It's week two of high school football in Mercer County, and this Friday I will be at Tiger Stadium in Sharon for the rivalry matchup between the visiting Hickory Hornets and the homestanding Sharon Tigers.
Both teams are coming off humiliating losses in week one. Sharon is coming off a 42-12 loss at the hands of Wilmington at home to give Wilmington head coach Brandon Phillian his first win; and Hickory is coming off a 17-6 loss to Sharpsville to give Sharpsville coach Paul Piccirilli his 200th win. Both teams will seek to take their frustrations out on each other this Friday night in Sharon.
Jim Wildman, the head coach at Sharon, said after the loss that last year they started with two losses and ended up one win short of a trip to Hershey. Tigers fans should not be pushing the panic button if Sharon loses again on Friday night, because it could be a harbinger of things to come for the remainder of the season.
Hickory head coach Bill Brest should take a hard look at himself in the mirror following the first loss for the Hornets in a home opener since 2002. I suggest he read Joe Paterno's autobiography Paterno: By the Book and learn how the legend of JoePa emerged at Penn State in the late 1960s. What I suggest that he do on Friday night is put in a different sophomore player for each play on both offense and defense. JoePa did the same at Miami in 1967 and Penn State pulled an upset victory over the Hurricanes. After they nearly upset UCLA the following game, that talented class of sophomores would not lose another game for the remainder of their playing careers; thus the emergence of the legend of one Joseph Vincent Paterno. If coach Brest is reading this entry, he should take my suggestion to heart and do what JoePa did back in 1967. It could help restore the pride of Hickory football and lead to state championships, something that the city of Hermitage has not celebrated since 1989 when they defeated Montoursville.
The game will be broadcast on News/Talk 790 WPIC on Friday night. I will be on hand at Tiger Stadium armed with my iPad, game program and rosters so that I can jot down my game notes.
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Saturday, August 25, 2018
Recap of Grove City-Fort LeBoeuf football game 24 August 2018
Last night I found myself at Grove City's Forker Field for the week one game between homestanding Grove City and visiting Fort LeBoeuf.
The game was a rematch of last season's District 10 semifinal. Gameday weather was perfect for football. Grove City was playing without their injured lineman Lance Craig, although he still showed up to root on his teammates.
Fort LeBoeuf won the coin toss and elected to receive. But less than 90 seconds into the game, Seth Davis picked off a Cole Dauson pass at midfield, and it led to a Tyler Greer touchdown from 11 yards out. That set the tone for the remainder of the game.
On Grove City's next drive, lineman Matthew Howard scored when he recovered a loose ball in the end zone. Josh Hake's kick ricocheted off the left upright and it was 13-0 Grove City after one quarter of play.
Grove City would score three more touchdowns in the second quarter, two of them by Tyler Greer, and the other by Brady Callahan to make the halftime score 34-0 Grove City. I left the stadium at that point.
Colby Nelson would score Grove City's last two touchdowns in the third quarter; the first of which put the mercy clock into effect for the remainder of the night. And even though Fort LeBoeuf's Ben Turi spoiled the shutout bid in the fourth quarter with a 2 yard touchdown scamper, it was too little, too late. Grove City defeated Fort LeBoeuf 48-7.
And the stat of the night? That went to Tyler Greer with 201 yards rushing and 34 yards receiving.
Next Friday I will be at Tiger Stadium in Sharon for the rivalry matchup between the homestanding Sharon Tigers and the visiting Hickory Hornets. Both teams are coming off humiliating losses to Wilmington and Sharpsville, respectively, and will look to take their frustrations out on each other.
The game was a rematch of last season's District 10 semifinal. Gameday weather was perfect for football. Grove City was playing without their injured lineman Lance Craig, although he still showed up to root on his teammates.
Fort LeBoeuf won the coin toss and elected to receive. But less than 90 seconds into the game, Seth Davis picked off a Cole Dauson pass at midfield, and it led to a Tyler Greer touchdown from 11 yards out. That set the tone for the remainder of the game.
On Grove City's next drive, lineman Matthew Howard scored when he recovered a loose ball in the end zone. Josh Hake's kick ricocheted off the left upright and it was 13-0 Grove City after one quarter of play.
Grove City would score three more touchdowns in the second quarter, two of them by Tyler Greer, and the other by Brady Callahan to make the halftime score 34-0 Grove City. I left the stadium at that point.
Colby Nelson would score Grove City's last two touchdowns in the third quarter; the first of which put the mercy clock into effect for the remainder of the night. And even though Fort LeBoeuf's Ben Turi spoiled the shutout bid in the fourth quarter with a 2 yard touchdown scamper, it was too little, too late. Grove City defeated Fort LeBoeuf 48-7.
And the stat of the night? That went to Tyler Greer with 201 yards rushing and 34 yards receiving.
Next Friday I will be at Tiger Stadium in Sharon for the rivalry matchup between the homestanding Sharon Tigers and the visiting Hickory Hornets. Both teams are coming off humiliating losses to Wilmington and Sharpsville, respectively, and will look to take their frustrations out on each other.
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Preview of Grove City-Fort LeBoeuf game
It's time for the first preview of the first game that I will be blogging about this week: the homestanding Grove City Eagles and the visiting Fort LeBoeuf Bison.
Sam Mowrey is the head coach of the Eagles, in his fifth season with a record of 24 wins and 20 losses. Most of those losses came in the 2014 and 2015 seasons. In 2016, on the hot seat, Mowrey's Eagles came up short of winning a District X title, losing to rival Meadville. They finished their unfinished business last year, winning the District X 5A championship at Meadville's expense before running into Hollidaysburg in the first round of the PIAA playoffs.
The Eagles will have to replace their top rusher Trey Adams, as well as tight end Qadir Muhammad and placekicker Aidan Reed. Also, they lost Logan Minch, Nick Lanschak and Joe Kosick in the trenches.
Grove City returns the tandem of quarterback Brady Callahan, tailback Tyler Greer, and wide receiver Logan Lutz. You will recall that last season I produced the Grove City-Fort LeBoeuf District X semifinal game for SportsRadio 96.7 and in my "Mondak Minute", I proudly proclaimed that the game became the Logan Lutz show from the word go. Lutz torched the Bison defense for 200 yards rushing in the first half on his way to winning the O'Neill Coffee Player of the Game t-shirt.
Also returning for the Eagles are receivers Carter Chinn and Nick Murawski. In the trenches, Seth Davis, Jake Bush, Ron Howard, Nick Smither and Lance Craig return on the offensive line, while on the defensive line, Shawn Woods also returns. Seth Davis is among the returnees at linebacker.
The Fort LeBeouf Bison are coached by Jeff Nichols. He enters his fifteenth season with a record of 66 wins and 71 losses.
The Bison have only three starters on offense and four defensive starters returning: quarterback/defensive end Cole Dauson and offensive/defensive linemen Chuck Cornwell and Joe Gentile, along with Alex Jarrett in the secondary. Overall depth will be a question mark this season for the Bison with such a small senior class this season.
I will be on hand at Forker Field in Grove City on Friday night covering the game for this blog. The game will be broadcast on WWIZ-FM 103.9 (Z104) with KDKA-TV News This Morning co-anchor Rick Dayton and former Grove City coach Jeff Bell calling the game.
Sam Mowrey is the head coach of the Eagles, in his fifth season with a record of 24 wins and 20 losses. Most of those losses came in the 2014 and 2015 seasons. In 2016, on the hot seat, Mowrey's Eagles came up short of winning a District X title, losing to rival Meadville. They finished their unfinished business last year, winning the District X 5A championship at Meadville's expense before running into Hollidaysburg in the first round of the PIAA playoffs.
The Eagles will have to replace their top rusher Trey Adams, as well as tight end Qadir Muhammad and placekicker Aidan Reed. Also, they lost Logan Minch, Nick Lanschak and Joe Kosick in the trenches.
Grove City returns the tandem of quarterback Brady Callahan, tailback Tyler Greer, and wide receiver Logan Lutz. You will recall that last season I produced the Grove City-Fort LeBoeuf District X semifinal game for SportsRadio 96.7 and in my "Mondak Minute", I proudly proclaimed that the game became the Logan Lutz show from the word go. Lutz torched the Bison defense for 200 yards rushing in the first half on his way to winning the O'Neill Coffee Player of the Game t-shirt.
Also returning for the Eagles are receivers Carter Chinn and Nick Murawski. In the trenches, Seth Davis, Jake Bush, Ron Howard, Nick Smither and Lance Craig return on the offensive line, while on the defensive line, Shawn Woods also returns. Seth Davis is among the returnees at linebacker.
The Fort LeBeouf Bison are coached by Jeff Nichols. He enters his fifteenth season with a record of 66 wins and 71 losses.
The Bison have only three starters on offense and four defensive starters returning: quarterback/defensive end Cole Dauson and offensive/defensive linemen Chuck Cornwell and Joe Gentile, along with Alex Jarrett in the secondary. Overall depth will be a question mark this season for the Bison with such a small senior class this season.
I will be on hand at Forker Field in Grove City on Friday night covering the game for this blog. The game will be broadcast on WWIZ-FM 103.9 (Z104) with KDKA-TV News This Morning co-anchor Rick Dayton and former Grove City coach Jeff Bell calling the game.
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Welcome... and my two cents on the PIAA
Here it is... the debut of my new blog on high school sports in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Welcome one and all!
Recently the PIAA announced changes to the eligibility rules regarding transferred students. A player who transfers schools due to changes in a parent/guardian's job status, marriage or a court order is eligible to play for their new school immediately. If their sole purpose for the transfer was to play a sport, then unless there is a co-op agreement in place, then the player must sit out one season. I have no clue as to what this means for foreign exchange students.
Also, it has come to light that there has been some debate going on for years on whether the PIAA should have separate tournaments for public and private schools. The debate about this has been ongoing because public schools have combined for losing records to private schools in PIAA-sanctioned tournaments. To settle this debate, individual districts should have policies in place to play only other public schools, and private schools should have similar policies to play only other private schools.
This coming season in football, Brandon Phillian will have some huge shoes to fill as he takes over the Wilmington Greyhounds football program following the retirement of Terry Verelli. I believe that Brandon will do as good a job as Verelli did for all those years. Having previously worked with him on basketball games on the radio, I feel that Brandon was a good choice to take over a successful football program.
Hickory football will be out to prove that last season's shocking collapse was a fluke. If head coach Bill Brest did something similar to what Joe Paterno did in the late 1980s when Penn State had its first losing season under him, then Bill Brest needs to return to his head coaching roots and rekindle the spark that made the Hornets winners of six consecutive District X football championships.
In basketball, my friend Matt Durisko will be taking over as the head coach of the Sharpsville Blue Devils boys basketball program. I feel that he is the perfect choice to lead the Blue Devils out of the desert starting this coming season.
Regarding football and this blog, this is a list of the 2018 high school football regular season games that I plan on blogging about:
24 August: Grove City v. Fort LeBoeuf
31 August: Sharon v. Hickory
7 September: Slippery Rock v. Franklin
14 September: Wilmington v. Lakeview
21 September: Mercer v. Union City
28 September: Lakeview v. Sharpsville
5 October: Greenville v. Seneca
12 October: Reynolds v. Farrell
19 October: Lakeview v. Mercer
26 October: Greenville v. Maplewood
For these games, I will be at the stadiums armed with my iPad, stylus and game program to jot down game notes that I will compile into blog entries about these games.
This blog is a new undertaking following my recent resignation from the radio station. I plan on covering the same sports that I did when I was employed with the station.
I hope this blog will be a success for many years to come.
Recently the PIAA announced changes to the eligibility rules regarding transferred students. A player who transfers schools due to changes in a parent/guardian's job status, marriage or a court order is eligible to play for their new school immediately. If their sole purpose for the transfer was to play a sport, then unless there is a co-op agreement in place, then the player must sit out one season. I have no clue as to what this means for foreign exchange students.
Also, it has come to light that there has been some debate going on for years on whether the PIAA should have separate tournaments for public and private schools. The debate about this has been ongoing because public schools have combined for losing records to private schools in PIAA-sanctioned tournaments. To settle this debate, individual districts should have policies in place to play only other public schools, and private schools should have similar policies to play only other private schools.
This coming season in football, Brandon Phillian will have some huge shoes to fill as he takes over the Wilmington Greyhounds football program following the retirement of Terry Verelli. I believe that Brandon will do as good a job as Verelli did for all those years. Having previously worked with him on basketball games on the radio, I feel that Brandon was a good choice to take over a successful football program.
Hickory football will be out to prove that last season's shocking collapse was a fluke. If head coach Bill Brest did something similar to what Joe Paterno did in the late 1980s when Penn State had its first losing season under him, then Bill Brest needs to return to his head coaching roots and rekindle the spark that made the Hornets winners of six consecutive District X football championships.
In basketball, my friend Matt Durisko will be taking over as the head coach of the Sharpsville Blue Devils boys basketball program. I feel that he is the perfect choice to lead the Blue Devils out of the desert starting this coming season.
Regarding football and this blog, this is a list of the 2018 high school football regular season games that I plan on blogging about:
24 August: Grove City v. Fort LeBoeuf
31 August: Sharon v. Hickory
7 September: Slippery Rock v. Franklin
14 September: Wilmington v. Lakeview
21 September: Mercer v. Union City
28 September: Lakeview v. Sharpsville
5 October: Greenville v. Seneca
12 October: Reynolds v. Farrell
19 October: Lakeview v. Mercer
26 October: Greenville v. Maplewood
For these games, I will be at the stadiums armed with my iPad, stylus and game program to jot down game notes that I will compile into blog entries about these games.
This blog is a new undertaking following my recent resignation from the radio station. I plan on covering the same sports that I did when I was employed with the station.
I hope this blog will be a success for many years to come.
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