5 things we learned in high school football Week 3: Rare low-scoring tilts draw attention

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, September 14, 2024 | 8:50 PM

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Don’t call for maintenance.

The scoreboard at South Park’s stadium wasn’t malfunctioning Friday night, nor was the one at Franklin Regional, even if they both had a 0-0 score in the fourth quarter.

There were zeroes on Ringgold’s scoreboard in the third quarter, as well.

In a football era often dominated by offense, three unusually low-scoring contests were drew attention in Week 3 of the WPIAL season. South Park and Greensburg Salem celebrated 7-0 victories, and Franklin Regional won 3-0.

“I ran into a couple of older South Park guys up at the stadium this morning, and they said they really liked the old-school aspect of it,” South Park coach Brian Abbey said with a laugh. “That was never really our intention. That’s just kind of the way the game worked out.”

The Week 3 schedule included 57 WPIAL games, and the teams in those contests combined for 2,755 points. That equals 48.3 points per game. Six teams scored more than 50 points individually.

Rare nowadays are games where teams combine for one touchdown or less. The only other one-score game this season was when Freedom topped Quaker Valley, 7-0, in Week Zero.

The WPIAL had no one-score games last year and only three in 2022.

On Friday, South Park quarterback Robert Lenzi scored on a third-and-goal run from the 1-yard line with less than a minute left. With one touchdown, the Eagles won their Western Hills opener over Steel Valley, 7-0.

“We had 34 minutes of possession time,” Abbey said. “Other than not punching the ball in (more often), I was happy with our effort.”

At Franklin Regional, there were no touchdowns scored. Panthers kicker Joey Bayne made a 22-yard field goal with less than 5 minutes left for a 3-0 win.

At Ringgold, Greensburg Salem’s Brody Chismar caught an 18-yard touchdown from Maxim Topper in the third quarter for the only score in a 7-0 win.

Abbey was South Park’s offensive coordinator before his promotion to head coach. His Eagles scored 30, 22 and 45 points in their first three games this season, but the second-year coach isn’t picky about point totals in wins.

“I told the kids, as long as it’s one more than them, I’ll take it,” he said.

Five is enough

Making the most of your chances is a lesson Brentwood quarterback Colton Rosing obviously has mastered.

The senior threw only five passes Friday, completed four and piled up 222 passing yards and three touchdowns. That’s an average of 55.5 yards per completion, and his touchdowns covered 45, 71 and 84 yards in a 49-6 win over Springdale.

His Brentwood teammate, Forest Betz, caught two passes for 129 yards. But they weren’t the only one to maximize their opportunities in Week 3.

Montour receiver Daniel Batch had 129 yards on two catches, North Hills’ Jack Martin had 127 yards on three catches and Blackhawk’s Brayden McCarthy had three catches for 140 yards.

Dominant defenses

The WPIAL’s stingiest defenses proved their strength again Friday.

Eight teams are allowing 10 points or fewer on average, led by a dominant Clairton defense giving up a league-best 1.7 points per game. The Bears’ first four opponents combined have scored seven points against them.

The next toughest statistically are Cornell (3 ppg), Fort Cherry (5), Peters Township (7.5), Greensburg Salem (8.5), Imani Christian (8.5), South Fayette (8.7) and Carmichaels (10).

Six of those eight defenses celebrated a shutout in Week 3. A seventh shutout was broken up late when Fort Cherry allowed a fourth-quarter touchdown to Chartiers-Houston in a 42-6 win.

3 in a row

New Castle improved to 3-0 on Friday, which gives the Red Hurricanes one more win than they had in the past two seasons combined. It’s also the team’s first 3-0 start since 2009.

Senior quarterback Kyrell Harris scored two rushing touchdowns including a 94-yarder in Friday’s 27-7 win at Yough.

First-year coach Fred Mozzocio, a 1985 New Castle graduate, is overseeing the turnaround. Mozzocio went 101-35 in 12 seasons as coach at Neshannock.

The Red Hurricanes finished 1-9 in each of the past two seasons.

Quips’ consistency

When Aliquippa defeated Mars on Friday, the Quips improved to 40-1 against WPIAL Class 4A opponents since joining that classification in 2020. Their only loss to a WPIAL 4A team in that span came against Thomas Jefferson, 35-28, in the 2020 finals. They’ve won three consecutive WPIAL 4A titles since.

Aliquippa topped Mars, 42-17.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.