Big Game Hunting: The Football Fourpack for Week 6

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 | 12:00 AM

The cream is starting to rise to the top. With only 4 regular season games remaining on the schedule a picture is starting to shape up showing those "in the know" what the 2010 post season will look like in a month. If you are still trying to figure it out, the best way to be on top of the overall picture is to go WPIAL Big Game Hunting. Here are the top games for week six of the WPIAL football season.

WPIAL Class AAAA Great Southern Conference
#9 Peters Township Indians (1-0)(4-1) @ #5 Upper Saint Clair Panthers (1-0)(4-1)
Friday October 8th @ 7:30pm
Broadcast on the MSA Sports Network and KQV AM 1410 by Lanny Frattare and Bob Orkwis

Last week as the Great Southern Conference teams opened conference play, the Peters Township Indians were in search of a signature win and, they got it with an impressive 21-14 home victory over defending conference champion Bethel Park. That win was a big step for an Indians' program that has struggled since moving into AAAA in 2008. A bigger step awaits Friday just a couple miles north on route 19 at Upper Saint Clair high school. Peters has proven they are a playoff contender, if they fancy themselves a team with hopes for a Great Southern conference crown, they will need to knock off the #5 team in AAAA on the road to take that next step.

Austin Hancock continued his solid season under center for the Indians in the win over Bethel, completing nine of eleven passes for 126 yards, he also ran 22 yards for a touchdown. With Bethel focusing on stopping top running back Andrew Erenberg, Justin Miller stepped in with a 20 yards touchdown run for Peters.

Defensively the Indians did allow Bethel's Bre Ford to rush for 116 yards on the ground but, 40 of those came on one carry. The Indians defense held the Hawks to just 60 yards passing on the night, if the defense continues to play like that it will be a tremendous defensive struggle with Upper Saint Clair.

The Panther defense has been very strong all season. They have great team speed and do a great job of getting to the football on every defensive down. Starting quarterback Dakota Conwell is also a beast at linebacker for the Panthers and his tremendous vision on the field benefits him greatly on both sides of the football.

In a week five win over Baldwin Conwell ran for a pair of scores and threw for another. With Conner Scott missing a lot of time due to injury, the Panthers have turned to several players to fill the void when rushing the football as they love to do. Conwell, D.J. Scarton, Matt Doman and Zach Deitrick have all chipped in quite nicely for Jim Render's team. Winner here remains in the hunt for the Conference title.

WPIAL Class AAA Parkway Conference
#1 Montour Spartans (3-0)(5-0) @ #4 Central Valley Warriors (2-1)(4-1)
Friday October 8th @ 7:00pm
Broadcast on the MSA Sports Network and WMBA 1460 AM by Jim Frederick and Bruce Frey

Playing your way through the Parkway conference in AAA seems like pitching your way through the 1927 Yankees batting order, you cannot take a single moment of reflection upon any success, because another stiff test awaits you the moment you finish what you were working on.

So far Montour remains perfect in Parkway play but the meat of the order is coming to the plate and it starts on the road Friday night against the Central Valley Warriors.

Junior quarterback Dillon Buechel continued his impressive 2010 campaign tossing the football in a week five win over New Castle. Buechel completed 12 of 19 passes for 136 yards and a touchdown, giving him some very solid numbers indeed for the season. For the year he has now connected on 50 of 91 passes for 756 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Junior running back Julian Durden has been outstanding for the Spartans all season long as well he is clearly one of the best running back in the WPIAL on the season with 945 yards and 13 touchdowns already in the books, that would be a great season and he still has four regular season games to play.

Sophomore wide receiver Devin Wilson has been near the top of the WPIAL receivers list all season as well. The 6'3'' 175 pound Wilson has hauled in seven touchdowns on the year, including one in the 24-6 win over New castle last week.

Central Valley is enjoying remarkable success for a first year program in probably the deepest conference in all of the WPIAL. Of course it helps that the program is a combination of two very successful programs to begin with. The Warriors are off to a 4-1 start with their only loss being a nail biter to the defending champion West Allegheny Indians 30-27 in week two.

Junior quarterback Curtis Lewis makes the Warriors go offensively. On the season he has thrown for over 400 yards and four touchdowns, he is also their leading rusher carrying the football 56 times on the year for 365 yards and seven touchdown runs.

Out of the backfield the Warriors will pound you with senior fullback Paul Palumbo, and a pair of scooters in Tre Crumpton and Justin Shaw. The receiving corps is solid as well with Chad Phillis, Robert Foster and Dom Belcastro all joining senior tight end Lukas Turley (6'2'' 208 pounds) with multiple catches on the season.

Defensively the Warriors are allowing a Parkway conference low 12.6 points per game, if they are able to maintain that average Friday night against the Spartans they will have a great shot at pulling the upset.

WPIAL Class AA Century Conference
#4 Keystone Oaks Golden Eagles (3-0)(5-0) @ #3 South Fayette Lions (3-0)(5-0)
Friday October 8th @ 7:30pm
Broadcast on the MSA Sports Network and KDKA-FM 93.7 by Paul Paterra and Dan Zangrilli

This is one a lot of folks have been waiting for in the Century, both of these teams had tremendous success last year and returned loads of talent and experience to start the 2010 campaign. Just as many had circled this game on their calendar very early on expecting it to be a battle of unbeaten teams and that has panned out as well.

The South Fayette Lions are tremendously talented on both side of the football, led by 6'4'' 200 pound senior quarterback Christian Brumbaugh. Brumbaugh on the season has wracked up some spectacular numbers, completing 79 of 118 attempts throwing the ball for 1043 yards and 14 touchdowns already. Running back Jeff Davis is a threat running or catching it out of the backfield he has rushed for over 400 yards on the season already including running for four touchdowns.

The receiving group for Brumbaugh is deep and talented, in addition to Davis out of the backfield Tyler Challingsworth and Josh Patterson lead the way with great help from Zach Challingsworth and tight end Eric Myers.

Myers is a major force on the defensive side of the football as well, along with Tanner Courtad the duo makes life absolutely miserable for opposing running backs and quarterbacks. Up front on both sides Nolan Spicer is an all -WPIAL type of talent.

The Golden Eagles of Keystone Oaks do most of their considerable offensive damage on the ground led by senior quarterback Matt McCann who has amassed nearly 700 yards on the ground and rushed for 14touchdowns on the season all the while throwing for around 300 yards and another four scores. McCann gets a boost on the ground from senior running back Jordan Maddox who has pushed his rushing number up near the 400 yard mark to go along with three touchdowns.

Senior wide receiver Rico Canello has double digit catches for over 200 yards and 4 touchdowns on the year, considering the propensity of the Eagles to run it, those are some very good numbers, Canello also handles the kicking duties for Keystone Oaks.

The Golden Eagles get some serious from both McCann and Maddox as well they are two of the best linebackers in the WPIAL.

WPIAL Class A Tri-County South Conference
#7 Beth-Center Bulldogs (5-0)(5-0) @ #9 Monessen Greyhounds (4-0)(4-1)
Friday October 8th @ 7:00pm
Broadcast on the MSA Sports Network by Matt Vandriak and Mike Krcil

This is likely a battle for the Tri-County South conference championship, although of course they still need to finish out the regular season, the winner of this game is really in the driver's seat for the section crown.

These two teams have met three times since 2007 they split regular season games in 2008 and 2009 with Monessen winning 13-12 last year and Beth-Center winning 35-13 in 2008. They also met in the first round of the playoffs in 2007 with Monessen taking a convincing 32-6 win in that contest.

The Bulldogs and the Greyhounds have the two stingiest defenses in the Tri-County South. Monessen allows just 11.8 points per game while Beth-Center's defense has been just a skosh better at 11.6 points allowed per game.

Beth-Center relies heavily on junior quarterback Sal Faieta through the air and on the ground. Faieta at 6'1'' and 214 pounds has completed 24 of 44 passes on the year for 437 yards and five touchdowns. He has also rushed it to the tune of nearly 300 yards and five touchdowns, heck the guy even is a standout on defense with a 15 yard interception return for a touchdown in a week five 46-32 win over California.

The Bulldogs also have other contributors on offense, senior running back Jeff Tarley has around 300 yards on the ground to go with an impressive seven touchdowns on the year. Junior running back Jake Sofran had a monster game against California rolling to 11 yards on 17 carries plus a touchdown.

Monessen like always under head coach Andy Pacak is a very physical football team on both sides of the ball.

Brady Kunsa heading into last week had thrown for nearly 400 yards and four touchdowns. The senior quarterback gets help in the backfield from a pair of standout running backs in seniors Tre Cook abd Brett Crenshaw.

Cook on the year has amassed 323 yards on the ground to go with three touchdowns, his running mate Crenshaw also has the trifecta of touchdowns and he too is nearing 300 yards rushing on the year.

Tags: Beth-Center, Central Valley, Keystone Oaks, Monessen, Montour, Peters Township, South Fayette, Upper St. Clair