Team of the Week - South Fayette
Several quality candidates were considered this week but no one, with all due respect to Ringgold, posted as quality a road win as South Fayette - the No. 3 Class AA team in the Observer-Reporter rankings.
The Lions won their seventh consecutive road game behind their balanced offense, highly successful fourth-down conversions and an opportunistic defense that helped South Fayette overcome several mistakes.
Tanner Courtad returned an interception 96 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the third quarter. The defense made Steel Valley's Delrece Williams, the WPIAL's second leading rusher through two weeks, work for his 122 yards. Williams had 29 carries.
Quarterback Christian Brumbaugh threw for three touchdowns, including two on fourth-down passes.
Runner-up - Ringgold
Starting 11
Christian Brumbaugh, South Fayette
Jeff Davis, South Fayette
Mykel Dorsey, Chartiers-Houston
Andrew Erenberg, Peters Township
Derrick Fiore, Ringgold
Damond Goggins, Ringgold
Gary Kiefer, Fort Cherry
Quad Law, Ringgold
Danial Lis, Chartiers-Houston
Alec Schram, Canon-McMillan
Jake Sofran, Beth-Center
First sub
Tanner Courtad, South Fayette
Game of the Week - Ringgold 36, Hollidaysburg 21
Ringgold's run as one of the WPIAL's top rushing offenses continued in a tough test of character, and one seriously long bus ride, to Hollidaysburg, which, like Ringgold, entered the Keystone Conference contest with a 2-0 record.
The Rams (1-0, 3-0) trailed early but, behind a trio of 100-yard rushers, rallied and ended this one in a runaway.
Ringgold, which plays Greensburg-Salem in a key game this week, rushed for 463 yards. Quarterback Quad Law went for 168 with two touchdowns on 16 carries. Damond Goggins had 162 yards on only 15 carries. Derrick Fiore, one of the district's leading rushers, finished with 133 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries.
Weird, wild stuff - Beth-Center leads the WPIAL with 163 points scored, seven more than Clairton (156). The Bulldogs have played one team (Frazier) with a winning record but hit a tough four-game stretch starting this week. Beth-Center plays (in succession) Carmichaels, California, Monessen and Avonworth. The latter two games on the road. ... Winless Charleroi played Greensburg Central Catholic without Quentin Briggs, Klye Shannon and Cory Altemara. As rough as the start of the season's been for the Cougars, Briggs and Altemara may return this week against East Allegheny. ... Rochester has not allowed a point. ... Clairton, Chartiers-Houston and Brentwood are all undefeated. No other team from the Black Hills Conference has a winning record and four - Avella, Bentworth, Carlynton and Serra Catholic - are winless.
10 comments:
Mike - I cant say youre wrong with S. Fayette as team of the week - what they did was impressive..And I cant say I know them like you do...But what makes Ringgold's victory impressive in my eyes is that they have no winning tradition going back 20 years, no experience in going into a hostile environment and winning a game that in previous years would have been a loss under these circumstances. All the while being led by a rookie 26 yr old head coach who's learning on the fly. Plus thrown in a 2.5 hour bus ride preceded by an early dismissal froms school - when did that ever occur for a 7PM game...
All great points Sword. That's what made it a tough decision.
Here's another great stat: In the five games Matt Humbert has coached Ringgold (including two as an interim last year), the Rams are 5-0 and scored 30-plus points in each.
Coincidence? I'll go with good coaching.
To the Ringgold School Board:
Being that Matt Humbert was signed to only a 1 yr contract, please get his signature on the standard 3 yr deal sooner than later....He wants to stay.....Hes doing a great job....Dont let these kids suffer another coaching channge..
Nothing against the job that Humbert is currently doing, but coaches prove their worth over the long haul, not just 5 games or even a season for that matter. You have to consider this team a product of the last regime no matter how bad we hate to do that. Give Humbert a few seasons and if he is still producing winners, then we can call him a good coach. Until then, the credit goes to the athletes who are making a good transition. Just ask Wash High fans, who were ready to erect a monument for Bosnic after last year, if the first year is the "tell tale" year. There are many great coaches in this area who never get mentioned after continued success, yet we are praising this rookie after 5 games. And another thing, Sarcastic Sword, didn't Ringgold win quite a few games during Colborn and Venick years? I believe Venick also won a conference championship in AAAA in 1999. That's not quite 20 years ago.
@ watergate......You do realize that Matt Humbert and 5 of his staffers were around Ringgold football in one fashion or another last year and that Humbert was working with these athletes when Lloyd Price hightailed it out of Ringgold with no guarantee that he would be hired, right? Oh, thats right...you don't know....an average of over 300 yards per game rushing has to do with some know how on how to put these great athletes in position to be successful. Is he a great coach, time will tell as you say, however, he stuck around to make sure these kids had some continuity for this season if he was hired and it looks like its turning out for the best! A coach that cares about kids having a good chance, now that is something to feel good about!!!
Petrucci won with Russ Moore's players and Humbert is winning with Price's players. With this being said, Humbert called the plays last year and is calling them this year. Ringgold will always produce speed; this is just the nature of Ringgold. As long as Humbert can stay around and run the spread, Ringgold can be decent.
My point about Humbert was not to annoint him the next Vince Lombardi but to express my hope that he gets a multi-yr contract at season's end....Having 8 coaches in 11 yrs is quite pathetic...Ringgold typically hires on a 3 yr deal - he got a one yr deal and I understand why..Just provide some stability for these kids and let them know their coach isnt going anywhere..
When Russ Moore was head coach, the class of 2009 seniors were just freshman....Steve Campos took over for Moore in 2007..Petruccci took over the reigns for the 08 and 09 seasons...Not really fair to say that Petrucci won with Moore's players when Moore had nothing to do with those players since he only had them as freshman and back then Ringgold had a freshman team and Moore's involvement with them was minimal at best...
Come on, Rick Smith could have won with these players and most importantly, in this conference.
And your point about the Black Hills conference was????? The Black Hills conference worst team would probably mercy rule the bottom 3 in the TCS. While the BHC played the Big 7 in week 2, the TCS played each other. Not Weird or Wild, just a fact.
Beth-Center Bulldogs : (3-0) - (3-0)
Monessen Greyhounds : (3-0) - (3-0)
California Trojans : (2-0) - (2-1)
Frazier Commodores : (2-1) - (2-1)
Jefferson-Morgan Rockets : (1-1) - (2-1)
Geibel Gators : (1-2) - (1-2)
Carmichaels Mighty Mikes : (0-2) - (1-2)
Mapletown Maples : (0-3) - (0-3)
West Greene Pioneers : (0-3) - (0-3)
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