AG’s Pegg soars up TD Club standings
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
There are three unbeaten area high school football teams and a look at the latest Herald-Standard Touchdown Club standings gives a good indication why.
That trio of 4-0 teams – Albert Gallatin, Jefferson-Morgan and Southmoreland – occupy six of the top nine spots on the scoring list after Week Three.
The Rockets’ Deakyn DeHoet and John Woodward, who combined for 32 of J-M’s points in a 63-6 win at Mapletown, held on to first and second with 82 and 56 points, respectively.
DeHoet scored on touchdown runs of 57 and 14 yards and pulled in a 35-yard TD pass from Triton Farabee. Woodward had touchdown runs of 20 and 4 yards plus a two-point conversion.
The highest scorer of the week and biggest mover near the top of the standings is the Colonials’ Adam Pegg who rang up 28 points in AG’s 40-24 victory over Northern Garrett of Maryland.
Pegg scored four different ways, finding the end zone on a 90-yard kickoff return to start the game, then adding a 9-yard touchdown run, TD receptions of 57 and 10 yards from Bronx Jamison and a pair of two-point conversion runs.
Pegg more than doubled his total on the year to 54 points, putting him just in front of teammate Tee Guesman who sits in fourth place with 52 points after a pair of two-point plunges in Friday’s win.
Guesman and Pegg complement each other perfectly in Albert Gallatin’s ground-based offensive attack, according to AG coach Drew Dindl.
“We usually try to get Pegg out on the edge and Tee up the gut,” Dindl said. “Adam was our big name going into the season and a lot of people have been game-planning for him so early on it was kind of tough getting him outside. But that’s kind of why Tee got off to a hot start. Pegg was drawing all the attention and Tee’s been doing a great job getting to the next level, bouncing outside and has made some nice, long runs for us, too.
“Both of them have proven they can take it the distance at any time. They play off each other really well. Now it’s harder for defenses to load up on one or the other. We have other weapons, too, Bronx (Jamison), Roman (Smith). We tell all our backs we don’t know who it’s going to be each night so be ready.”
Scotties first-year head coach Dustin Shoaf has yet to taste defeat and has two of his players among the top nine with quarterback Dawson Wolfe in sixth with 38 points and Jackson Mickens tied for eighth with 36 points.
Southmoreland stormed back from a 14-0 deficit to win at Blackhawk, 24-17, with Mickens scoring on a 9-yard touchdown run and then taking a blocked punt 19 yards into the end zone. Wolfe scored what would prove to be the winning TD with a 7-yard run midway through the second quarter.
Liam Smith, the highest-scoring local kicker (14th overall with 21 points), made a 28-yard field goal and was three for three on extra-point kicks in Southmoreland’s victory.
Filling out the rest of the top 10 are Frazier’s Derek Diamond in fifth with 46 points after a two-touchdown game in a loss to Jeannette, Mapletown’s Carson Vanata in seventh with 37 points, Waynesburg Central’s Teagen Crouse tied with Mickens for eighth with 36 points and Carmichaels’ Cannon Bupka, California’s Malachi Peak and Brownsville’s Kaden Wimmer tied for 10th with 30 points apiece.
Bupka had the Mikes’ lone TD in a loss at Beth-Center. Peak only had two points with a conversion run but those proved to be the winning points in the Trojans’ 8-7 win over Bentworth. Wimmer and the Falcons were off last week.
Seth Fox scored two touchdowns in Jefferson-Morgan’s win with one coming on a 48-yard interception return, the fourth pick-six of the season among area players and second for J-M with Woodward also having one.