Matchup has plenty of drama
locker room.
• North Allegheny accused some Pine-Richland players of making inappropriate remarks to North Allegheny female band members.
• Five days after the game, more drama was added. Not happy with the events after the game, North Allegheny athletic director Bob Bozzuto and North Allegheny’s administration had Jurkovec barred from attending the WPIAL field hockey championship at North Allegheny. Jurkovec came to watch his girlfriend and classmates play as PineRichland met North Allegheny in the title game. At least 10 other Pine-Richland football players were permitted to enter the stadium for the game.
Some chuckle at all the drama between these two suburban schools, but here we are with the first playoff meeting between the two teams. North Allegheny no longer plays rival North Hills in football, and NAPine is developing into a pretty good football rivalry.
For Pine-Richland, there are no words to describe how big this game is — simply because there are no words coming from PineRichland. It’s crickets from the Rams these days.
Pine-Richland coach Eric Kasperowicz said he had no comment about this week’s game and he would talk next week. When the story of Jurkovec being barred from the field hockey game broke last week, Pine-Richland superintendent Brian Miller and Pine-Richland athletic director Josh Shoop never returned messages, asking for comment.
Over at North Allegheny, coach Art Walker and his team seem to be taking a nobig-deal attitude toward the off-the-field drama.
“It’s all been an administrative thing here. I know everyone wants to talk about the flag planting, but with North Allegheny, it’s more a band issue than football issue,” said Walker. “To my guys, what happened after the first game is a story they heard about the next day. Like any team, they’re not real happy it happened on their field. I don’t think any coach or team out there would say it’s OK with them. But it’s nothing that we have spent any time whatsoever talking about. I just think there is so much more to talk about and prepare for that is more important.”
If you talk just football, NorthAllegheny might have some confidence in knowing it was the first team that gave Pine-Richland a tussle. Pine-Richland outscores teams, 49-11, but it was only 35-28 in the fourth quarter in the first meeting.
“You have to play well if you want to be in the game against a good team like this,” said Walker. “We did play well the last time. But we did not play well enough.”
Pine-Richland didn’t use Jurkovec to throw much the first meeting, but the Rams didn’t need to pass. They rushed for 628 yards and Jurkovec ran for 178 on 17 carries. Jordan Crawford had 242 yards on 13 attempts and Kenny White 209 yards on 12 carries.
“I’ve said before if you take away one aspect of the game, they will utilize the other one,” said Walker. “We can’t allow the big pays this time. We have to put them in position where they’re going to have to earn things. We can’t let them do it on two- or threeplay drives.”
Other semifinal
Penn Hills and Central Catholic have met in a playoff game only twice since Central Catholic joined the WPIAL in the 1970s. One of those playoff meetings was significant because it was Dan Marino’s last high school game. Penn Hills defeated Central Catholic, 140, in a quarterfinal game in 1978 and held Marino to 78 yards passing.
Penn Hills (8-3) and Central Catholic (9-2) meet again Friday at Fox Chapel. Although it doesn’t look like a future NFL quarterback is on either team, quarterbacks will be extremely importantin this game.
Central Catholic senior Troy Fisher has been a starter since his sophomore year, has loads of experience and is a key to the Vikings. Meanwhile, Penn Hills has junior Hollis Mathis, who threw for more than 2,000 yards during the regular season.
Central Catholic defeated Penn Hills, 21-0, in the regular-season finale two weeks ago and Mathis was only 9 of 21 for 92 yards.
“Our offense was in a slump pretty much the entire Central game and the last two quarters of the Mt. Lebanon game the week before,” said Penn Hills coach Jon LeDonne. “We have three running backs with maybe at least 400 or 500 yards rushing. But Hollis makes the offense tick. With all the weapons we have on the outside, too, we have to be able to get them the ball.
“I know the guys were a little disappointed at 21-0 the last time. If we execute and don’t hurt ourselves, that’s the biggest thing.”