In a matchup of two MaxPreps.com Top 10 Pennsylvania teams,
Alex Papson of
North Allegheny (Wexford) was the difference in a 21-10 Tiger road win at
McDowell (Erie).
Papson ran for 275 yards, including 211 in the second half, and two touchdowns, as No. 4 North Allegheny (4-0) rallied from a 10-7 second-half deficit to get the victory over the seventh-ranked Trojans (3-1).
"You've got to give him the ball," North Allegheny head coach Art Walker told the Erie Times-News
about Papson, who got the ball 29 times in the game. "He's a veteran, and you've got to have some patience and play field position."
Papson was at his best after McDowell took a 10-7 lead on a
Greg Garmon run in the third quarter.
The 5-foot-8, 180-pound senior carried the ball nine times for 51 yards on the ensuing drive and gave North Allegheny the lead back on a 1-yard touchdown run with four minutes left in the third.
"That drive that answered their touchdown was the drive of the game," Walker told the newspaper.
Papson was at it again in a different fashion 2 minutes, 40 seconds later when he broke free on a 74-yard scoring run that made it a two-score game.
"I'm on Cloud 9," Papson told the paper. "I couldn't be more proud of the team."
Papson now has 909 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns in just four games. He is averaging 10.21 yards per carry and has three straight 200-yard games.
2. Norwin pair and Hempfield's Day star in Knights win: Norwin (North Huntingdon) players
Tim Petro and
Christian Bryan plus
Hempfield (Landisville) running back Travis Day put on offensive shows in a 40-35 Norwin win over its neighboring rival Friday night.
Petro was 12-for-21 passing for 302 yards and four touchdowns while also running for 100 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the victory. Bryan pulled in six of those passes for 195 yards and four scores.
Those performances helped the Knights overcome a great game by Day, who ran for 207 yards and two touchdowns.
3. Papson, Day joined by six other WPIAL runners over 200 yards: North Allegheny's Papson and Hempfield's Day were joined in the 200-yard club by six other WPIAL runners over the weekend:
* Delrece Williams of
Steel Valley (Munhall) – 273 yards, four touchdowns in a 53-14 win over Burgettstown Saturday.
*
Julian Durden of
Montour (McKees Rocks) – 264 yards, four touchdowns in a 42-14 victory against Canon-McMillen. Durden scored on runs of 74 and 94 yards in Friday's game.
* Damion Jones-Moore of
Central Catholic (Pittsburgh) – 239 yards, three touchdowns in a 24-7 win over Woodland Hills Friday. The Vikings are ranked second in Pennsylvania by MaxPreps.com.
* Montay Green of
Fox Chapel (Pittsburgh) – 236 yards, three touchdowns in a 40-21 loss Friday to Knoch.
* Christian Henckel of
Geibel Catholic (Connellsville) – 217 yards, one touchdown in a 33-14 win Friday against Jefferson-Morgan.
Brockway High's Derek Buganza.
Photo by Paul Burdick
*
Dane Brown of
Franklin Regional (Murrysville) – 212 yards, two touchdowns in a 27-20 win over Hollidaysburg Friday.
4. Brockway's Buganza reaches milestone: Brockway's Derek Buganza became the fifth player in Pennsylvania scholastic football history to throw for 8,000 career yards when he threw for 366 Friday night in a 57-13 dismantling of Coudersport.
Buganza, who was 20 of 31 with a touchdown pass — he also ran for a touchdown — now has 8,061 career passing yards, which ranks third in Pennsylvania history behind Lancaster Catholic's Kyle Smith (8,545 yards) and Downingtown East's Pat Devlin (8,162). The touchdown pass also gave Buganza the District 9 career record to himself with 80, breaking a tie with Clearfield's Chad Kroell.
Kyle Braun (seven catches, 199 yards, one TD),
Chris Marshall (three rushing scores) and
Mike Vervoort (two rushing touchdowns) also had big games in helping Brockway move to 4-0 on the season.
5. Wilkinsburg finally gets win No. 500: Wilkinsburg has been striving for the 500th win in school history since the 2008 season, and the Tigers finally got the historic victory Saturday with a 26-20 win over first-year program Our Lady of Sacred Heart, which has zero wins in its brief history.
The 18th WPIAL team and the 80th in Pennsylvania to achieve 500 wins, Wilkinsburg used a fourth-quarter blocked punt followed by a 1-yard Rasheed Howard quarterback sneak to get the win. Howard ran for 152 yards and was 8 of 16 passing for 180 yards and three touchdowns.
6. Shell reaches career rushing mark: Hopewell (Aliquippa) running back
Rushel Shell became the 52nd player in Pennsylvania history to rush for 5,000 career yards when he had 137 in 28-20 loss to Mt. Lebanon. Only a junior, Shell, who unofficially has 880 yards rushing in four games this season, now has 5,135 career yards. That puts him 44th all-time in state history, just one yard behind Sharon and Penn State star Mike Archie, and two yards behind Louis E. Dierfuff's Tosh Riddick.
Shell also scored two touchdowns in the game, but the Vikings (1-3) dropped their third straight decision thanks to 176 yards rushing and four touchdowns from
Mt. Lebanon (Pittsburgh) player Luke Hagy. The win improves Mt. Lebanon to 4-0 on the year.
7. Top-ranked teams roll to wins: The remaining four western Pennsylvania teams ranked in the top 25 all rolled to wins during the week.
* No. 11
Clairton got three touchdowns passes from
Desmion Green, two touchdown catches from Josh Page and two touchdown runs from Brandon Small in a 48-0 win over Chartiers-Houston. Green was 5 of 10 for 132 yards passing.
* No. 15
Aliquippa got touchdowns from six different players including two each from
Dravon Henry and
Terry Swanson and led 46-0 at halftime on its way to a 53-6 win over Freedom. Henry also ran for 108 yards.
* No. 18
North Hills (Pittsburgh) scored the game's first four touchdowns, including two from Isaiah Faulk, to beat rival Shaler 28-7. Taylor Schmidt added 189 yards rushing, including a 1-yard touchdown run for the Indians.
* No. 19
Greensburg Central Catholic saw
Justin Kempka scored three times – twice on touchdown catches and once on an interception return – to beat Yough 49-0.
Jordan McCrae also had a pair of touchdown runs for the Centurions.
8. Moniteau’s Armagost accounts for six TDs: Moniteau (West Sunbury) junior quarterback
Kyle Armagost accounted for six touchdowns in the Warriors' 46-32 win over visiting Redbank Valley Friday. Armagost passed for 316 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 143 yards and three more scores in the win. That helped offset a 199-yard passing, 73-yard rushing performance by
Redbank Valley (New Bethlehem) quarterback Brandon Bain. Bain threw a pair of touchdowns and also ran for a score.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN WEEK FIVE 1. WPIAL Class AAA's Parkway Conference will start to get sorted out – hopefully: Through four weeks, six of the eight teams in the Parkway Conference are 3-1 or better with five of the teams 3-1 and Montour unbeaten at 4-0. Montour (2-0) and West Allegheny (2-0) are the lone unbeatens in conference play with
Blackhawk (Beaver Falls),
Central Valley (Monaca),
Moon Area (Moon Township) and
New Castle all at 1-1. In Week Five, Montour hosts New Castle and Central Valley is at Moon, which will hopefully start to sort out the conference a little bit. Another important game is Blackhawk at Hopewell. With Rushel Shell (see above) Hopewell probably has the conference's best player, but a loss to Blackhawk would probably knock the Vikings out of the playoff picture, as they are already 1-3 and 0-2 in Parkway play.
2. Buganza could set state passing record: Brockway's Derek Buganza (above) needs 484 yards to tie Kyle Smith for the Pennsylvania all-time passing yardage mark. Buganza and unbeaten Brockway are at winless Ridgway Friday night. The Elkers have allowed 180 points (45 per game) through four weeks, and last year, Buganza threw for 268 yards against Ridgway. But look for the Rovers to try to get the senior the record this week with big AML South games with unbeaten Curwensville and Elk County Catholic the next two weeks.
3. KSAC Small School Division could be decided Thursday night: On Thursday night,
Clarion Area (2-2 overall, 2-0 KSAC Small) makes the trip down Route 66 to take on rival Redbank Valley (3-1, 2-0) in the de facto KSAC Small School title game. A Clarion victory would give Bobcats not only a game lead over Redbank and Keystone with wins over both, but would set them up to go unbeaten in the conference with winless A-C Valley and one-win Clarion-Limestone the only remaining teams for Clarion on the conference docket. A Redbank Valley victory would set the Bulldogs up pretty with a late-season game against Keystone probably still standing in the way of the conference title. Last year, Redbank Valley led Clarion 7-0 going to the fourth quarter only to watch the Bobcats explode for 28 fourth-quarter points in a 28-7 win.
