Scholastic Notebook – 09/23/2016

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, September 23, 2016 | 12:32 AM

At Mapletown, Rush rushes. A lot.

Dylan Rush is a junior running back at Mapletown who has enjoyed a big season so far. He is the second-leading rusher in the WPIAL with 1,027 yards. The only running back who is ahead of him is Armstrong’s Zane Dudek, who has 1,201.

Rush stands only 5 feet 9 and weighs 180 pounds. You have to wonder how strong Rush’s back is, because he is carrying the Mapletown team on it.

Rush’s number of carries isn’t on the high side. It’s on the ridiculous side. In four games, Rush has carried the ball 147 times. That’s 36.8 times a game. The rest of Mapletown’s team has 31 carries. On top of that, Mapletown has thrown 22 passes – and Rush has attempted seven of them.

That means Mapletown has had 200 plays – either running or passing. Rush has either ran or passed on 154, or almost 80 percent of them.

Rush is only a junior and has been Mapletown’s leading rusher since his freshman year. Barring injury, he seems like he will have 4,000 yards by the end of the season. He has 3,473.

Cook is Cooking for Seneca Valley

When the subject is best dual-threat quarterbacks in the WPIAL, the names of Pine-Richland’s Phil Jurkovec, Neshannock’s Frank Antuono and Beaver’s Darius Wise come up often. But almost quietly, Seneca Valley’s Jack Cook has turned into one of the best dual-threat QBs. At least going by statistics.

Cook is a senior who has almost 1,000 yards offense in only three games. Cook has completed 24 of 44 for 545 yards. But he also has rushed for 428 yards on 65 attempts.

But can Cook put up impressive statistics again Friday night? Seneca Valley plays host to powerful Pittsburgh Central Catholic.

Brown to Return

Maybe he won’t be 100 percent, but Apollo-Ridge is undoubtedly happy to have Duane Brown back, even if he isn’t at full strength.

Brown is a star senior running back for Apollo-Ridge, but hasn’t played yet this season while recovering from surgery for a torn ACL. But he has been cleared to play and is expected to see action Friday night against Burrell.

Brown sustained the knee injury in March and had surgery in mid April. That means he is back playing only five months after the surgery. Brown has been a big part of the Apollo-Ridge team since his sophomore season when he played quarterback/receiver. A year ago, he set a WPIAL single-game rushing record when he ran for 460 yards.

How Good is Hopewell?

You could say Hopewell has been one of the surprise teams this season. After all, the Vikings are 4-0 for the first time since Rushel Shell was a senior. That is more wins than Hopewell had in the past three seasons combined. And it’s likely Hopewell will go 5-0 with a game Friday night against struggling Mohawk (0-3).

But isn’t it hard to say exactly how good Hopewell is? The Vikings have defeated Freedom, Burrell, Ellwood City and Yough. The combined records of those teams is 4-10. Just around the corner is a rough stretch of games for Hopewell. The Vikings’ final five games are against Quaker Valley, Central Valley, Beaver, Beaver Falls and Aliquippa.

Jeter to Notre Dame

Beaver Falls’ Donovan Jeter was recruited by many major colleges across the country, and he broke the heart of Pitt fans earlier this week when he made a verbal commitment to Notre Dame.

Pitt thought it had a great chance to land Jeter. He commented earlier this week that Pitt was No. 1 on his list at one time. Jeter’s brother, Sheldon, is a basketball player at Pitt.

But things changed in Jeter’s recruitment recently. Notre Dame came on strong with him and Jeter visited Notre Dame for last Saturday’s game against Michigan State. The visit had a big impact on Jeter, because he came back and decided he wanted to commit to the Fighting Irish. In July, when Jeter announced his final list of five colleges, Notre Dame wasn’t listed. But coach Brian Kelly somehow made up a lot of ground in two months.

When Jeter was talking about reasons he liked Notre Dame, Jeter said, “It’s like getting an Ivy League education – and I get it for free.”

Jeter plans to graduate early and enroll at Notre Dame for the spring semester.

Sophomore Sensations

A year ago, Brady Pevarnik of Latrobe  and Jackson Palmer of Franklin Regional opened eyes when they both finished in the top five of the WPIAL Class AAA individual boys golf championships – as freshmen. It looks like they are both priming themselves for a run to the top this year as sophomores.

The WPIAL sectional tournaments were held this past week and Pevarnik and Palmer had terrific scores. They both had the spirit of 66.

Pevarnik shot a 66 to win the Section 1 title at Glengarry Golf Course. Meanwhile, Palmer shot a 66 at Willowbrook Country Club. They will now play in the WPIAL semifinals. The Class AAA championship will be Oct. 4 at Oakmont Country Club.

Here’s one other sophomore to watch: Fox Chapel’s Gregory Meyer shot a 67 at Willowbrook to finish one shot behind Palmer.

The Class AA boys championships are Thursday at Allegheny Country Club.

Centurion Success on the Pitch

The Greensburg Central Catholic football team is going through one of its roughest seasons in some time. But while there is not much success on the gridiron, the Centurions are dominating on the pitch.

The Greensburg Central boys and girls soccer teams are “pitch perfect” against WPIAL teams. The Centurion girls lost the season opener, but it was against a team from Ohio. Since then GCC has won seven in a row and outscored opponents, 46-8.

The GCC boys are 8-0 and, coincidentally, have allowed only eight goals, the same as the girls teams.

Tags: Beaver Falls, Fox Chapel, Franklin Regional, Greensburg C.C., Hopewell, Latrobe