George Guido: Burrell, Deer Lakes QBs airing it out

By: George Guido
Tuesday, October 22, 2019 | 6:20 PM

Deer Lakes quarterback Aris Hasley is now the Alle-Kiski Valley’s all-time leading passer.

His 232-yard performance against Derry last Friday put him comfortably in the top spot with 4,482 yards. That surpasses Seth Cohen of Highlands, who finished with 4,083 yards.

Cohen is now playing defensive back at Clarion.

Hasley has 2,088 passing yards this season.

It took 120 seasons for an A-K quarterback reach the coveted 4,000-yard standard.

Now there are two in two seasons.

There might be a third next season.

Burrell’s Alex Arledge has 2,082 yards. His 418 yards topped the WPIAL last weekend.

Plus, Arledge’s 25 completions against Waynesburg is a new Burrell record, surpassing the 23 in a 2012 game by James Liput.

Arledge now has 122 completions on the season, three less than the mark of 125 set by Kevin Horwatt in 1995.

The upside is both quarterbacks will have one game left this week to add to their yardage totals. The downside is it could be the last game of the season for either, or both.

Burrell needs to defeat Derry Friday to secure a playoff berth. If the Bucs lose, they would have to depend on Uniontown ending its 40-game losing streak against Mt. Pleasant.

Deer Lakes needs to defeat Big East Conference champ North Catholic in a game to be played at Mars and hope that Burrell loses to Derry.

•••

Foxes in the hunt

What a turnaround it has been for Fox Chapel.

The Foxes lost the last three games last season and the first four games this season but is suddenly in the playoff hunt with wins the past three weeks against Connellsville, Mars and Armstrong.

Fox Chapel needs to put the final touch on its playoff drive with a win over rival Shaler on Friday.

The recent surge by the Foxes and two rare consecutive home losses by Mars has thrown the Northern Conference playoff race into a frenzy.

The Planets lost to Fox Chapel and Kiski Area the past two Fridays. It’s the first time Mars dropped two straight at home in the same regular season since 2008, when the Planets lost to Hopewell and Highlands.

As for Fox Chapel, the Foxes can finish anywhere from third to sixth place, depending upon what happens against Shaler and in the other Northwest Conference games: Mars at Hampton, and Armstrong at Kiski Area.

Shaler also is in the hunt, along with Hampton. Class 5A is taking the top five teams in each of the three conferences, plus a wild card for the 16th team. The Northern Conference is in a good position to provide the wild-card team.

Armstrong (0-6) is the only conference team that has been eliminated.

Shaler leads Fox Chapel, 27-15, in the all-time series between the schools that dates to 1963, when the school was known as Shaler Township High School.

In 1971, Shaler absorbed Millvale and Etna high schools and was rechristened Shaler Area.

•••

Who-o-o-o are you?

A St. Louis high school canceled the rest of its football season and fired every coach on its staff after a suspended player wore a different number and played under an assumed name.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, junior running back Bill Jackson of Cardinal Ritter College Prep was supposed to be serving a one-game suspension. Instead, Jackson switched his jersey No. 4 for No. 24 and played under the name of “Marvin Burks.”

In the season opener, Jackson/Burks rushed for 109 yards and scored on a 56-yard run in Cardinal Ritter’s 32-21 win.

Jackson was under suspension for one game after being ejected in last season’s title game. But the giveaway was Jackson’s tattoos.

When the incident was discovered, Cardinal Ritter president Tamiko Armstead decided to void the entire season for the 7-0 football team, and every coach on the staff was “permanently released.”

Tags: Burrell, Deer Lakes, Fox Chapel