beaver Falls, 41-20, in the season opener and whipping Beaver Area, 55-40, last week.
Brayden McCarthy is the key to Blackhawk’s offense, as he rushed for 205 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries last week. Ryan Prisuta chipped in 168 yards rushing on just nine attempts and also scored a touchdown. Quarterback Jack Chevalier has thrown for a pair of touchdowns in each of the first two games.
OLSH’s J.J. Hayden completed 10 of 16 passes for 93 yards and was intercepted twice in his team’s 35-0 loss to Belle Vernon. Hayden also ran for 46 yards on seven attempts.
Penn-Trafford (2-0) vs. Moon Area (0-1)
The Tigers, who are hosting the game at Robert Morris University’s Joe Walton Stadium, are coming off an unintended bye week after seeing their game with Bethel Park washed out and declared no contest. That left Moon with a 0-1 record after its 28-25 season-opening loss to Montour.
Penn-Trafford beat Hempfield, 51-29, last week after opening the season with a 31-7 triumph over Norwin. Nick Ponko caught four touchdown passes in the win over Hempfield and totaled six receptions for 83 yards. Quarterback Ben Grabowski rushed for 125 yards and threw for 131 last week.
Savario Vandetti provided two big plays for Moon in its loss to Montour, hauling in a 65-yard touchdown pass and returning a punt 80 yards for a score. Dionte Henry rushed for 75 yards in 15 attempts and completed 6 of 14 passes for 107 yards but was intercepted three times. Backup Richie McMullen was 3 for 7 for 95 yards, including the touchdown pass to Vandetti.
Montour (2-0) vs. South Fayette (2-0)
The Spartans upended highly regarded and top-ranked McKeesport, 28-17, last week to become No. 1 among Class 4A schools. That’s the second straight week the Spartans have scored 28 points, and they needed just about all of them to beat Moon in the opener, 28-25.
Brandon Bennett continued his fine play on both sides of the ball for Montour as he rushed for 73 yards and two touchdowns and completed 5 of 8 passes for 69 yards. On defense, the rangy junior picked off three passes.
Montour also got a huge defensive play from Zander Stern, who returned a fumble 17 yards for a score. Abram Kolodynski blew up the play in the backfield and forced an errant pitchout that wound up in Stern's hands.
South Fayette opened its season with a 34-21 win over West Mifflin, then beat Peters Township, 14-0, last week. Aayden Wright rushed for 185 yards on 24 carries and a touchdown in the win over Peters while Braeden Plasko added 74 yards on the ground.
Beaver Falls (0-1) vs. Cornell (2-0)
The Raiders opened the season with a 28-6 win over Sto-Rox and then followed that with a 21-9 victory over Leechburg. Beaver Falls had its game with Shenango postponed last week after dropping its season opener the previous week to Blackhawk, 41-20.
Jeremiah Dent rushed for a pair of touchdowns from 28 and 12 yards out and Chris Ford added a 22-yard touchdown run in Cornell’s win over Leechburg.
On the season, Dent has rushed for 185 yards and four touchdowns, followed by Ford with 163 yards rushing and two touchdowns and Daveon Collier 125 yards rushing on 21 attempts.
Collier also has completed 14 of 26 passes for 183 yards and a touchdown and has been intercepted once so far this year.
Brownsville (0-2) vs. Carlynton (1-1)
The Cougars are coming off a 47-12 loss to Charleroi while Brownsville was shellacked, 50-6, by West Greene a week after being blanked by Uniontown, 47-0.
Carlynton’s Maddox Horrell completed 11 of 26 passes for 147 yards in last week’s defeat and also was intercepted four times. He had a hand in the Cougars’ lone score, a 53-yard touchdown pass to Jaesean Nembhard. A week earlier, in a 20-18 win over Carrick, Horrell threw for 243 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winner to Dameer Hatcher with 1 minute to play.
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