Top offenses, QBs match up with Washington vs. CWNC
Riverside faces Steel Valley’s 25-game streak
Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic has a big, strongarmed sophomore quarterback named Zack with Division I potential who has his team one win away from the WPIAL Class 2A final.
Coincidentally, its semifinal opponent has one, too.
It will be a Zack Attack when Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic (10-2) meets Washington (11-0) Friday at Moon.
North Catholic’s Zack Rocco is a 6-foot-2, 210-pound left-hander who leads Class 2A and ranks sixth in the WPIAL with 29 touchdown passes. Rocco has completed 63 percent of his passes (146 of 231) for 2,179 yards and has also rushed for 10 touchdowns.
Rocco’s coach, Patrick O’Shea, hasn’t been shy to hand out big praise to his young quarterback, who didn’t assume the starting role until the third game of the season.
“If he continues to follow the lead of his coaches and the advice of his mom and dad, he could be a very highly recruited quarterback. And he’s a young 10thgrader. He’s only 15. But he doesn’t back down from any challenges,” O’Shea said.
Washington passes the ball only about half as much as North Catholic, but sophomore Zack Swartz has still put up excellent numbers. Swartz (6-3, 200) is second in Class 2A and tied for eighth in the WPIAL with 24 touchdown passes. He’s also an accurate passer, completing 61 percent of his attempts (78 of 127) for 1,673 yards. Swartz has been Washington’s most productive passer in Mike Bosnic’s nine years as coach.
“He’s getting better and better every week. He’s really becoming a big-time quarterback,” Bosnic said.
Rocco and Swartz led their teams to conference titles and were terrific in quarterfinal wins. Rocco was 5 of 8 for 105 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for a 61-yard touchdown as No. 3 seed North Catholic defeated Serra Catholic, 35-14. Swartz completed 9 of 10 passes for 253 yards and four touchdowns and also rushed for a score to help No. 2 Washington thump East Allegheny, 54-7.
The sophomore studs get plenty of help from their teammates. Washington boasts the WPIAL’s secondleading rusher in junior Nick Welsh, who has rushed for 1,865 yards and 26 touchdowns and is averaging a robust 12.9 yards per carry. Miami of Ohio recruit Isaiah Schoonmaker (11 touchdowns) and Daniel Walker (nine touchdowns) provide Swartz with some excellent targets.
“They’re very balanced offensively,” O’Shea said. “They run the ball really well. They pass the ball really well. Then you throw in the athletes, kids who can make aplay when there isn’t one.”
North Catholic has a 1,000yard rusher of its own in Joe Meinert, who has collected 1,225 yards and 15 touchdowns. Ryan Maziarz leads a group of four players with at least 20 receptions and sophomore Nikhai Hill-Green is an all-purpose back who doubles as an outstanding inside linebacker.
“They have a really good football team,” Bosnic said. “They’re similar to us in that they have a lot of weapons — a good running back and a young quarterback who is a really good player.”
Other semifinal
It’s not often two teams meet four times in two seasons, but it’s especially rare for it to happen when the teams aren’t even in the same conference.
It will be a matchup of familiar foes when top seed and defending champion Steel Valley (10-0) takes on fourth-seeded Riverside (9-2) at North Hills. The two have faced off in non-conference games to begin each of the past two seasons and now play in the semifinals for the second season in a row. Steel Valley won each of the previous three meetings as part of its 25-game winning streak. The first two games were blowouts, but Riverside trailed Steel Valley by just a touchdown in the fourth quarter of a 48-28 Ironmen win Sept. 1.
“We gave up a lot of big plays,” Riverside coach Ron Sciarro said of the regularseason meeting. “We have to make them earn it and we have to play basically our best game. We think we’ve gotten better since then. I’m sure they have, too.”
Both teams run the ball well. Steel Valley’s Kameron Williams rushed for a career-high 221 yards and four touchdowns in a 42-0 quarterfinal win against Burgettstown. That upped his season total to 1,001 yards. Riverside counters with a two-headed monster of LeMarcus Cleckley and Noah Harris, both of whom have rushed for more than 900 yards. Harris scored three touchdowns in a 42-14 quarterfinal win against Avonworth. Riverside is trying to reach the final for the first time since 1993.
As in the other semifinal, two young quarterbacks will go at it in this one. Steel Valley’s Ronnell Lawrence is a freshman and Riverside’s Ben Hughes a sophomore.
“They’re a very good football team,” Steel Valley coach Rod Steele said. “They have a nice run game and a nice play-action game. That’s an experienced football team over there.”