A-K Valley high school football notebook: Leechburg rolling at 5-0

By: Michael Love
Saturday, September 21, 2024 | 4:58 PM

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Leechburg senior quarterback Jayden Floyd rushed for 209 yards and five more touchdowns Friday in a 35-13 victory over Jeannette, giving him 10 rushing scores over the past two weeks for a Blue Devils team that is 5-0 for the first time since 1981.

Floyd tallied 157 of his yards on his five TDs, and the Leechburg run game finished with a total of 349.

Floyd several times has sung the praises of the offensive line as it opens holes for him and the rest of the Blue Devils runners and protects him when Leechburg throws.

Coach Randy Walters said the line — juniors Ben Talerico, Geno Granata, Brady Shearer, Jayden Rosenberger, and Philup Rearick — continues to show its cohesiveness and versatility.

“We can move the guys around depending on the play call, and it had really worked well for us in what we want to get done,” Walters said.

“They are coming along really well. There are a few things we still need to work on, but their communication level is getting a lot better, and that starts with Brady at center. I tell him that I have two quarterbacks on the field at the same time, and he’s the quarterback of the offensive line. He has full autonomy to stop a play in the middle of a cadence and adjust the blocking according to if someone is bringing pressure inside or outside. He does a great job of keeping all five guys on the same page.”

Leechburg will attempt to go 6-0 Friday against rival Springdale.

“What we want to stress to the kids is that they are 5-0 until the end of the day (Saturday),” Walters said. “Tomorrow, we’re 0-0.

“They’ve done a great job of buying into the week’s preparation to try to go to 1-0. In my pregame (Friday), I told them that Jeannette is 4-0, but let’s do what we have to do to make sure that after tonight we’re 1-0. They did that, and now it’s on to the next.”

Lancers stay unblemished

Deer Lakes coach Tim Burk stressed to his players Friday that they would get everything winless East Allegheny had in the attempt to knock off his undefeated Lancers.

It turned out to be that type of game as Deer Lakes led by just one score at halftime. But the Lancers extended their lead to three scores in the third, were ahead by 12 by the end of the quarter, and played even on the scoreboard in the fourth to come away with a hard-fought 47-35 triumph.

Jake Fleisher threw a touchdown and ran for another, and Zach Grant, Ryan Love and Zier Williams added rushing scores.

The Lancers surpassed 40 points in a game for the first time this season. They are averaging 34.4 points a game, one point behind Imani (35.8) for second most in the conference.

The win put Deer Lakes at 5-0 for the first time in school history. The 2015 Lancers started 4-0, but they ran into a buzzsaw in Game 5 with a 33-7 loss to Highlands.

To go to 6-0, Deer Lakes will have to contend with a Highlands (2-2, 1-1) team hoping to get back in the win column after a tough 12-10 Allegheny 7 Conference loss to Imani (5-0, 2-0) on Friday at Graham Field in Wilkinsburg.

Highlands still leads the conference in points scored per game at 41. The Golden Rams defense was able to hold Imani 23 points under its average.

Freeport finding its stride

The Yellowjackets won just three games last year and ended the season with a 35-0 loss to Deer Lakes.

But the returning Freeport players, coach John Gaillot said, learned from 2023’s ups and downs, and now, with several newcomers on the field, they are showing they can be a contender.

Freeport, 3-2 overall and 1-1 in Allegheny 7 Conference play, bounced back from last week’s close loss to Deer Lakes — it had the ball with a chance to tie in the final minute — and routed Burrell, 42-0, Friday.

The Yellowjackets, led by four touchdowns from quarterback Drew Ross — three rushing and one passing — built a 28-0 lead at halftime and added on in the second half.

The rushing attack finished with 224 yards on 23 attempts, an average of 9.7 yards per carry.

Ross completed 7 of 11 passes for 156 yards. Sean Selinger caught three of Ross’s passes for 105 yards and a touchdown.

Gaillot said that along with the positives on both sides of the ball came somewhat of a downer in the form of penalties. Freeport committed 10 of them, something that Gaillot said his team can’t afford to have if it is to get to where they want to be, both in the conference and beyond.

The Yellowjackets are back in action Friday at home against Valley (0-5, 0-1).

Running wild

Zier Williams recorded the most rushing yards in any WPIAL game Friday night with 248 on 27 carries as Deer Lakes rolled to another win.

He added a pair of rushing scores — 47 and 4 yards — to his season totals for a Lancers team survived a wild game with winless East Allegheny.

Williams is having a standout senior season. His yardage against the Wildcats was more than half of his total yards (422) gained through his team’s first four contests.

He now owns 670 yards and 10 touchdowns on 111 carries.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Deer Lakes, Freeport, Leechburg