Mt. Lebanon's Cable commits to Notre Dame in women's basketball

Madison Cable, a 5-foot-11 inch guard from Mt. Lebanon (Pittsburgh) and one of the top high school girls basketball players in the country, has made verbal commitment to for Notre Dame.

Cable averaged 15 points, seven rebounds and three steals per game last season while helping Mt. Lebanon to its second straight PIAA Class AAAA title. She also considered Vanderbilt and Duquesne.

"It was a really hard decision between all three," Cable told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I keep saying this to people: 'All three schools were great and everything, but I just felt like (Notre Dame) was right.'"

Cable is considered a four-star recruit by many national publications.

2. Curwensville’s Holland rushes for 417 yards: Curwensville junior running back Alex Holland set the District 9 record with 417 yards rushing while also scoring five touchdowns in a 48-20 win at Kane Friday night. Holland, who ran the ball 33 times, scored on runs of 36, 65, 12, 56 and 60 yards with the first three coming in the first half to help Curwensville, which is averaging 51.8 points per game, remain unbeaten at 5-0. Holland now has 1,082 yards rushing and 12 touchdowns on the season. The Pennsylvania record for rushing yards in a game is 488 set by Harbor Creek's Stephen Blose in 2005 against Fort LeBoeuf.

3. WPIAL’s Parkway Conference starts to sort itself out: Time will tell if the WPIAL's Parkway Conference is the best conference in Class AAA this year, but this much is known: It is definitely the most competitive.

This weekend saw the conference start to sort itself out a little bit with unbeaten Montour (McKees Rocks) (5-0 overall, 3-0 Parkway) continuing to hold a portion of first place after beating New Castle (3-2, 1-2) 24-6 behind 245 yards rushing and two touchdowns by Julian Durden.

In another sort-out game in the conference, Central Valley (Monaca) (4-1, 2-1) rallied from a 20-7 second-half deficit to beat Moon (3-2, 1-2) 29-20 thanks to 186 yards rushing and three touchdowns by Curtis Lewis.

Montour shares first place with West Allegheny (Imperial) (4-1, 3-0), which hasn't lost to a Class AAA team this year despite losing star running back/linebacker Mike Caputo, a Wisconsin recruit, to a potential season-ending injury in Week One. The Indians' lone loss came to Class AAAA Upper St. Clair. Senior running back Aaron McKinney is a big reason for the continued success serving as a solid replacement for Caputo and rushing for 287 yards and six touchdowns since Week Two. That includes a 125-yard, three-touchdown performance in a 41-28 win over Ambridge Friday night.

One team that many thought would be contending for a playoff spot in the Parkway that isn't is Hopewell (Aliquippa), despite the continued dominance of junior running back Rushel Shell. Shell ran for 132 more yards and one touchdown giving him 5,267 career yards, which ranks seventh in WPIAL history, but Hopewell lost 31-14 to Blackhawk (Beaver Falls), which got three Mike Shansky touchdown runs. Shell has now run for at least 100 yards in 23 straight games, but the 132 was his lowest total since getting 17 yards his freshman year against Blackhawk. The loss drops the Vikings to 1-4 overall, 0-3 in the conference. They probably need to win their last four conference games to have a shot at the playoffs, which could be a big factor in Shell's final career total when all is said and done. Blackhawk, meanwhile, improved to 4-1 overall and 2-1 in the conference.

4. No. 2 Central Catholic, Erie McDowell needs big second-half rally to win: Central Catholic (Pittsburgh), ranked No. 2 in Pennsylvania by MaxPreps.com and 5-0, needed a big second-half rally to beat Penn Hills 35-20 Friday night.

The Vikings found themselves down 20-0 in the third quarter before scoring 35 unanswered points behind three touchdown runs by quarterback Perry Hills, who scored on runs of 1, 3 and 2 yards.

PCC wasn't the only top-ranked team that needed second-half heroics.

No. 11 McDowell (Erie) (4-1) needed a 1-yard Jeremy Baronner touchdown run with 15.2 seconds left to get a 29-25 win over upset-minded Pine-Richland Thursday. The Trojans got a big game from junior Greg Garmon, who rushed for 192 yards and two touchdowns and also forced and recovered a fumble late in the first half when Pine-Richland was at the McDowell 1-yard line.

While Pittsburgh Central Catholic and Erie McDowell were in close games, the other five Western Pennsylvania teams ranked in MaxPreps.com's Pennsylvania Top 25 rolled to easy wins.

No. 1 North Allegheny (Wexford) (5-0) beat Seneca Valley 47-10 behind a pair of touchdowns each by Alex Papson and Matt Steinbeck and two field goals and five extra points by Alex Greenblatt. Papson ran for 113 yards and now has 1,022 yards and 13 touchdowns in five games, while Steinbeck had 66 yards rushing and a touchdown and one catch for a 23-yard touchdown. Also, No. 9 Clairton (5-0) rolled to a 65-0 shutout over Avella.

No. 18 Aliquippa scored a pair of defensive touchdowns while getting two touchdown passes from Mikal Hall to Davion Hall to beat New Brighton 48-6. Darius Walker also scored twice for the Quips, including a 27-yard interception return for a touchdown. Also, Luke Hagy rushed for 162 yards and three touchdowns to lead No. 20 Mt. Lebanon (Pittsburgh) to a 35-12 win over Cannon-McMillen.

5. Buganza sees limited action: Brockway's Derek Buganza saw limited action Friday night in a 71-6 win over Ridgway. He did complete 9 of 10 passes for 92 yards and a touchdown while also throwing an interception and now has 8,153 yards, 392 shy of Lancaster Catholic's Kyle Smith for the Pennsylvania career passing record. He is in third place all-time, just nine yards behind Downingtown East's Pat Devlin for second all time. Buganza also has 81 career touchdown passes.

6. Some additional top performances from across Western Pennsylvania this week included:

* South Fayette (McDonald) quarterback Christian Brumbaugh went 15 of 19 for 290 yards and four touchdowns in a 48-7 win over Burgettstown.

* Brockway's Mike Vervoort scored six touchdowns in a 71-6 win over Ridgway. Vervoort ran nine times for 152 yards and five scores and returned an interception 41 yards for a touchdown.

* Oil City's Mark Kulinski was 13 of 21 passing for 282 yards and a school-record six touchdown passes in a win over rival Franklin.

* Eric Frye of Perry Traditional Academy (Pittsburgh) had four catches for 177 yards and a touchdown in a 28-6 win over Langley.

* Aaron Horton of Mercyhurst Prep (Erie) scored five touchdowns and ran for 192 yards in a 59-9 win over Youngsville.

* Justin Quiggle of St. Marys had 291 yards of total offense – 105 rushing, 186 receiving – and five touchdowns and also intercepted a pass on defense in a 46-15 win over Moniteau.

7. North Hills boys’ XC team makes history: The North Hills (Pittsburgh) boys’ cross country team accomplished a feat Saturday that no other WPIAL boys' cross country squad had ever accomplished: having the first three finishers at the prestigious Pittsburgh Central Catholic Invitational at Pittsburgh's Schenley Park, which was in its 58th running.

Zach Hebda and Joe Kush tied for the win crossing the line together in a time of 15 minutes, 48.3 seconds while Juris Silenieks was third in a time of 15:56.3

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN WEEK SIX
1. Curwensville and Brockway to clash in battle of District 9 unbeatens: It will be Brockway's passing attack vs. Curwensville's rushing game when these 5-0 teams square off Friday night in Brockway.

Curwensville is averaging 51.8 points per game and is led by a punishing rushing attack that averages 324 yards per game on the ground led by junior Alex Holland (see above), who is coming off a five-touchdown, 417-yard performance against Kane. Holland has 1,082 yards and 13 touchdowns on the year.

Brockway, on the other hand, averages 281 yards per game passing behind senior Derek Buganza (see above), who has passed for 1,406 yards and 16 touchdowns while completing 69 percent (78 of 113) of his passes. The Rovers, though, have become more balanced this year and do average 266 yards per game rushing, although nearly half those yards have come against winless Ridgway and one-win Sheffield.

2. Offense vs. Defense when South Fayette hosts Keystone Oaks: When a pair of 5-0 teams square off Friday night at South Fayette (McDonald), something will have to give.

The homestanding Lions are averaging 38.4 points per game on the year behind quarterback Christian Brumbaugh, while the visiting Golden Eagles have allowed just 40 points all season (8 ppg).

Brumbaugh has completed 67 percent of his passes (79 of 118) for 1,043 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Keystone Oaks (Pittsburgh) is a more ground-oriented team led by running back Matt McCann, who has run for more than 700 yards and 14 touchdowns on the season.

3. Key Great Southern Conference game when Peters Township visits Upper St. Clair: Peters Township (McMurray) and Upper St. Clair enter their matchup Friday night with identical 4-1 overall and 1-0 WPIAL Class AAAA Great Southern Conference records. They are tied with Mt. Lebanon as the only unbeatens in the conference.

Peters Township handed Bethel Park its first conference loss in three years last week with a 21-14 win and is led by running back Andrew Erenberg and quarterback Austin Hancock. Erenberg was held to less than 100 yards last week and was held without a touchdown after entering the game with 517 yards rushing and 11 scores, but Hancock picked up the slack going 9 of 11 passing for 126 yards and rushing for a score. He has thrown for 598 yards and four touchdowns on the year.

Upper St. Clair, which was the last team to beat Bethel Park in conference play until last week, is led by dual-threat quarterback Dakota Conwell, who has combined for 846 yards of total offense on the year. He is 28 of 45 passing for 398 yards and four touchdowns while rushing 73 times for 448 yards and six scores.