WPIAL Saturday’s Scholastic Starz for Week Nine

By: Bruce Markey
Sunday, October 27, 2013 | 7:23 AM

The curtain has come down on the 2013 WPIAL football regular season. A final Huzzah to all of the great players and their highlight performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday throughout the past nine weeks. Here is the final encore from the top six stand outs in District 7 on the final day of this years campaign.

Elijah Hardy and Nathaniel Cofer – Summit Academy

The most memorable season in Summit Academy football history will for the first time ever, continue into the postseason. But the regular season version of this story ended the way it began…with a Class AA Allegheny Conference victory. The one-two punch of Elijah Hardy and Nathaniel Cofer was too much for visiting Freeport to handle as Hardy ran for 131 yards and two touchdowns while Cofer added 111 yards on the ground and two more scores as the Knights swatted the Yellowjackets 38-20.

Reed Relosky – Bishop Canevin

While the middle seven games of the first post-Bob Jacoby season did not go well, the book end games in Week One and Week Nine were all good for Bishop Canevin. Quarterback Reed Relosky ran wild and also did damage through the air in the final game of the regular season on Saturday night, rushing for 133 yards and one score while hitting on 7 of 14 passes for 154 yards and three touchdowns as the Crusaders snapped a seven game losing streak with a 42-19 triumph over the visiting Serra Catholic eagles in a Class A Black Hills Conference finale.

Austin Kline and Michael Banachoski – Springdale

It has been a tough season for Springdale as they face a year without a trip to the WPIAL football postseason for the first time since 2001. But they year ended on a high note Saturday thanks to the hard running of Austin Kline and the splash plays of Michael Banachoski. Kline rushed for 101 tough yards between the tackles while Banachoski caught a 32-yard option touchdown pass from Adam Lock while also helping to preserve a shutout with a third quarter interception as the Dynamos exploded past the host Riverview Raiders 28-0 in a Class A Eastern Conference season finale.

Tom Matta – Our Lady of the Sacred Heart

For the second time in the programs four year history, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart is a winner. Coming into their Class A non-conference season finale Saturday afternoon at historic Graham Field in Wilkinsburg, OLSH was sitting at 4-4 overall. They clinched a winning record thanks in part to Tom Matta, who led the purple and gold rushing attack with 74 yards on the ground and touchdown runs of 16 yards in the first quarter that got the scoring started and 4 yards that capped the scoring in the fourth quarter as the Chargers improved to 5-4 overall with a 28-12 victory over the Tigers.  

Tags: Bishop Canevin