Key clashes
Playoff races heating up in Week Eight of football season
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Beth-Center, California, Avella and Frazier sit in the upper half of the Class A Tri-County South Conference football standings with one game separating the four.
Two of those teams will face off when the Commodores visit the Bulldogs on Friday night during Week Eight of the season.
Beth-Center (4-0, 7-0), the lone unbeaten local team, is tied for first place with the Trojans (4-0, 5-2), while Frazier (3-1, 4-3) is deadlocked with the Eagles (3-1, 4-3), two games clear of the rest of the conference.
Avella is at Mapletown (0-4, 0-7) and California play Jefferson-Morgan (1-3, 1-6) at Trojan Stadium.
The Bulldogs have a variety of offensive weapons for opponents to deal with in running backs Enzo Brown, DeSean Whipkey and Homer Headlee, quarterback Chase Bebout and wide receivers Hunter Bobbs and Dan Daniel Duncan.
B-C coach Tim Trump takes no team for granted, though.
“We approach every week the same and try to keep everything the same zone,” Trump said. “We take every team serious.
“We look at Frazier as a playoff team last year with a good coach in Tony Battaglini. He’s going to have those kids ready to go.”
The Commodores are led by quarterback Brady Secrest who has thrown 12 touchdown passes.
“He’s a pretty good quarterback. I really like his game a lot,” Trump said. “He’s their best weapon by far.”
Another key game as far as playoff races go is in the Class 4A Big Six Conference with Albert Gallatin (1-1, 3-4) going to Ringgold (2-0, 4-3).
“Every game from here on out is huge for us,” AG coach Drew Dindl said. “We know if we can win out, we give ourselves a chance to get into the playoffs, so there’s a lot on the line every Friday.”
The Rams are tied with South Fayette atop the standings while the Colonials and Chartiers Valley, which plays Uniontown (0-2, 3-4) at Bill Power Stadium, are both one game back.
A win by the Red Raiders would throw them in the middle of the race for the postseason.
The Lions (2-0, 6-1) go up against Laurel Highlands (0-2, 0-7) at Mustang Field.
Ringgold is coming off wins over Laurel Highlands and Uniontown so will be striving for a sweep of the three Fayette County teams in the conference.
“Ringgold has some really good athletes, so we have to be careful in not giving up big plays,” Dindl said. “Their freshman quarterback (Jace Trumpe) has done a nice job for them and can make plays, so we’ll have to be disciplined and make sure we do our jobs. We just need to play a cleaner, more complete game and give ourselves a chance to be successful Friday night.”
In the Class 3A Interstate Conference, led by undefeated Elizabeth Forward, second-place Belle Vernon (3-0, 6-1) puts its six-game winning streak on the line when it hosts Southmoreland (1-2, 2-5) and third-place Waynesburg Central (3-1, 6-1) hosts Derry (0-3, 2-5).
All but one area team will be in action Friday night with the exception being Connellsville (0-3, 3-4), which plays Latrobe (3-1, 5-2) in a Class 5A Big East Conference game on Saturday with a noon kickoff at Falcon Stadium.
Also in on Friday night, Mount Pleasant (1-2, 3-4) hosts Greensburg Salem (0-4, 0-7) in an Interstate game, Carmichaels (0-4, 1-6) travels to Kennedy Field to meet Greene County rival West Greene (1-3, 2-5) in a TCS game, and Brownsville (0-7) hosts McGuffey (4-3) in a non-conference meeting.
All of Friday’s games are slated for 7 p.m. kickoffs.