After getting into the win column for the first time last week, Bishop Canevin will have its collective hands full Saturday in going after its second victory.
The unbeaten Laurel Spartans will bring a 3-0 record to Dormont Stadium at 7 p.m. to take on the Crusaders in a WPIAL nonconference football matchup.
That’s one of seven games on tap this week involving West Hills high schools. In other games, Moon visits West Allegheny, Montour travels to take on Knoch, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart hosts South Allegheny, Sto-Rox entertains Keystone Oaks, Carlynton treks to Apollo-Ridge and Cornell takes on Burgettstown at home. All six of those games will be played at 7 p.m. Friday.
Laurel hasn’t had much of a challenge so far on the young season. The Spartans opened with a 43-14 victory over Ellwood City, followed that with a 36-6 whipping of Mohawk and then blanked Riverside, 43-0, last week.
Bishop Canevin dropped its first two outings of the season, losing 35-28 to Clarkson North of Ontario, Canada, and 22-7 to Seton La Salle before giving new coach Rod Steele his first victory at the school, 21-6, last week over Steel Valley.
The win was particularly sweet for Steele, as he coached at Steel Valley for nine years and still lives in the school district – “right by the stadium,” as he puts it.
“I’m familiar with those kids and their families,” Steele said of the Ironmen. I have a lot of respect for the district, for their kids and their coaches. We knew it would be a tough task because when you play Steel Valley, it’s always going to be a challenge.
“But our kids showed up and played well all game. We had a good week of preparation and it showed Friday night.”
Bishop Canevin knew it had to at least slow down Steel Valley’s Da’Ron Barksdale, who entered the game as the WPIAL’s leading rusher with 268 yards. As it turned out, Barksdale finished with 101 rushing yards on 18 carries.
“It all starts and ends with him,” Steele said of Barksdale. “He’s the guy – there’s no mistaking that. We knew we had to tackle him in order for us to have a chance.
“I thought the defense did a great job. The week before, we had limited touches on offense but this time, our defense was able to get off the field and get the ball back for us.”
As for Laurel, Steele said the Spartans are a well-balanced, well-coached team.
“You can tell they’re a disciplined team,” he said. “They have an athletic quarterback. They like to run the football, but they like to throw, too. We have to come up with another great effort.”
In the win over Steele Valley, Brady Wagner completed 12 of 25 passes for 97 yards and a pair of touchdowns for Bishop Canevin. He connected on an 18-yard scoring pass to Damar Olds and a 13-yard touchdown toss to Myontae Mott.
Mott, meanwhile, rushed for 148 yards on just eight carries and added a touchdown on the ground to go with his TD reception.
Laurel used a bruising ground game, rushing for 244 yards on 38 attempts, in blanking Riverview last week. Five players rushed for at least 30 yards for the Spartans. Quarterback Luca Santini completed 6 of 11 passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns, both of which went to Kolton Carlson, on throws of 19 and 16 yards. Carlson also scored on a 23-yard run.
Moon Area (2-1) at West Allegheny (1-1)
The Tigers are coming off a heart-wrenching defeat at the hands of Penn-Trafford last week, as the Warriors pulled out a 25-24 victory on Nate Desmond’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Landyn Stikkel with just 6.8 seconds left in the game. Moon led by 12 points with 6 minutes to play but could not hold on.
The Tigers now know what it’s like to win and lose in the closing seconds, as they posted a similar win over Trinity, 14-13, in the season-opener before pounding Montour the following week.
Andrew Cross connected with Savario Vandetti on a touchdown pass last week and Braeden Stuart ran for a short touchdown and also blocked a punt and returned it for a score for the Tigers. Moon also blocked a pair of extra points.
Daiveon Taylor registered two sacks, five tackles for loss and forced a fumble for the Tigers.
West Allegheny is coming off a 65-7 thrashing of McGuffey. Donovan O’Connor completed 7 of 8 passes for 107 yards and two touchdowns and rushed twice for 117 yards and a score for the Indians.
Montour (2-1) at Knoch (0-3)
The Spartans rebounded from a 41-13 defeat at the hands of Moon in the season’s second game by outlasting Trinity, 35-27, last week. Knoch, meanwhile, fell to 0-3 with a 20-18 loss to Fox Chapel.
Montour quarterback Brandon Bennett threw for two touchdowns — a 70-yarder to Zander Stern and a 12-yarder to Dom Baron — and ran for another to lead the Spartans. Bennett completed 5 of 11 passes for 131 yards.
Workhorse Caden Halajcio carried 24 times for 164 yards and one touchdown for Montour. His score put the Spartans on top 35-21, but they had to hold off a Trinity drive in the last three minutes to secure the win.
The Spartans dodged two other bullets late in the first half when they came up with a pair of end zone interceptions — one by Baron and one by Nick Sicilia.
Burgettstown (1-1) at Cornell (2-1)
The Raiders are coming off a 35-21 victory over Riverview in a game that saw Khylil Johnson and quarterback M.J. Stuckey shine.
Johnson rushed for 87 yards on 15 carries and two touchdowns and also caught four passes for 132 yards and a touchdown. Stuckey went 13-of-18 for 251 yards, including a 91-yard TD pass to Johnson, and rushed for 39 yards.
Isaiah Dawson caught four passes for 49 yards, including a 9-yard touchdown.
Burgettstown defeated Bentworth 23-20 and lost 26-10 to Jefferson-Morgan.
South Allegheny (3-0) at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (1-2)
The Gladiators have outscored their two most recent opponents 102-6 in improving to 3-0. Their last win came by a 53-0 count over Carlynton in a game in which they led 41-0 at halftime.
South Allegheny rolled up 380 yards in that win.
OLSH opened the season with a 27-0 win over Rochester but then was blanked 40-0 by Fort Cherry before losing 39-7 to Seton LaSalle last week.
The Chargers had trouble getting untracked offensively against the Rebels, managing just 40 yards through the air and 10 yards on the ground. DeMar Chatfield was OLSH’s leading rusher with 24 yards on four carries.
The Chargers used three quarterbacks and they combined to complete just 5 of 14 passes.
Carlynton (1-2) at Apollo-Ridge (1-2)
The Cougars opened the season by defeating Carrick, 20-12, then lost a tough 7-6 decision to Avella before falling 53-0 to South Allegheny.
The Gladiators limited Carlynton quarterback Maddox Horrell to one completion in 10 attempts for 35 yards and sacked him seven times for minus-40 yards. Cougar running backs Justin Berger and Ashton Donlin combined to rush for just 18 yards on 13 attempts.
Apollo-Ridge led Greensburg Central Catholic 16-7 at halftime last week but was outscored 28-0 in the second half in a 35-16 loss. Vikings quarterback Alex Clawson threw for 156 yards and rushed for 57 in the loss.
Keystone Oaks (0-3) at Sto-Rox (0-3)
The Vikings fell 41-0 to Brentwood last week after opening the season with a 48-6 defeat at the hands of South Side and then following that with a 38-20 loss to Carmichaels.
Keystone Oaks dropped its season opener to Deer Lakes, 23-7, then lost 20-13 to Quaker Valley and 27-14 to South Park.
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