High school football: Montour-McKeesport one of WPIAL’s top matchups
One of the WPIAL’s top players will visit Thomas J. Birko Memorial Stadium Friday night when McKeesport takes on host Montour in a battle of premier Class 4A football programs.
But Montour coach Lou Cerro said the Tigers are much more than just Kemon Spell, the Georgia recruit who has rushed for more than 4,000 yards and scored nearly 70 touchdowns in a little over three years.
“He’s one of the best running backs I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Cerro said of Spell, who carried just four times in McKeesport’s 61-0 season-opening shellacking of Brashear last week but found the end zone three times on runs of 8, 13 and 38 yards.
“But he’s not their whole team.”
Cerro pointed to Javien Robinson, a senior wide receiver/defensive back and a South Carolina commit, as another weapon the Spartans will need to contend with. Robinson had one catch last week – and it went for a 35-yard touchdown.
“Their line is also aggressive,” Cerro said of the Tigers. “They do a lot of good things.
“It’ll be a good matchup for both teams.”
The Montour-McKeesport game, which kicks off at 7 p.m., is one of six matchups involving West Hills teams Friday night. In other games:
- Bishop Canevin plays Neshannock at Fox Chapel;
- Carlynton travels to Charleroi;
- Cornell hosts Leechburg;
- Our Lady of the Sacred Heart entertains Belle Vernon at Quaker Valley; and
- Sto-Rox treks to Rochester
Moon Area was scheduled to play at Bethel Park Thursday night, but the game was canceled because of weather issues. The game will go down as no contest and will not be rescheduled.
Montour is coming off a 28-25 season-opening victory over Moon last week in a game that saw a plethora of penalty flags and stoppages in play due to players cramping – including Montour quarterback Brandon Bennett.
But Bennett remained upright long enough to inflict major damage on the Tigers, running for two touchdowns, passing for a third and intercepting a pair of passes on defense. He rolled up nearly 300 yards of total offense on the night – 188 through the air and 109 on the ground -- and the Spartans needed all of them to hold off Moon.
Montour also got a strong game from Zander Stern, who caught a 76-yard touchdown pass from Bennett and finished with seven catches for 172 yards.
Still, the Spartans were whistled for 147 penalty yards on 15 infractions, and those numbers did not set well with Cerro.
“We have to cut down on those, obviously,” he said. "But those are things you can correct.”
Cerro said he was particularly upset with the personal foul calls. “Our kids can’t do that,” he said. “Things like holding penalties, those are different. But you can’t have personal fouls.”
Cerro said he was pleased with the way his players executed, particularly in the first half. The second half saw more cramping and that gave the Spartans a bit of a sloppy look.
“We have to make sure we’re in better condition this week, and I think we will be,” Cerro said.
He said the high temperatures that have prevailed much of this week might actually help his team be in better condition for Friday’s matchup with McKeesport.
Cerro said figuring out the key to Friday’s game isn’t overly complicated.
“We need to stay away from penalties,” he said, “and do the right things when we’re supposed to do the right things.”
In other matchups, Bishop Canevin is coming off a 40-0 whipping of University Prep in a game the Crusaders led 33-0 before the end of the first quarter. Neuval Bone III rushed for 122 yards and three touchdowns while Alex Kirk scored a pair of first-quarter touchdowns, including a 63-yard punt return.
Bone’s touchdowns came on runs of 25, 28 and 45 yards.
Neshannock pulled out a 14-7 victory over Laurel in its season-opener.
Carlynton took Carrick down to the wire before posting a 20-18 win. Maddox Horrell threw for 243 yards and three touchdowns, the last one a 25-yard completion to Dameer Hatcher with 1 minute to play for the win.
Dewayne Fisher caught six of Horrell’s passes for 94 yards while Justin Berger and Justin Williams each caught a touchdown pass from Horrell.
Charleroi dropped its season opener, 36-14, to Monessen.
Cornell will bring a 1-0 record into its game against Leechburg, as the Raiders downed Sto-Rox 28-6.
Jerimiah Dent ran for a pair of touchdowns and Chris Ford added one score and 123 yards rushing on just 11 carries to lead Cornell to its win. Daveon Collier also teamed with DJ Stuckey on a 21-yard touchdown pass for the Raiders.
Leechburg dropped its season opener, 20-13, to Carmichaels last week.
OLSH fell in its first game, 30-14, to South Side Academy in a game that the Chargers trailed just 12-7 at halftime.
Jamire Samuels scored on a 4-yard touchdown run for OLSH and Christian Bush added a 10-yard TD run. Samuels rushed for 52 yards on 14 carries and quarterback J.J. Hayden completed 7-of-18 passes for 69 yards.
Belle Vernon also came up short in its season opener, falling 34-6 to Thomas Jefferson.
Sto-Rox found the end zone just once in its loss to Cornell, with Karic Wills scoring on a 5-yard touchdown with less than three minutes to play in the game.
Rochester lost in its season debut, 21-8, to Cambridge Springs.
Leave a Reply