Football season winding down
It’s hard to believe, but Week 9 of the high school football regular season is here and that means the final game of the 2015 campaign for four of the five Greene County teams.
There’s plenty on the line in the final week, as two county rivals are battling for a playoff berth, one county team is trying to play spoiler, one county team is trying to get their leading rusher more scores and one county team is searching for its first win of the year.
For some seniors it’s the final time they will step on a football field. For the underclassmen, they want to end the year on a positive note and carry momentum over to next season.
Heated rivals Carmichaels (4-4, 4-3) and Jefferson-Morgan (4-4, 4-3) will face off tonight at Parker Field with the fourth and final playoff spot in the Tri-County South Conference on the line. It’s do-or-die, its win-or-go-home.
Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on greenesports.net.
Waynesburg Central (1-7, 1-6) will look to dash Derry’s playoff hopes tonight on the road. Derry and Burgettstown are battling it out for the final playoff spot in the Interstate Conference.
Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. The Raiders won last year’s contest 28-19 at home.
Mapletown (3-5, 3-5) ended its conference schedule last week and hosts non-conference foe Monessen tonight. First kick is at 7 p.m. in Greensboro.
The Maples’ sophomore tailback Dylan Rush is currently in second place in the Herald-Standard Touchdown Club race with 130 points. Rush trails two-time winner Anthony Welsh from Beth-Center by 26 points.
West Greene (0-8, 0-7) will look to end its season with a bang and grab its first win of 2015 against Avella. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on greenesports.net.
Before we look ahead to tonight’s action, let’s look back at last week’s games.
Carmichaels kept its playoff hopes alive with a 34-6 victory over Avella. The Mikes were led by a solid, ground game and compiled the first 20 points of the contest.
Nick Mundell scored an 8-yard touchdown in the first quarter, followed by a 9-yard touchdown by Shawn Dulaney and a 35-yard interception return by Jonathan Christopher in the second.
After a scoreless third quarter, Carmichaels put the game away with rushing scores by David Morgan and Chevy Miller.
Mapletown pulled out a 24-14 win over California last week and was led by the Rush brothers.
Dylan Rush opened up the scoring with a 6-yard touchdown run and had 184 yards on 34 carries.
The Maples extended their lead to 12-0 after a 10-yard scoring toss to Matt Hein from Dustin Lemley. Lemley garnered 72 yards through the air on 5-of-7 passing in the win.
Leading 12-7 late in the second quarter, Matt Rush sealed the conference triumph with a 3-yard plunge into the end zone and an electrifying 45-yard interception return for a score.
Waynesburg Central trailed McGuffey 15-12 going into the fourth quarter, but the Highlanders exploded for 16 points in the final 4:04 for a 31-12 defeat of the Raiders.
In the first quarter, the Raiders took a 6-0 lead after a 1-yard scoring run by Jack Fudala, but the Highlands quickly countered with a touchdown and extra point kick of their own.
Trailing 7-6, Waynesburg retook the lead with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Wilson from Colin McCracken in the early stages on the second stanza.
McGuffey responded with a touchdown and a two-point conversion to take a 15-12 lead into halftime before scoring 16 unanswered points in the fourth frame.
Jefferson-Morgan stayed even with Beth-Center through the first quarter, but the Bulldogs pulled away with 41 points in the middle quarters for a 61-14 rout of the Rockets.
The Rockets registered the first score on some trickery, as tailback Trevor Kniha passed to Nick Teegarden for a 63-yard touchdown.
B-C then collected the next 27 points before Joe Headlee returned a kickoff for a 75-yard score. J-M trailed 27-14 at halftime.
The Bulldogs then rattled off 21 straight points in the third quarter and two more scores in the final 12 minutes for the conference victory.
West Greene had a stiff test when it traveled to conference champs Frazier last week, as the Commodores rolled to a 56-0 triumph over the Pioneers.
Frazier scored 21 points apiece in the first and second quarters, while totaling 14 points in the second half with the mercy rule in effect.
The shutout loss was the Pioneers third over the last four games.