Pine-Richland routed in opener
National No. 1 IMG Academy rolls.
IMG? To Pine-Richland, it was OMG. Pine-Richland is a defending WPIAL and PIAA champ and it was the Rams’ choice to open the high school football season Friday night by playing host to IMG Academy of Bradenton, Fla. Oh, IMG is a “high school” team, but really more like an all-star team. IMG is a boarding school where athletes come to train — and take classes. The football team has players from 18 different states and Canada.
The Ascenders have five players ranked among the top 100 in the country, loads of future major-college players and an offensive line that — get this — averages 6 feet 4½, 315 pounds. The Ascenders are big, fast, talented and well-disciplined. They ascended to a height Pine-Richland hadn’t seen before.
There was certainly a wow factor with IMG, which had too much for Pine-Richland in every facet and defeated the host Rams, 42-0. The mercy rule went into effect midway through the third quarter.
“They were incredible,” Pine-Richland coach Eric Kasperowicz said. “They were well-coached, too. It wasn’t just guys running around.”
Too bad last year’s undefeated PineRichland team with quarterback Phil Jurkovec (now at Notre Dame) couldn’t have taken a swing at this IMG team. Maybe it would’ve been a little more interesting.
As it was, sophomore Cole Spencer made his first varsity start at quarterback. Pine-Richland has two Football Bowl Subdivision players on its offensive line in Andrew Kristofic (Notre Dame) and Mike Katic (Indiana), but IMG has major-college players throughout its offense — and defense. PineRichland had only 50 yards rushing. Spencer rushed for 26 on 17 carries and was 7-of-16 throwing for 48 yards.
Defensive end Nolan Smith, ranked as one of the best defensive players in the country, gave Pine-Richland trouble all game.
“He figured out some things,” Kasperowicz said of Spencer. “It would’ve been tough for anyone to pass against them, a sophomore or third-year starter. You’ve got those dudes coming at you … that’s like a college defensive line rushing you.”
IMG quarterback David BaldwinGriffin led the Ascenders with 91 yards rushing and also completed 6 of 18 passes for 64 yards. IMG led by 21-0 after the first quarter and by 28-0 at halftime.
IMG was not overly impressive in a scrimmage last week in Florida. PineRichland linebacker Tyler King said the Rams got some confidence when they saw film of that scrimmage.
“We’re a little different team than what Pine-Richland scrimmaged last week and probably a little different than what they saw of us on tape from last week,” IMG coach Kevin Wright coach. “We knew that Pine-Richland has a good program but they’re kind of starting over from last year. They’ll be a good team. It’s just a young team.”
IMG plays a national schedule against teams from various parts of the country, including California. Kasperowicz hinted there is no shame losing to the Ascenders.
“They didn’t look like that on film,” Kasperowicz said. “We were outmatched probably at every position. I thought we would hold up a little more up front. But they’re so fast and so physical at every spot.”
Despite the loss, Kasperowicz said he still would schedule IMG if he had to do it all over again. As his team huddled around him after the game, Kasperowicz told his players he saw a number of good things from them. Everyone saw some great things from IMG.
“We’re not going to play a team half as good as that all year,” Kasperowicz said. “There are a lot of lessons to be learned. … It’s either this game or schedule a team and beat them, 30-0, and what do you learn from that? That’s our philosophy.”