Alle-Kiski Valley high school football notebook: Schedules getting easier

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, September 27, 2018 | 9:18 PM

As the second half of the season begins Friday at Freedom, Valley harbors WPIAL playoff hopes even with a 1-4 record. And should the Vikings get there for the first time since 2013, they’ll have plenty of experience playing a playoff schedule.

Counting Freedom, Valley’s first six opponents have a cumulative record of 20-8, good for a winning percentage of .714. During their four-game losing streak, the Vikings’ four opponents are a combined 15-3.

“You look at the teams we’ve played, and their record is unbelievable,” Valley coach Muzzy Colosimo said. “Then you look at the record of the teams we have to play yet, and it looks bright. So I don’t know what’s going to happen … I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but it seems like we have a shot to win some games.”

Most of the Alle-Kiski Valley’s 13 football teams find themselves in similar situations with ultra-difficult early-season schedules.

Leechburg, Riverview and Springdale play in the Class A Eastern Conference, basically a superconference with WPIAL title contenders Clairton, Imani Christian and Jeannette. Riverview’s and Springdale’s opponents thus far have winning percentages of over .700. Teams with opponent winning percentages of over .600 include Fox Chapel, Freeport, Leechburg and Plum.

In Valley’s case, the early-season schedule included Class 2A Allegheny Conference games against Avonworth, Shady Side Academy and Steel Valley — all ranked opponents — plus a nonconference game at Class A No. 2 Imani Christian. Then there’s Friday’s game at Freedom (4-1), one of the biggest surprises of the season in 2A.

“I don’t concern myself with the schedule because as far as I’m concerned, you have to play everybody,” Colosimo said. “When you get in the playoffs, you’ll never hear me (complain) about who we’re playing or whatever because as far as I’m concerned, if there’s 100 teams in your classification, you’ve got to look forward to playing 100 teams.”

Follow the leader

The setup of the WPIAL football schedule means teams often will play common opponents on consecutive weeks throughout the season.

For example, Highlands will play Ambridge this week in a Class 4A Northwest Eight game one week after Knoch beat the Bridgers. Next week, Highlands will play Montour, Knoch’s opponent this Friday.

In the case of the Class 3A Big East, three Alle-Kiski Valley teams basically are playing a game of follow the leader: First, Deer Lakes will play an opponent. Burrell follows the Lancers, and Freeport follows the Bucs.

It’s given Burrell plenty of opportunities to see film on Deer Lakes in advance of their matchup Friday, and it’ll give Freeport even more chances to see both of them before it plays at Deer Lakes on Oct. 5 and hosts Burrell on Oct. 12.

Whether those sneak previews will help once the feature presentation comes will get decided over the next few weeks.

Getting their kicks

A pair of local teams pulled off successful surprise onside kicks in Week 4.

After Leechburg scored on its opening possession against Riverview, the Blue Devils recovered an onside kick and promptly converted it into another score for a 13-0 lead in their eventual 41-12 win.

Kiski Area went with an onside kick as it attempted a second-half comeback against Penn Hills, recovering one in Indians territory. The Cavaliers, down 20 at the time in the third quarter, turned it over on downs on the ensuing possession in their 64-28 loss.

Lancer reunion

Deer Lakes will have some special guests at Friday’s Homecoming game against Burrell.

More than a dozen players from the 1969 Deer Lakes football team, the first in school history, will be in attendance to be recognized. Coach Tim Burk said about 15 players are expected, and they’ll speak to the current team before the game.

“We’re looking forward to it,” Burk said.

Because of Homecoming festivities, the game at Deer Lakes Lancer Stadium will begin at 7:30 p.m., a half-hour later than usual.

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Doug at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

Tags: Burrell, Deer Lakes, Freeport, Kiski School, Leechburg, Valley