Friday, October 7, 2011

Friday notebook

Monessen showed plenty of toughness last year when several Greyhounds moved from skill positions to the offensive line during a key win over Beth-Center.

Fullback Jalen Madison and tailback Brett Crenshaw (graduated) made the moves to help an offensive front decimated by injury. The Greyhounds looked fine as they rolled to a 20-6 win that locked up the Tri-County South Conference and may not have been as close as the final score indicated.

That Greyhounds toughness will be on display again tonight as Monessen travels to Beth-Center. Both teams are unbeaten in the Tri-County South and the winner basically locks up the conference championship.

Monessen junior quarterback Chavas Rawlins, one of the top athletes in Class A, suffered an injury to his throwing hand during last week's shutout loss at North Catholic. Rawlins told me he will play at Beth-Center despite a chipped and dislocated knuckle bone.

That will likely limit Monessen's passing game, so expect the Greyhounds to run Madison behind a big offensive line.

* Beth-Center junior Cody Durant is turning into a big-play specialist.

Durant leads a balanced Beth-Center offense with 301 yards rushing and he has 125 yards receiving. Durant is averaging 10.7 yards per carry, 17.9 yards per catch, 35 yards per punt return, 31 yards per kickoff return and he returned an interception for an 89-yard touchdown.

Durant's 11 touchdowns is tied with Nick Zupper of Waynesburg for most in the area.

* Trinity senior Tyler Yocca posted on his Twitter feed Thursday that his knee injury is a "full torn acl in need of surgery."

Earlier in the week, Trinity head coach Ed Dalton said he believed Yocca would not play the remainder of the season. Yocca led the Hillers with 274 rushing yards and had several big plays through the first four games.

Trinity plays at Elizabeth Forward tonight.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Time for Monessen to do a coaching search. 46-0? They are lost and demoralized right now...another first round exit in the playoffs is looming...