Westmoreland high school football notebook: Derry’s Huss records half to remember

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Saturday, October 19, 2019 | 7:30 PM

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Derry fans will remember for some time the game senior running back Justin Huss had Friday night. Or should we say, the half he had.

Huss ran for a school-record 304 yards and four touchdowns on 10 carries against Deer Lakes, all before resting in the second half, as the Trojans (7-2) clinched a WPIAL Class 3A playoff spot and a home game in the opening round in two weeks.

“The line was amazing,” Huss said. “They did a great job and really opened up the holes for me. I just had to work hard at practice through the week to transfer it to the game. The entire team had a good week at practice, and I think that’s why we played well (Friday).”

The previous rushing record was 274 yards set by Denny Molchan against Mt. Pleasant Ramsay in 1960.

Huss said he never imagined running for that many yards in a half. He scored on runs of 61, 62, 94 and 49 yards, and also caught a 20-yard touchdown from Paul Koontz.

“The defense helped out by giving the offense good field position,” he said.

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On the run

Huss moved slightly further ahead of Ligonier Valley senior running back Kyrie Miller for the Westmoreland rushing lead with one week left in the regular season.

Huss has 1,473 yards, but Miller is keeping pace with 1,417 yards. Miller ran for 258 yards and four touchdowns Friday in a 58-14 win over Blairsville.

Both players missed one game this season, Huss because of injury and Miller because of a forfeit.

Ligonier Valley, which last week voted to join the WPIAL next year, won its fourth consecutive undefeated Heritage Conference title with a perfect record.

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Roby runs wild

The rushing performance of the night Friday in the area belonged to unheralded Hempfield senior running back Nathan Roby. He ran for 313 yards and six touchdowns on 25 carries as the Spartans downed Butler, 55-28.

Roby scored five times on short runs but also shook loose for a 70-yard score.

The 5-foot-7, 155-pound Roby continues to prove he is one of the top playmakers in the 6A conference.

He has Hempfield records for touchdowns in a season (18) and career (29).

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Defensive struggle

Greensburg Central Catholic and Cornell played to a 0-0 stalemate through regulation Friday and went to overtime.

That’s when Cornell finally broke the plane to score an 8-0 victory over the Centurions.

“It was just a great football game,” GCC coach Bret Colbert said. “Their coach said it best: It’s too bad someone had to lose. Both defenses bent but didn’t break — until they scored in OT.”

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Playoff picture

Mt. Pleasant (Class 3A) remains in the WPIAL playoff chase heading into the final week of the regular season.

Mt. Pleasant (4-5), tied for fifth with Deer Lakes in the Class 3A Big East Conference at 3-4, needs to beat Uniontown and have Burrell lose to Derry, and Deer Lakes lose to North Catholic, to clinch the fourth spot.

Greensburg Central Catholic (6-3) has clinched one of the two wild-card spots in Class A. The top two third-place teams in three conferences qualify as wild cards.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Derry Area, Greensburg C.C., Hempfield, Ligonier Valley, Mt. Pleasant