Several area teams already forced to play shorthanded
There was a lot more wound licking than chest thumping in last weekend’s first slate of high school football games. Only three of the area’s 16 teams came away with opening victories and two of them came at the expense of other area teams.
Connellsville beat Uniontown and Beth-Center beat Carmichaels in the only two opening games involving two teams from the area, while Waynesburg Central pulled a bit of an upset by winning at Washington. Otherwise, it was back to the drawing board for area teams.
But the above reference to licking one’s wounds took on a more literal meaning for a few teams.
Coach John Fortugna’s Red Raiders played their first game without the services of two of their best players in Jonathan Farrell and Kevin Sanders. Both will miss tonight’s second non-conference game at Ambridge, Farrell with an arm injury and Sanders with a hamstring injury.
“They’ll both be back in a couple of weeks,” Fortugna said. “But we’re not using their injuries as an excuse. We’re a better team than we showed last week against Connellsville. We’d have a good play, then a penalty. We got into the red zone three times, but had no points to show for it.”
Those key injuries brought to the forefront another Uniontown player. Junior Daylan McLee switched from outside linebacker to the secondary to help fill in for Farrell and Sanders and also played tailback.
“He hauled in a nice 20-yard reception for us, but we were called for holding on the play,” Fortugna said. “That’s kind of how the whole game went for us. But Daylan did a heck of a job for us.”
The Red Raiders travel to Beaver County to take on an Ambridge team that also is coming off a tough loss to a county foe.
“They are a good football team from what I’ve seen on film,” Fortugna said. “They lost to Aliquippa, but that’s a big rivalry game for them like Connellsville is for us.”
The second week is full of what the WPIAL refers to as cross-scheduled games, where it matches teams from the same classification but from different conferences against one another. That’s fine by Fortugna, except for the travel involved.
“It bothers me to have to travel that far,” Fortugna said. “We’ll play anybody, but there are a lot of other Class AAA teams that are a lot closer to us than Ambridge. Our kids won’t get back home until 1 or 2 in the morning.”
Meanwhile across town, coach Jack Buehner and his Laurel Highlands Mustangs are again learning to deal with life without Kaleb Ramsey. The talented junior suffered a partially torn tendon in his foot and will be out of action for a while.
“It happened late in the first half,” Buehner said. “From what the trainer told us it was a freak accident.”
Sadly, it was nothing new for Ramsey.
“He played defense a little bit as a freshman, but last year as a sophomore, he played a game and a half before suffering turf toe,” Buehner said. “That kept him out the rest of the season. Now this.
“Certainly, I feel for the kid. He worked out hard all summer and through the preseason.”
Buehner isn’t missing just Ramsey, though. He already was without senior cornerback Lawrence Cellurale and sophomore nose tackle Eric Minerd, but Buehner isn’t about to start using injuries as excuses, either.
“Everybody has them,” he said. “We just need some other guys to step up. All teammates, at any level, even the Pittsburgh Steelers, want to see everybody stay healthy. But when one guy goes down, that becomes an opportunity for someone else.”
That opportunity will come against the defending PIAA Class AAA champion Franklin Regional Panthers.
“They are a good football team, no question about that,” Buehner said. “They have only scrimmaged Class AAAA teams, so they have faced some pretty good competition. They are very sound in many areas.”
Injuries also are having an impact at Geibel Catholic, where two of the Gators’ 22-man roster – or almost 10 percent of the team – will not play at Frazier tonight. Seniors Chris Blackstone and Mike Ciarochi are out of action indefinitely for coach Angelo Dippolito’s team.
Another team that started off the season shorthanded was Brownsville, which was missing four starters due to various reasons in its opening loss against visiting Jeannette.
“It’s hard to tell what kind of team they have with that many key players out,” Jayhawks coach Ray Reitz said after his team’s 42-7 victory.
The Falcons still won’t have a full roster when they visit East Allegheny.
Elsewhere on the docket, Connellsville looks to go to 2-0 by hosting North Hills, Albert Gallatin faces another tough road game at Highlands and Belle Vernon visits the scene of AG’s crime, New Castle. Southmoreland travels to McGuffey and Waynesburg Central seeks a 2-0 start by hosting Yough.
Beth-Center also looks to stay perfect when Jefferson-Morgan comes to town. California travels to Leechburg, Carmichaels visits Clairton and Mapletown goes to Apollo-Ridge. All games start at 7:30 p.m.