5 things to watch in Week Zero: Wolvarena showcase includes visit by national powerhouse

By: Chris Harlan
Friday, August 23, 2024 | 12:35 AM

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St. Frances Academy, a traditionally talented high school football team from Baltimore, has a schedule dotted with national powers.

Ranked 13th in the country by USA Today, St. Frances visits No. 1-ranked Mater Dei next month in Santa Ana, Calif., and hosts No. 2 IMG Academy in October. But first, the team will make a trip to Pittsburgh this weekend to face Central Catholic in a Week Zero game at the Wolvarena.

Central Catholic coach Ryan Lehmeier credited coaching-circle connections for finding the matchup.

“They were open and we were open,” said Lehmeier, a second-year coach. “I thought it was a great opportunity to challenge ourselves and an awesome experience for our program.”

Rarely do the Vikings run into an opponent that has more major-college prospects. The teams will play at 3:30 p.m. Saturday as part of a two-day, five-game showcase hosted by Woodland Hills.

Recruiting website Rivals.com lists St. Frances with three seniors and two juniors rated as four-star prospects. Among the seniors, cornerback Blake Woodby and linebacker Bryce Deas are Auburn recruits, while cornerback Byron Baldwin is committed to Indiana.

Junior safety Jirah Edward (6-2, 192) has Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame, Oregon, Ohio State and Penn State among his two dozen offers. Junior defensive end Zion Lee (6-5, 225) has those schools, plus Alabama and others among his 33 offers.

“There are definitely a couple of them that are not hard to find (on film),” Lehmeier said.

Rivals also lists at least four St. Frances players rated as three-star recruits.

The team went 5-6 last season with competitive losses to Mater Dei (20-7) and IMG Academy (17-14). But in the four seasons previous, the Panthers went 38-3 combined. They finished the 2018 season ranked fourth nationally by USA Today.

“That’s good and fine to talk about leading up to the game,” Lehmeier said. “But on the day we play at the Wolvarena, they’re going to have 11 guys and so are we.”

The Woodland Hills showcase schedule starts with two games Friday. McKeesport plays Lake High School of Uniontown, Ohio, at 5 p.m. Woodland Hills hosts Erie McDowell at 8 p.m.

The other Saturday games match Clairton vs. Steel Valley at noon and Beaver vs. Westinghouse at 7 p.m.

St. Frances Academy, part 2

The St. Frances Academy program is big enough to field two separate teams, one that takes on a national schedule and another that plays teams in the mid-Atlantic region.

That regional team will visit North Allegheny at 7:30 p.m. Friday for a Week Zero game. It’s a matchup that came together in a hurry in late July after two other opponents fell out.

“We did everything we could to find a game,” said NA coach Art Walker, crediting the work of athletic director Bob Bozzuto. “Somebody said, ‘Hey, they’re coming up to play Central. I think they have a regional team.’ … We reached out and they said, ‘Yeah, we have an open date that day.’”

The team playing Central Catholic has games scheduled across the country. The regional team facing North Allegheny plays in the East Coast Power Prep League against opponents largely from Maryland and Virginia.

North Allegheny exchanged video of two contests from last season. But otherwise, there wasn’t much info available.

“This is the blindest I’ve ever gone into a game,” Walker said.

North Allegheny and Pine-Richland had originally agreed to play in Week Zero, but that changed when the WPIAL scheduled them for a nonconference matchup in Week 8. Walker said another Maryland school agreed to play NA as a replacement but backed out in July.

“We went about a week to 10 days without having an opponent,” he said. “Then all of a sudden we got it. Amen that we did.”

Kicking for charity

Trinity senior Andy Palm is again kicking with an added purpose.

The all-conference kicker raised $8,600 for childhood cancer research last season with his on-field achievements, and has announced he will raise funds again this fall. Donors can pledge a dollar amount for each kick he makes throughout the season.

His goal is to surpass last year’s total. Those efforts start Friday when Trinity visits Moon at 7 p.m.

As a junior, Palm went 42 for 42 on extra points and made three field goals. His fundraiser is organized through the online foundation Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Week Zero road trips

Four WPIAL teams — Pine-Richland, Mars, Penn Hills and Imani Christian — used the flexibility of Week Zero to travel outside of Western Pennsylvania.

For nine years now, teams statewide were allowed to replace their second scrimmage with an actual game. The WPIAL schedules the remaining nine weeks of the regular season, but schools choose their Week Zero opponents themselves.

Pine-Richland is traveling to Columbus, Ohio, to play Hilliard Davidson on Friday, while Mars heads south to face Boone of Orlando, Fla, on Saturday.

Penn Hills and Imani Christian are taking part in the York Rose Bowl Kickoff Classic on Saturday. Imani Christian plays Philadelphia West Catholic at 10:30 a.m., and Penn Hills plays Susquehanna Township at 1:30 p.m.

The York event is organized by former Woodland Hills athletic director Ron Coursey, now AD at York Suburban.

Milestones and anniversaries

Jefferson-Morgan will observe its 100th football anniversary this season.

The small school in Greene County was originally called Jefferson Township High School in 1924. Morgan Township came on board in 1957.

The Rockets have won three WPIAL titles (1951, ‘73 and ‘74), had 12 undefeated regular seasons and 12 conference titles. Remarkably, the school had no losing seasons from 1929-56.

They open their milestone season at Chartiers-Houston on Friday.

• Norwin enters its Week Zero matchup with rival Penn-Trafford having won 399 games. However, P-T leads the all-time series 30-8, which includes a 56-28 win over Norwin last season.

• This is the 75th anniversary of West Allegheny football. The Indians need nine wins to reach 400.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Central Catholic, Jefferson-Morgan, North Allegheny, Trinity