Scholastic Notebook – 10/14/2016

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, October 14, 2016 | 5:45 PM

At least in two respects, there has never been a fall sports season like this at Derry Area High School.

The Derry football team is perfect and the girls soccer team is headed to the postseason. No one has ever been able to say those two things before.

Derry’s football team is 7-0. The last time Derry was 7-0 was 1983. That year, the Trojans lost their eighth game to Greensburg Central Catholic. Derry will try to go 8-0 with a win against Ellwood City Friday.

Derry has never had a regular season with a perfect record. Derry Township had a perfect record in the 1930s, but that was before the school merged with Derry Borough to form Derry Area.

From the gridiron to the pitch. The Derry Area girls soccer team has made the WPIAL playoffs for the first time in school history. The Trojan girls finished in second place in Class 2A Section 3 and qualified for the playoffs. A year ago, the Derry girls finished 6-11 and in last place of their section.

Carrying the Load

Armstrong’s Zane Dudek and Mapletown’s Dylan Rush are by far the two leading rushers in the WPIAL. Nobody comes close to their yardage totals. Nobody comes close to carrying the same workload, either.

Dudek has carried 210 times, an average of 30 a game. Rush has carried the ball even more – 240 times for an average of 34 a game. No other WPIAL running back has more than 175 carries.

Dudek has rushed for 2,206 yards while Rush has 1,633. No one else in the WPIAL has more than 1,291 yards.

Wade Chasing Boyd

People have tried to compare Clairton star Lamont Wade with former Clairton star Tyler Boyd. Comparisons aside, Wade is about to run past Boyd – at least on the school-record list.

Boyd, now a receiver for the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals, is Clairton’s all-time leading rusher with 5,755 yards from 2009-12. The mark is good for fifth place on the WPIAL’s all-time rushing list.

Wade has 5,726 yards and needs only 30 yards Friday to pass Boyd.

Southmoreland Out…Again

It looks like Southmoreland won’t be making the WPIAL football playoffs for another year.

Southmoreland is 1-5 overall and 1-3 in the WPIAL 3A Interstate Conference. The Scotties are second-to-last in the conference. That means Southmoreland will miss the playoffs again. The last time they qualified was 1979.

Frank-ly Speaking

Frank Antuono started his career as a defensive lineman at Neshannock three years ago as a freshman. Now, he is closing in on 7,000 career yards offense.

Antuono, a senior quarterback, heads into Friday’s game with 6,577 yards offense. He has amassed that total in only three seasons. He has completed 274 of 459 for 4,609 yards and also rushed for 1,968 yards on 334 attempts.

With three games still left, Antuono seems to be assured of passing for 5,000 career yards and running for 2,000. That hasn’t happened often in WPIAL history.

Sewickley’s Dynasties

Sewickley Academy has one dynasty in boys tennis. The school might have another in boys golf.

The Sewickley Academy boys golf team won the WPIAL Class AA championship Thursday at Cedarbrook Golf Club. The Indians shot 387 while McGuffey was second with 395 and South Park third with 426.

It was the fourth consecutive title for coach Win Palmer’s team. The last WPIAL team to win four golf titles in a row was South Fayette from 2002-05. Sewickley Academy also has won seven WPIAL titles over the past 11 years.

In boys tennis, which is played in the spring, Sewickley Academy has won 13 consecutive WPIAL titles.

GCC’s Cartwright Breaks WPIAL Record

There has never been a girls soccer player in the WPIAL who has found the back of the net more often than Greensburg Central Catholic’s Bailey Cartwright.

Cartwright set a new WPIAL goal-scoring record when she scored three on Wednesday against Apollo-Ridge. She now has 211 goals, breaking the record set a few years ago by former Greensburg Central Catholic player Frannie Crouse, who now plays for Penn State.

But Cartwright has done more than score in her career. She has set up scorers. Cartwright had 147 career assists, which also is a WPIAL record. The old record holder also was a Greensburg Central player. Malea Fabean had 118 assists in her career.

Tags: Armstrong, Clairton, Derry Area, Greensburg C.C.