PENN HILLS LOOKING TO NEUTRALIZE POWER
The word was that Archbishop Wood wouldn’t be as strong this season. After making it to a PIAA championship game seven times in the past 10 years, the prevailing thought was this was the year that Wood could be had. The Vikings had a new coach who was only 24 years old and there were no big stars on this team.
But the PIAA semifinals are this weekend and they still haven’t collected the uniforms at Wood. The Vikings are still playing and a WPIAL team is the one standing in the way of an eighth trip to Hershey for the championships.
Archbishop Wood, a perennial power from the Philadelphia Catholic League, plays WPIAL champion Penn Hills Friday at Chambersburg High School in a Class 5A semifinal. While Archbishop Wood will try for its eighth championship appearance, Penn Hills has made only one (1995).
Many teams have been taken to the Wood shed over the years. A year ago, the Vikings crushed Gateway, 4914, in the title game for their second consecutive title and fourth in five years. Wood beat Central Valley, 33-14, in the 2014 3A final.
But this year’s team brings a 9-3 record into the semifinals. The losses, though, were to top teams. One was to Bergen Catholic (21-7), which lost in a New Jersey state championship last week. Another loss was to St. Joseph’s Prep (49-14), a PIAA Class 6A semifinalist.
Since the loss to St. Joe’s, Archbishop Wood has won five in a row by a combined score of 181-56.
“I’m not totally sure about the expectations for us at the beginning of the season,” said Kyle Adkins, Wood’s firstyear coach. “I’m sure if you ask the kids, our goal was to win a state championship. We understand that’s unrealistic to do year after year, but we’re going to try.
“People who were saying we would be down this year, I think was because of people looking at college scholarship kids and how many Division I commits we have. I’m not sure that’s accurate to do, as far as a comparison. I’m not sure it’s totally fair to do that.”
In other words, Wood is still good, even though the Vikings don’t have a big star. The only player headed to an FBS school right now is senior lineman Connor Bishop, who is committed to Army.
“When you’re with a traditionally good program, there are some sort of expectations that go with that,” said Adkins. “People on the outside looking in might think there’s a ton of pressure. But I really don’t worry about that. I have no control over that. I’m really not worried about what everyone else is talking about outside of Wood.”
Adkins is a former Wood player and was a Wood assistant for two years before taking over when Steve Devlin resigned after last season. Adkins was the defensive coordinator.
“It wasn’t some grand plan to be the coach someday,” said Adkins. “One thing led to another, Steve leaves and I ended up taking over. I’ve enjoyed it. It’s been fun.”
Like a number of past Wood teams, this one features a strong running attack. Tom Santiago, a 5-foot-11, 190pound junior, has rushed for 1,661 yards on 214 carries. Leroy Pendleton has 321 yards on 41 attempts and Chris Blackstone 312 on 58 carries.
“If you watched us from afar, I would hope we might remind you of a traditional Wood team, a good run game,” said Adkins.
Wood is facing a Penn Hills team that is 14-0 and features a number of players with bigplay ability. Quarterback Hollis Mathis surpassed 5,000 career yards passing last week and has completed 147 of 241 for 2,569 yards. He averages 17 yards per completion.
Receiver Daequan Hardy has 33 receptions that average 20.7 yards. Dante Cephas has 26 catches that average 25.5 yards.
Penn Hills also has running back Tank Smith, who has rushed for 1,506 yards on 182 attempts.
“Their quarterback and skill kids really jump out at you on film,” said Adkins. “They also have a very active defense with a ton of speed. They have that great mixture of speed and strength up front, too. This is really an outstanding team we’re playing.”