Big Game Hunting: The Football ‘Three’pack for Week 15

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, December 7, 2010 | 12:00 AM

And then there were three, the football four-pack shrinks to three in week 15 as AAA WPIAL champion Central Valley bows out in the state quarterfinals. Still three district teams playing in the state semifinals is pretty impressive for any district, and the powers that be in the WPIAL should be very happy with the way their district banner is being carried through the state post season. That said come on along as we go ‘Big-Game Hunting'.

PIAA CLASS AAAA Semifinals:
North Allegheny Tigers (13-1) vs Cumberland Valley (12-2) @ Mansion Park in Altoona Saturday, December 11th @ 1:00pm Broadcast on msasports.net and the North Allegheny Sports Network by Randy Gore and Rick Meister

The Tigers had no problems in the quarters despite not having running back Alex Papson, they rolled over State College 21-6 last week behind a powerful running game and their trademark stingy defense. Running in place of the injured Papson, junior Vinnie Congedo carried 24 times for 142 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the win for the Tigers.

Look for Congedo to be a big part of this semifinal match as well. Also helping out in the North Allegheny backfield is Alex DeCiantis who rushed for 72 yards in the quarterfinals.

Quarterback Mike Buchert has been splendid in the post season for the Tigers including completing his first six passes in the District Seven Championship game for 137 yards and a touchdown. In the win over State College Buchert went over a thousand yards passing for the season, this for a team that is averaging nearly 275 yards rushing per game is a very impressive thousand yards.

The Tigers though will go as that monstrous offensive line takes them, led by Vince Czernewski and Rob Kugler.

Cumberland Valley from Mechanicsburg, PA (about 10 miles southwest of Harrisburg) has tremendous balance and firepower on offense, they could give that vaunted Tiger defense a run for their money. The Eagles have a thousand yard passer and nearly a pair of thousand yard rushers.

Senior quarterback Eric Sawyer has completed 75 of 146 passes for 1029 yards, but only seven touchdowns and three picks on the year, Sawyer likes to stretch the field for the Eagles and has seven receivers who are averaging in double digits in yards per catch.

On the ground Jeremy Dipetro, has carried it 136 times for 1275 yards and 13 touchdowns after really taking over at6 running back about halfway through the season. Senior Kevin Snyder has nearly a grand of his own with 939 yards and a dozen touchdowns on 126 carries.

Colton Kirkpatrick and Dan Flynn lead the Eagles on defense with each having over 125 tackles on the year, Kirkpatrick a senior linebacker has also added five sacks.

PIAA CLASS AA Semifinals:

South Fayette Lions (14-0) vs Forest Hills Rangers (13-1) AT Hempfield High School Saturday, December 11th @ 1:00pm broadcast on msasports.net and WJPA FM 95.3 by Bob Gregg and Mark Uriah

Christian Brumbaugh broke the PIAA record for passing yards in a playoff game in the quarterfinal last week as the South Fayette Lions continued their unbeaten season with a convincing win over Brockway 62-28 last weekend. Brumbaugh tossed for a state record 380 yards in the win and is now on the verge of breaking the WPIAL all-time career passing yards mark of 6,741 held by Sto-Rox's Adam DiMichele. Brumbaugh needs only 52 yards to become the all-time leading passer in WPIAL history.
Brumbaugh on the year need just 58 more yards passing to become the WPIAL all-time single season record holder for passing yards surpassing Seton-LaSalle's Billy Stull who threw for 3,310 yards in 2004.

South Fayette has lots more in addition to the record setting quarterback the Lions have rushed for over 200 yards as a team led by senior tailback Jeff Davis nearing 1500 yards on the year. The receiving corps for the Lions is very impressive and includes Davis as one of five different Lions with double digit catches on the season led by Tyler Challingsworth.

The Lions defense is solid as well allowing an average of jus under 10 first downs per game to opposing offenses on the season. South Fayette was +18 on the year in turnover margin heading into the WPIAL championship game and that number has only improved, ask Mike Zmianic.

The Rangers of Forest Hills will be the opponent for South Fayette in the state semifinals, Forest Hills is located in Sidman, Pennsylvania about ten miles east of Johnstown. The Rangers only loss of the season came back in week ten to Greater Johnstown 34-25.

Forest Hills has some offensive studs of their own starting with junior quarterback Justin Gdula who has completed 86 of 128 passes for 1535 yards and 27 touchdowns, and at the same time only thrown two interceptions on the entire season, phenomenal. Gdula's favorite targets are Adam Helsel and Jared McCombie who have combined for 58 catches, over one thousand yards and 19 touchdowns for the Rangers.

On the ground Forest Hills relies heavily on Nick Dudokovich the senior running back has toted the rock 241 times for 2040 yards and 23 touchdowns on the year. He is averaging nearly nine yards per carry and will present quite a challenge for the Lions' defense.

PIAA CLASS A Semifinals:

Clairton Bears (14-0) vs Farrell Steelers (13-1) AT North Allegheny High School Friday December 10th at 7:00pm broadcast on msasports.net and Fox Sports Radio 970 AM by Sam Hall and Lee Mohn, also broadcast on WPIC AM 970 by Mark Slezak and Bob Greenberg

A tremendous rivalry has grown between these two teams here in the single A state playoffs they will meet for the third straight year in the semifinals, Clairton has bounced Farrell (a former WPIAL team) from the state playoffs in this round in the previous two seasons in close games, 13-7 in 2009 and 24-21 in 2008.

Tom Nola's Bears are the favorite in this game as well most likely but, they have been hit a little by the injury bug, senior quarterback Desimon Green was limited by a banged up shoulder last week against North Star, also missing time last week was wide receiver Josh Page with a neck issue. Capri Thompson was solid in replacing Green for much of the night last week in a convincing 52-0 win, but this is not North Star, the District 10 champion Steelers present a much more difficult challenge for the Bears.

Clairton will hope to have Green back at full strength, a strength that has allowed him to post some pretty impressive numbers on both sides of the football, Green has completed 70 of 177 passes for 1703 yards and 26 touchdowns on the year, and only thrown three interceptions. He has also rushed for 642 yards and 11 touchdowns, add in the fact that he is second on the the top ranked defense in the state with 75 tackles and leads that defense in sacks with a dozen and you have a pretty well-rounded football player there.

Sophomore running back Karvonn Coles leads the Bears in rushing with 651 yards and nine touchdowns on 58 carries. Page, who is likely to be ready to go for this game as well, is their leading receiver with 40 catches for 971 yards and 15 touchdowns on the year.

Brandon Small is the leading tackler for that vaunted Bears defense that now has ten shutouts on the year, Small leads them with 90 tackles.

Farrell is led by sophomore quarterback Forest Wested who has completed 39 of 77 passes for 643 yards and a dozen touchdowns along with just three interceptions.

The Steelers have an excellent rushing attack behind senior running back Kevin Brodie who has carried it 110 times for 1224 yards and 15 touchdowns on the year.

The Steelers' only loss of the year came in week nine to Lakeview High from Stoneboro. Farrell plays a little defense of their own, on the year they are only allowing 7.29 points per game and they have posted seven clean sheets of their own …pretty impressive number when two teams are meeting in the state semifinals and have a combined 17 shutouts between them. That Farrell defense is led by senior linebacker Jamar Whitman who has 113 tackles and five caused fumbles on the year. Whitman also has 586 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns on the season…hmmm sounds like he would fit right in with the Bears. This should be a great game.