After a night when McGuffey shut out the top-ranked team in Class AA, the Varsity Letters is still trying to grasp some of the results from Friday night.
Greensburg-Salem 10, Trinity 7.
Geibel 27, Bentworth 21.
Waynesburg 27, South Allegheny 7.
Burgettstown 7, Beth-Center 6.
Clairton 46, Monessen 0.
What a wild Friday night. Depending on your point of view, wild might not be the word.
* Maybe McGuffey's win over Greensburg Central Catholic - a team that was in every one's Class AA state rankings - will shed some light on the incredible progress the Highlanders have made the past three years.
McGuffey wasn't much of a football team when Derek Bochna took over as coach. It took some time. There were some rumblings. The Highlanders proved themselves yet again with a 6-0 win over GCC.
Think about that for one second. McGuffey shut out one of the more potent, balanced offenses around.
* If a few other Wash High players follow the lead of Bryan Thomas and Zach Barnes and start tackling near the line of scrimmage, the Prexies will contend for a playoff spot out of the Class AA Interstate Conference.
* Speaking of the Interstate Conference, Mt. Pleasant enters Week 3 as the early favorite. Remember, it's Week 3.
* Pittsburgh Central Catholic's Damian Jones-Moore is a special offensive talent.
Covered the Wash High-Mt. Pleasant game but caught the replay of the Canon-McMillan/PCC game on PCN. Looked like C-M played excellent defense for three quarters. Also looked like the Big Macs' front lines were worn down by a bigger, more experienced group.
* What a win for Burgettstown.
Not sure if the average TVL reader knows how tough it is to win at Beth-Center or how good the Bulldogs have been the past 6-7 years.
The Blue Devils have a big one coming up when Serra Catholic comes to Hill Memorial Stadium.
* Kudos to Waynesburg for bouncing back after a tough opening loss. Then again, that's what Joe Kuhns-coached teams did at California for years. Maybe it shouldn't be so surprising.
37 comments:
What????? No comments about Trinity losing to a team they ran all over last year??
The attempt to convert the offense is turning into mass confusion, poor execution, no sense of direction or purpose, questionable play calling, personnel deployment, etc., etc.
bears46 hounds0 how you drop a team from no.1 out of the top 5 with a road loss up north? wake up the bears will be at hienz unlike most of the wash co. teams
Mike, I was at the McGuffey/GCC game and it was an extremely exciting contest. Both defenses were impressive. However, I can't see either team going undefeated for the balance of the season. Neither team showed much in the way of offense. I think the conference champ will be the winner of the Jeannette/Mt Pleasant game.I also did some research and am surprised at the number of players on the GCC squad.
The GCC team numbers represent 30% of the total male enrollment. GCC has basically the same number of players as McGuffey (17%), Trinity
(12%) and Canon-Mac (10%).All these teams have between 50 -60 players.GCC has only 197 males compared to CM with 599. Kinda makes me wonder how CGG can get that many players.
Chuck
WHOA how about those Bears!! 46-0 jeez makes u think that last week's game was truly a fluke......i dont kno but I think the REAL Clairton Bears are officially back......this is just the begining........Let's Go Bears!!!
What's the word why the great lloyd price was suspended by the school district for last night's game?
how did peters do against kiski mike?
Now can I call for Dalton's departure???
You've taken the sails out of this blog trying to monitor content. It's Saturday afternoon and there is nothing to be read yet about last night's games. just ignore the pinheads with big mouths and leave it the way it is. You can continue to remove the improper posts without delaying every psst for your approval.
great win for mcguffey. im surprised uniontown only lost by 15 to TJ
Clairton 46
Monessen 0
back on track...still not thrilled with this team...they still lack crispness and explosivity but at least this was a step in the right direction. Problem now is we really dont have another challenge until Serra (maybe burgettstown, maybe)...so the potential for some soft untested wins worries me. We'll see.
On a side note, how about Laurel beating North Catholic and going 2-0...maybe Laurel is for real.
why go for the punt block while winning? i understand going for it down 2 scores and trying to get something going. CM had central on the ropes and were about to get awesome field position with a chance to really hurt central. poor, poor coaching decision to go for the block in the situation.
Mike:
CM played stellar defense and Mike Hull showed once again just how special of a player he is.....enjoy him C-burg you'll only get to see this kid up close & personal for 8 or 9 more weeks. The offense except for the trick play of Hull's pass was pathetic and even with the addition of Chad Hagan(a great outcome for a great kid) the line will have trouble again this week against a much improved Woody High and in the future against their section foes BP & USC. Woe to this CM program next year because there is no Mike Hull on the horizon.
Clairton Alum,
Your absolutey correct. It seemed like our Bears is missing something. I really can't grasp it right now. Sure the score was lopsided but the game just had no flow in it esp the first half. The Bears have alot of room to grow. Des Green has a cannon for an arm but its not effective when he's overthrowing passes. I'd like to see some reverses and reverse passes and other trickery to get the ball into Kevin Weatherspoons hands.
Trinity's converting the offense isn't the major problem at this juncture - just part of it. Good God Dalton seems to be clueless on what he is doing out there. He didn't even leave his starting running back Dan Miller in after he marched the ball down to the goal line! He pulled him for the rest of the game and put in the 2nd stringer!!! Last year Miller rushed for over 200 yards against the same team! This guy's loony! And every time I turned around his D1 prospects were on the bench! Those guys should never leave the field. I hope Dalton's still not trying to figure out why they lost. It was obvious to everyone in the stands from the 1st quarter on.
Lloyd Price was suspended for fighting for two of his players against the school boards will. I will not say what the kids did, but he represented them or took the stand or something for the kids and Ringgold's Administration was not happy about it. Without Price being at that Albert Gallatin game, the Rams payed the price. (No Pun Intended) The defense actually played stellar, but the Rams turned the ball over at least 6 times because of poor game management and gave the Colonials good field position. If the Rams turn the ball over 3-4 times they would have rolled by at least 3 touchdowns. A win is a win though and the Rams should roll next week.
The "delay" in our postings is a little on the frustrating side but some of us had to ruin it for the whole group.
Trinity has the athletes. Dalton just needs to figure out how to use them.
Wash High was very soft on D. They didn't want to get hit or hit/tackle. Too many arm tackles, not enough guts/toughness. They got bullied on their home turf.
Yea your right the bulldogs have been good since they dropped down to class A 6-7yrs ago.That section is not too strong.
CM's line wore down against Central because centrals lineman play one way not two. you can only play three against ten for so long before you just wear down.
Add to that the fact that CM lost it's best Def. lineman Johnson for the game in the 1st quarter. Central has almost 100 on their roster and their guys only play one way. To hold Central scoreless for three quarters and actually be leading was a superb effort against the no.1 ranked team in the state poll.
CM's line wore down against Central because centrals lineman play one way not two. you can only play three against ten for so long before you just wear down.
September 14, 2009 9:51 AM
What's the excuse for the pathetic offensive performance in the FIRST half. Except for the Mike Hull halfback pass the offense did nothing. The 2-way excuse is just convenient......the offense did nothing to help the defense. There are no weak sisters in AAAA.
Mike,Anon 11:03 is correct. Also it has been said & printed that CM was 2 deep at every position on the line. Not my words but that of the geadcoach. Why then not move fresh people in to off-st the the so called one way advantage. Many high schools have players go both ways.....simply put that is high school football. Stop with excuses.
The truth is Central was very undisciplined with stupid penalties or the score would have been worse.
A and AA have a lot of players going both ways. Once you get to AAA and AAAA its only a few. How many did Central have going both ways? Zero. As far as first half What did central do? not much either.
D
D.
Have you seen BP, USC, or NA play, just to name 3? They have a lot of kids going both ways. BP won a WPIAL title last year and USC has won 5 & 2 states with kids going both ways and these are teams in the conference. Again stop with the excuses and again I ask if CM is said to be "2 deep at every position" then why not use fresh players and get some rest for the others. I do not want this post to censored so I am reluctant to say I question the coaching decision to stick with the same players without substituting but that decision deserves some scrutiny since it was he that made that claim in the Pre-season Almanac.
Mike this is not a personal attack but I feel a fair question to ask.
The last post I agree with. If CM is 2 deep like the coach said then play more kids.
I agree with last post too. If CM is two deep on line then play more kids. especially on defense D
Can any of you Trinity fans out there explain the 0-2 start for your Hillers. I've heard all of the excuses, CM has more kids, the refs blew the game with a PI call.........
The fact is Trinity, once again, is underperforming with a lot of talent and size. Is there any explanation for this? It has always been my contention that Eddie is not a good game day coach, this start proves my assumption correct.
Prove me wrong!
Dalton likes to do weekly Hiller Fan Polls. Here's one I would like to see:
Rate current Trinity head coach Ed Dalton's ability to effectively coach a game on game day.
1. Awesome
2. Great
3. Good
4. Average
5. Poor
An excellent Athletic Director does not a game day coach make!
There must be a way to get around this.
According to the WPIAL, It's the Hillers first 0-2 start since 1999 for God Sakes! I really think people were much happier when Trinity was 1-9 every year and NEVER made the playoffs.
So what if Dalton has a bad season. Still the winningest (is that even a word, Mike?) coach in the past 50 years!! And for those who think Trinity has a ton of talent, name the talent! And when you name the talent, list their accomplishments in Varsity Football. I keep hearing about the Miller kid, Steratore, Havralak, Bryant, Wilkins, the big O'Line: What have they accomplished? What stats do they have for everyone to say they are sooo talented?!! Just cuz you are big, doesn't mean your talented. It just means you were well fed!
I keep hearing how talented this group is but I don't see it. There isn't one player on that field that has accomplished a single reason to be called talented! Please prove me wrong so I can jump on the Dalton Lynching Bandwagon!!
Just because Mommy, Daddy, and Uncle Billy tell you their son is a great athlete doesn't make it true!
Do they have a running back like Ben Jennings on the roster....NO! Do they have a good QB like Cody Endres.....NO! Do they have a stud defensive player like Andrew Sweat....NO!
If the most recent poster is not Ed Dalton then my bet is you're a relative of him, because no one else would ever claim he does not have talented kids on that team. Ever hear of Kenny Wilkens? A dozen or so top D1 schools have, they've offered him a scholarship to play football for them.
You want to know what these current players have done so far in varsity football, not much, its the second game of the season and Trinity was mostly seniors last year. You do remember last year, 5-5, a team loaded with seniors. Do you remember the team with the 3 D1 LB's, did they have talent that year?
You will never win an arguement claiming that Trinity has lacked talent the past 5 years, it will never happen. They've been loaded.
Anon (11:49am)...
You typed the words right out of my hands! Those are exactly my thoughts as well.
It seems everyone just loves to bash Ed Dalton and Trinity, but these people never demonstrate any rationality.
The Hillers lost to a #7 ranked Quad A team with the BEST LB in the state. Gbg Salem isn't half bad and the course of the season will show that. Trinity will win between 3-5 games this year. Thats just the reality of it.
They are not all that big, and the talent isn't what it was back in 2005 and 2007.
I don't agree with 8:48 p.m. Anon.
Trinity returned several starters on both sides of the football from 2008's team. Don't have the exact numbers in front of me.
To say Wilkins hasn't done anything at the high school level isn't correct. Whether or not he's off to slow start this year, he was first team all-state as a junior and deserved the accolade. Came close to 90 tackles as a DL, hard to do.
Trinity may not have lacked talent but anyone who has watched them with an objective eye since the Hillers became respectable knows one thing. When Trinity plays teams like C-M, the opponent is faster at nearly every position.
In my opinion, Trinity has had two burners in recent years - Ben Jennings and Mike Yancich. My opinion may be a bit old-fashioned, but a few of the football players would be served by going out for track.
Hey Mike...Troy Garove was pretty fast.
I feel like there is something to the idea that Dalton has got the program as far as he can. I'm not sure what they should do from here, but to say that they have lacked talent is completely off base.
Since their move back to AAA, they seem to have had a steady stream of Div. 1 players but have very little in the way of team success to show for it. They should have at least been able to play with TJ in the past 3 years after beating Penn Hills in the playoffs 4 years ago, but the combined score against TJ in their last 3 games has been 105-14.
I don't think anyone can pin that on the kids - Trinity has had some impressive talent in these past 3 years.
Mike, regretfully, they aren't using the speed they have to it's potential. That's part of the problem.
I don't think anyone can pin that on the kids - Trinity has had some impressive talent in these past 3 years.
September 16, 2009 12:23 PM
Nobody can dispute the talent of Trinity over the past 3-4 years, just check the number of players that have gone on to play D-1 but the problem when it comes to playing TJ is they not only have had more talent but Bill Cherpak is superior coach. This is not a knock on Ed Dalton because except for the guy at Upper St. Clair I do not believe there is a better coach in the entire WPIAL.
To those who believe there is no talent on this Trinity class, please explain to me what happened to a class who, as freshmen, went undefeated against teams like Chartiers Valley, Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park, and Canon-Mac? They beat most of these teams by 30 points. Help me, I'm confused! Their running backs were averaging nearly 10 yds. per carry. Only one team scored more than one touchdown against them. What's changed besides the game coach and the system?
I agree with Anon 9:15, what did happen to this Senior group? Those 8th grade teams, 9th grade teams, and the JV teams have all been very good.
The current Senior Class were really good as 8th graders, undefeated as Freshmen, and undefeated as JV players. What happened??
Post a Comment