Two West Hills neighbors will square off in an early-season showdown Friday night, Aug. 29, as host Montour entertains Moon Area in a 7 p.m. non-section football matchup at Thomas J. Birko Memorial Stadium.
The Montour-Moon tussle will be one of four on the night Friday involving West Hills area teams.
In other Friday games, Carlynton will host Avella, Cornell travels to California (Pa.), Sto-Rox visits Carmichaels and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart takes on visiting Fort Cherry.
All games will start at 7 p.m.
At 7 p.m. Saturday, Bishop Canevin will host Seton LaSalle.
Montour and Moon both are coming off close wins in their respective Week 0 season openers.
Caden Halajcio’s 12-yard touchdown run with a little over 5 minutes to play helped Montour snap a 20-20 tie and claim a 27-20 victory over Central Valley.
Moon, meanwhile, needed a 45-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Cross to Sevi Vandetti with 20 seconds to play in the game to help the Tigers tie the score and Evan Senkevich’s PAT boot was the difference in a 14-13 win over Trinity.
While Moon depends on Cross, a third-year starter, to trigger the offense, Montour rode behind sophomore starter Brandon Bennett to engineer the win over Central Valley.
Bennett completed 10 of 21 passes for 211 yards and one interception. Zander Stern caught five passes for 69 yards, including a touchdown, and added a pick-six for touchdown on defense.
Bennett also ran for score and Montour got 82 yards rushing from Halajcio.
Cross completed 10 of 20 passes for 108 yards, including the touchdown to Vandetti, who caught three passes for 48 yards.
Moon had trouble on the ground, rushing for just 47 yards while giving up 220 to the Hillers.
Avella at Carlynton
The Cougars used Justin Berger’s 4-yard touchdown run with a little over 2 minutes to play to snap a 12-12 tie and beat Carrick last week. Berger ran for a 5-yard touchdown earlier in the game and Maddox Horrell added a 5-yard TD run as well for Carlynton.
Horrell completed 8 of 13 passes for 72 yards in the win.
Avella opened its season by thumping Mapletown, 41-6, last week.
Cornell at California
M.J. Stuckey passed for 77 yards and three touchdowns as the Raiders kicked off their season by defeating Brashear 35-23. Isaiah Dawson, Latae Littlejohn and Terrance Collington each caught a touchdown pass in the win and Collington also ran for two scores.
Khylil Johnson rushed for 150 yards for the Raiders and Collington ran for 64 yards and caught two passes for 41 yards.
California opened its season with a 42-14 victory over Serra Catholic.
Fort Cherry at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
The Chargers piled up 317 yards rushing to pound out a 27-0 victory over Rochester in their season opener last week.
Jamire Samuels rushed for 101 yards and two touchdowns while Prentice Organ ran for 104 yards and a touchdown.
Christian Bush also ran for a touchdown for OLSH while quarterbacks Nehemiah Ichimura and J.J. Hayden combined for 51 yards passing.
Fort Cherry, the two-time defending WPIAL champion, opened its season with a 49-6 win over Northgate. The Rangers are led by Matt Sieg, who won the Willie Thrower Award and Black Hills Conference Player of the Year award in 2024.
Sieg, who is bound for Penn State, is one of only two players in WPIAL history to run and pass for more than 4,000 yards; he’s rushed for more than 6,100 yards and thrown for more than 4,100.
Sto-Rox at Carmichaels
The Vikings got off to a rough start last week, falling to South Side 48-6. Carmichaels did not have a Week 0 game and will be making its season debut.
Karic Willis’ 38-yard touchdown run was one of the few bright spots for Sto-Rox.
SATURDAY
Seton LaSalle at Bishop Canevin, 7 p.m.
The Crusaders opened their season with a lost to Clarkson North of Mississauga, Ontario, last week in York while Seton LaSalle also came out on the losing end in its season opener, falling to North Catholic, 47-14.
Bishop Canevin, under first-year coach Rod Steele, got off to a hot start and built a 28-7 halftime lead, only to see the Canadian club rally for the victory.
Damar Olds threw for two touchdowns – one to Lamier Wade and one to Justin Melvin – and Myontae Mott and Neuval Bone each ran for a score.
Olds threw for 114 yards while Bone rushed for 99 and Alex Kirk added 97 yards rushing.
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