Ben DeMotte aims to join decorated group of Fox Chapel quarterbacks

By: George Guido
Tuesday, August 16, 2022 | 3:37 PM

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Fox Chapel has a list of superb quarterbacks over the school’s six decades.

Start with 1977 first-team all-stater Frank Rocco Jr. and continue to Rick Strom, who played for the Steelers and was a two-year starter at Georgia Tech.

Now, Ben DeMotte wants to add his name to the Foxes’ annals.

After serving as an understudy to quarterback Collin Dietz last season, DeMotte is preparing to take over under center, with the help of another successful signal-caller of recent vintage.

“Over the summer, recent quarterback Shane Susnak has been working with me and so, I’m excited, I want to be part of that group,” DeMotte said.

Coach Tom Loughran is happy with DeMotte’s skill set.

“Benny has a very strong arm, he continues to try to get better, accuracy-wise,” Loughran said. “He knows our offense, he knows where the ball is supposed to go, by and large.”

DeMotte will have a wide array of receivers to choose from, starting with seniors Peter Tran and Will Fera, to go with juniors Tyrese Samuels and Christian Gaston and several others.

The instruction for what could be as many as eight receivers will be in good hands under coach Dave Horvat, who knows quite a bit about pass catching. Horvat was the WPIAL’s leading receiver in 1985 while at Valley with 51 catches.

Said Loughran: “When we throw it, we want to make sure that we’re still in possession of it when the play’s over. We want to make sure he stays away from throwing the ball into crowds.”

Loughran and DeMotte discussed Kenny Pickett’s play from Saturday’s Steelers preseason game against Seattle.

“Kenny didn’t throw any passes that were not catchable,” Loughran said. “But he threw things underneath coverage and he did everything he was supposed to do from a game-managing standpoint. That’s what we want to stress to all our quarterbacks.”

Waiting in the wings on the Fox Chapel depth chart are sophomore quarterback Matt Begg, along with freshmen Max Melocchi, Joey Geller and Nathan Johnson.

“This is the first time we’ve had three freshman quarterbacks and they all bring something a little different to the table and we’re glad to have them,” Loughran said. “They all have the ability to command the offense.”

“We have a deep receiving corps this year,” DeMotte said. “We’re going to spread the ball to everybody. We always have a good conference with the Hills teams (Penn, North, Woodland) and Pine-Richland, but I think we can go out and compete this year.”

DeMotte had three pass completions for 55 yards in limited action last season.

Three seniors set the receiving pace for Fox Chapel last year with Jake DeMotte (Ben’s brother) catching 29 passes, Khi’Lee Patterson had 26 and Collin Kwiatkowski 23.