Quaker Valley knows formula to stop Seton LaSalle

There’s a pretty simple formula for Quaker Valley to beat Seton LaSalle in their WPIAL Class 3A semifinal. Stop Lionel Deanes. “He’s going to go as long as you give him a hole and our job is going to be up front and with our receivers to give him space,” Seton LaSalle coach Rob Carter said. “There’s no question they’re going to try to stop him and force us to try to throw the ball and I think that anybody that plays us, and if I was playing us, I’d do the same thing.”

Deanes is the leading rusher in the WPIAL this season by a wide margin. In 10 games, he has 2,058 yards and is averaging 7.5 yards per carry. Last week against Freeport, he shook loose for 282 yards and five touchdowns to help Seton LaSalle (9-1) to a relatively easy 35-18 victory against the Yellowjackets to set up the rematch with Quaker Valley (10-1).

It may seem like a daunting task, but the Quakers have shown that they are not just any other defense. In the first game between the two on Oct. 20, they limited Deanes to a season-low 19 yards on 17 carries.

“We can stop the run and we’ve done that pretty consistently the whole year,” Quaker Valley coach Jerry Veshio said. “We’re just doing what we did to prepare for them the first time because we know they’ve got a very talented running back who’s a tremendous athlete and, no matter how this turns out, we have to prepare to stop that running attack.”

Putting up points against Quaker Valley has been a chore. The Quakers have the second-best scoring defense in the classification, allowing only 13.6 per game and the only team better is top-seeded Aliquippa at a paltry 3.2.

Aliquippa is also averaging 37.5 points offensively but was only able to muster a season-low 22 in its Beaver Valley Conference victory against the Quakers.

“I think, first of all, we don’t have a lot of exotic blitzes or strange things we do, we’re a basic defense,” Veshio said. “We’re a solid four up front.”

Senior defensive ends Andrew Seymour and Oliver Funk and interior linemen Jacob Pesicka and Jacob Kolessar have done yeoman’s work up front, which has allowed inside linebackers Ricky and Isaac Guss to stay clean and get penetration as run-stuffers.

“Those inside guys allow the linebackers to get free and create and our outside guys play the ball real well and our back three are very talented secondary people. We’re just very solid all around,” Veshio said. “We don’t change a lot because we think they’re going to perform whenever we play.”

Other semifinal

There were moments last week during its quarterfinal game against South Park when Aliquippa appeared almost beatable.

Early in the third quarter, the Eagles put up twice as many offensive touchdowns on the Quips — two — as they had given up all season and they only held a 14-12 lead.

In the end, though, Aliquippa ( 11- 0) was Aliquippa and ended up enacting the mercy rule in the fourth quarter of a 48-12 victory against South Park to set up a rematch with Beaver Valley Conference rival Beaver Area (9-2) for a trip to Heinz Field.

“The teams are the teams at this point and we all have little nuances and changes that we can do, but they’re a tremendous football team and we’ll prep like we always do,” Beaver coach Jeff Beltz said. “It’s a conference opponent that we have a tremendous respect for and we’ve had some great football games with them in the past.”

Top-seeded Aliquippa won the first meeting between the schools, 30-10, on Sept. 8, but Beaver is coming off an impressive 20point victory against Elizabeth Forward last week in which junior quarterback Brodie List completed 16 of 26 for 225 yards and three touchdowns through the air. But he’ll have his hands full negotiating a Quips pass defense led by its West Virginia commit, safety Kwantel Raines.

“Me, if I’m looking at that [first] game, they’re one of the best teams in the WPIAL and we were beating them in the first half, 70,” List said. “Our offense wasn’t working really well and we still stayed in the game in the very beginning. Coming out of halftime we were still in the game, but I’m confident in our team that we can do it.”