Shell breaks loose to keep Hopewell in playoff hunt

Rushel Shell finally broke loose, and because of it Hopewell's WPIAL playoff hopes are alive.

Shell, the Vikings' 5,000-yard career rusher, ran for 392 yards and three touchdowns in a must-win 28-26 Hopewell (Aliquippa) victory at New Castle Friday night and in the process became the all-time leading rusher in Beaver County history and the third-leading rusher in WPIAL history. He is 1,987 yards from the WPIAL record held by Fort Cherry's Mike Vernillo and 341 yards short of becoming the 21st runner in Pennsylvania history to eclipse 6,000 career yards.

"I really don't look at all the records, anyway," Shell told the Beaver County Times. "The only thing I really care about the most is the overall team record."

That is why the win Friday night was the most important thing for Shell, who had touchdown runs of 78, 10 and 92 yards with the final score proving to be the game-winner after it put the Vikings ahead 28-20 – New Castle scored but failed on its two-point conversion try.



"At times, it was frustrating," Shell told the newspaper about his team's 1-4 start (Hopewell is 2-4 after the win). "You realize what you can do and can't do. We started off thinking we could beat everyone. But we realized (this wasn't) last year, and we couldn't joke around. We came together as a team."

The playoffs are still far from a sure thing for Hopewell, and any chance the Vikings, the WPIAL Class AAA runner-up last season, have of making the postseason this year starts with a win Friday night against Central Valley (4-2). Hopewell is a game back of Central Valley for fourth place in the Parkway Conference tied at 1-3 in conference play with Moon and New Castle. The Vikings play Ambridge (1-5 overall, 0-4 conference) and West Allegheny (5-1, 4-0) after Central Valley and at minimum will need to win two of those games including this week's and probably all three to make the playoffs.

Friday against New Castle was step one, and they did that thanks to Shell and by overcoming two fantastic performances by New Castle's John Matarazzo (16 of 33 passing, 236 yards, one touchdown) and Jalen Holmes (146 yards rushing, one touchdown).

2. Pittsburgh City League thinking about joining WPIAL: According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, an athletics overhaul committee for the Pittsburgh Public Schools is considering a plan for the Pittsburgh City League (PIAA District 8) to join the WPIAL (PIAA District 7) as soon as the 2012-2013 school year.

Currently, the City League has nine member schools with one school set to close at the end of the school year, while the WPIAL has 126 member schools competing in football.

"The (overhaul committee) is looking at eight different areas of City League athletics," Mike Gavlik, a member of the committee and the director of City League athletics, told the newspaper. "We don't have any recommendations in place yet. We're exploring all options to see what's best. Beyond that, anything is speculative."



It is not known whether the WPIAL would be interested in the City League joining the league, but according to PIAA executive director Brad Cashman, the WPIAL might not have a choice.

"The PIAA board has the final say," Cashman told the newspaper. "Even if District 8 says they don't want them, the PIAA could still say, 'Sorry, you have to take them because it's the only place for them to go.'"

3. Brockway wins clash of District 9 unbeatens in easy fashion: Going into Friday night's game between unbeaten Brockway and unbeaten Curwensville at Brockway, the thought was it was Brockway's passing game against Curwensville's rushing attack.

Turns out, the story was really Brockway's run game and Brockway's run defense.

The Rovers ran for 274 yards and limited Curwensville to 133 yards rushing – most of that late – in a convincing 41-26 win. Brockway's Chris Marshall ran for 167 yards and a touchdown to lead the way, and the Rover defense limited Curwensville's Alex Holland, who was coming off a District 9-record 417-yard performance the week before, to 83 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown.

Meanwhile, Brockway's Derek Buganza continued to close in on the Pennsylvania passing record, tossing for 128 yards and a touchdown giving him 8,281 career yards, the second-most in state history behind Lancaster Catholic's Kyle Smith. Buganza, who is just 264 yards shy of tying Smith’s record, gets his next crack at it Saturday night when Brockway travels to unbeaten Elk County Catholic. Buganza has 522 career passing yards against ECC including 188 last season.

4. Brumbaugh leads South Fayette past Keystone Oaks: Christian Brumbaugh threw for 245 yards and a touchdown to help South Fayette (McDonald) win a key conference game 28-19 at Keystone Oaks Friday night. Six of Brumbaugh's 12 completions went to Tyler Challingsworth, who had 127 yards receiving including 74-yard touchdown catch for the game's first touchdown in the first quarter, helping the Lions take an early 14-0 lead.

Behind a pair of Matt McCann touchdown runs, Keystone Oaks closed to within 14-12 at halftime but was outscored 14-7 in the second half. McCann ran for 166 yards, while his South Fayette counterpart Jeff Davis had 116 yards rushing and a pair of short scoring runs.



With the win, South Fayette improved to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the WPIAL Class AA Century Conference where it is tied for first place with Seton-LaSalle. Keystone Oaks dropped to 5-1, 3-1 with the loss.

5. Conwell paces big win for Upper St. Clair: Upper St. Clair quarterback Dakota Conwell used both his legs and arms to lift the Panthers to a key 28-16 win at Peters Township. Conwell ran for 99 yards and three touchdowns and added 130 yards passing while completing 5 of 9 attempts to help USC improve to 5-1. Peters Township dropped to 4-2.

6. Shaler knocks off No. 12 Erie McDowell in 2 OT shootout: McDowell (Erie), ranked No. 12 in Pennsylvania by MaxPreps.com, was upset 43-42 by Shaler Area (Pittsburgh) in an old-fashioned, double-overtime shootout Friday night.

Shaler won the game when Ryan Mincher, who had just thrown a touchdown pass in the second overtime to Matt Rousseau to bring the Titans to within one, 42-41, hit Joe Panza with a two-point conversion pass that was initially ruled incomplete and then changed to complete after a discussion by the officials, in the second overtime.

Erie McDowell (4-2), which trailed 14-7 in the first half, led 29-22 in the fourth quarter before Shaler tied the game on a 57-yard pass from Mincher to Sean Gavin.

After McDowell missed a 29-yard field goal that would have won the game as time expired in regulation, Shaler (4-2) scored first in overtime but missed the extra point. The Trojans answered back but also missed the extra point.

In the second overtime, McDowell struck first on a 1-yard Collin Kimball touchdown run, his fourth of the game and second in overtime before Rousseau was hit by Mincher the 8-yard scoring toss.



Mincher was 16 of 28 passing for 241 yards and three touchdowns. Kimball ran for 120 yards and threw for 52 for McDowell.

7. Ten more top performances from Week Six:
* Delrece Williams of Steel Valley (Munhall): 267 yards rushing, 5 TDs; 1 receiving TD – Steel Valley 48, Washington 33

* David O’Brien of Seton LaSalle (Pittsburgh): 10 of 12 passing, 264 yards, 4 TDs – Seton-LaSalle 41, South Allegheny 14

* Dylan Jones of Laurel (New Castle): 31 carries, 289 yards, 3 TDs – Laurel 19, New Brighton 7

* Philips Morford of Penn Hills (Pittsburgh): 18 of 22 passing, 263 yards, 2 TDs – Penn Hills 17, Altoona 9

* Ricky Pearsall of Elk County Catholic (St. Marys): 31 carries, 211 yards, 3 TDs – ECC 27, Kane 13

* Justin Quiggle of St. Marys: 28 carries, 248 yards, 2 TDs; 1 catch, 18 yards; 1 fumble recovery on defense – St. Marys 28, Redbank Valley 14

* Joe Holmberg of Johnsonburg: 9 catches, 164 yards, 4 TDs – Johnsonburg 41, Ridgway 0



* Beau Swales of Clearfield: 7 carries, 138 yards, 2 TDs; Returned 2 interceptions for TDs – Clearfield 56, Philipsburg-Osceola 25

* Robert Taylor of Wilkinsburg: 10 catches, 141 yards, 2 TDs – Bishop Canevin 57, Wilkinsburg 27

*Connor McKlveen of Southmoreland (Alverton): 7 catches, 177 yards, 2 TDs – Riverside 48, Southmoreland 23

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN WEEK 7
1. Gateway at Pittsburgh Central Catholic: It's a classic WPIAL Class AAAA dogfight when these two rivals meet Thursday night in a game that will be broadcast (tape delayed) on FSN Pittsburgh. Central Catholic (Pittsburgh) is 6-0 and ranked fourth in Pennsylvania by MaxPreps.com, while Gateway (Monroeville) is 4-2 and ranked 40th. The Gators have won four straight since starting 0-2.

Gateway is led by running back Darin Franklin (459 yards rushing, seven TDs) and quarterback Thomas Woodson (27 of 63, 460 yards, four TDs, five interceptions).

PCC is paced by running back Damian Jones-Moore (666 yards rushing, 12 total TDs) and quarterback Perry Hills (39 of 72, 672 yards, four TDs). Jones-Moore missed last week's 33-6 win over Plum with a groin injury but is expected to play this week. If he can't go, Luigi Lista-Brinza showed he was a capable backup, running for 170 yards and three scores in the win over Plum.



One of the best WPIAL Class AAAA title games ever played occurred between these two schools in 2007 when Pittsburgh Central Catholic escaped with a 35-34 overtime win over Gateway. PCC led by two scores with less than a minute to go in regulation, but Gateway scored twice in the final 31 seconds including the game-tying touchdown with one second to play.

2. Oil City at Grove City: A pair of unbeaten District 10-Region 5 foes will tangle in Grove City Friday night when Oil City (6-0, 3-0) meets Grove City (6-0, 3-0) in what could be a preview of the District 10 Class AAA title game.

The Oilers are led by quarterback Mark Kulinski (92 of 149, 1,606 yards, 23 TDs, two interceptions) and a host of great receivers led by Norte Dame recruit tight end Ben Koyack (27 catches, 453 yards, six TDs) who is actually Oil City's third-leading receiver behind Logan Lantz (28 catches, 487 yards, seven TDs) and Dallas Williams (23 catches, 511 yards, eight TDs). Oil City can also run the ball thanks to Mark Hutchinson (456 yards, four TDs), who has a pair of 100-yard games on the year.

Grove City is more of a ground-oriented team led by a pair of 500-yard backs in Wesley Phipps (73 carries, 524 yards, 11 TDs) and Erik Record (45 carries, 518 yards, five TDs). The Eagles can also throw the ball if they have to behind quarterback Tyler Dagres (20 of 41, 352 yards, one TD, one interception).

3. Brockway at Elk County Catholic: It's the second week in a row Brockway (6-0, 6-0) tangles with an unbeaten AML South foe in District 9, as Elk County Catholic (6-0, 6-0) may be the surprise of District 9 Class A.

Last week, the AA Rovers handled Class A Curwensville with ease, and they are looking for their second straight win against ECC.



Brockway is led by quarterback Derek Buganza (see above), who is 84 of 127 on the year for 1,534 yards, 17 TDs and 5 interceptions. But Buganza has only thrown for 220 yards and two touchdowns in the last two weeks and has had his two worst passing yard games of his career.

But the Brockway run game has been a big reason for that with the Rovers actually having run for more yards (1,634) than they have passed for (1,578) this season. The ground game is led by dual-threat Mike Vervoort (547 yards rushing, 11 TDs; 18 catches, 372 yards, six TDs) and Chris Marshall (289 yards rushing, three TDs) while the receiving corps also consists of Kyle Braun (27 catches, 541 yards, six TDs) and Jake Shaffer (17 catches, 293 yards, two TDs).

Any discussion involving ECC's offense starts and ends with running back Ricky Pearsall, who is probably the best back in District 9. The senior has run for 1,093 yards on 145 carries and has scored 13 rushing touchdowns while adding a pair of special teams scores on the year. In his career, he broke the 3,000-yard career mark last week with his 211 yards in a win over Kane and has 3,001 yards and 31 rushing touchdowns while scoring 36 total career touchdowns.

A THOUGHT OR NOT
If the Pittsburgh City League (District 8) is seriously interested in joining the WPIAL (District 7), then it should happen.

Sure, there will be issues. Some plans floating around call for the City League schools to be run as joint cooperatives, which happens in a lot of smaller, rural areas in the state. Then there's the fact that some City League programs in various sports, which are bad on their own right, may end up being worse in the WPIAL. And there is a potential issue with playing venues – currently all City League football teams play at one location.

But the bottom line is the current way the two districts are laid out doesn't make any sense. You have private schools inside the City of Pittsburgh – North Catholic, Pittsburgh Central Catholic, Oakland Catholic – that play as WPIAL members and in a lot of instances schools on one side of the WPIAL have to physically travel through the City of Pittsburgh to play other WPIAL schools.



Not only that, but right now the Pittsburgh City League isn't always treated the same way by the media as the WPIAL schools are and public perception outside of the City League is that the City League isn't very good.

But if the City League and the WPIAL merged, many if not all of these problems would go away quickly.