Riverside faces early test
Ron Sciarro may not want to admit it, but Friday’s regularseason opener against WPIAL Class 2A No. 1 Beaver Falls is more than just another game for Riverside’s coach.
“No, there’s no more importance for me,” Sciarro said. “We try to take it one game at a time. Beaver Falls has a tradition, they’re a fine program … It’s going to be a real challenge for us.”
Although he’s not one to toot his own horn, don’t let Sciarro fool you — this matchup carries plenty of significance beyond its importance to the Midwestern Conference standings.
Sciarro was a three- sport star at Beaver Falls in the 1960s. He pitched a one- hit shutout in the WPIAL championship game as a junior, then quarterbacked the Tigers to an 8- 2 record and was selected to play in the Big 33 Game as a senior. Sciarro graduated in 1970 and went on to play quarterback at the University of Kentucky for two seasons before transferring to Slippery Rock and finishing out his college career on the pitching mound.
He then began his coaching career at Riverside in 1977, spending 10 seasons as an assistant before taking over as head coach in 1987. During his time as an assistant, the Panthers reached back- to- back WPIAL championship games in 1984- 85. In 1984, the Tigers defeated Riverside by one point, but the Panthers defeated Swissvale to claim the WPIAL title the following season.
Sciarro would lead Riverside to three more title game appearances from 1991- 93, although the Panthers came up short in all three. He then left to take over as coach at Chartiers Valley, leading the Colts to the playoffs for the first time in 25 years in 1997. He stepped away from coaching in 1998, but eventually returned to his alma mater as a volunteer assistant for two seasons under Ryan Matsook.
Finally, in 2016, Sciarro’s journey came full circle. He returned to Riverside more than 20 years after his initial tenure with the Panthers and immediately led them to a 9- 3 record and a berth in the WPIAL semifinals. Riverside is coming off another successful season in 2019, having finished 8- 4 and reaching the WPIAL semifinals yet again thanks to a pair of upset victories in the playoffs.
“Hopefully our kids grew up from a year ago. It’s all about getting better,” Sciarro said. “It’s so early, it’s hard to tell what’s going to happen. Our league is even tougher this year, moving Beaver Falls and Laurel in for Western Beaver and Shenango. You’d better be ready to play.”
Of course, it’s the start of a new season, and the Panthers lost several top performers from last year’s team — including a four- year starting quarterback in Ben Hughes along with Sciarro’s grandson, Nate Sciarro, who caught 67 passes for 1,192 yards and 21 touchdowns last season.
Riverside will have a 1,000yard rusher returning in senior Hunter Nulph, and Sciarro said sophomore Sam Hughes will start the season under center and look to fill his big brother’s shoes. Perhaps the most challenging task for Sciarro and his staff going into opening night, though, is devising a plan on defense to slow down Beaver
Falls’ two- headed monster at running back in Josh Hough and Shileak Livingston.
“I know it’s going to be a very tough game for us,” Sciarro said. “I’m just hoping our kids come out for the first game and they’re ready to play, because they’re going to have to be.”
Jeannette
As far as early- season clashes go, it doesn’t get much bigger than Class 1A No. 1 Clairton at No. 2 Jeannette on opening night.
These two teams are no strangers to one another, having met nine times in the six seasons since the Jayhawks dropped to Class 1A in 2014. More often than not, those matchups have occurred in the last week of the regular season with the Eastern Conference championship and a likely No. 1 seed for the WPIAL postseason on the line.
Because of the COVID- 19 pandemic, the WPIAL rearranged schedules so that teams’ regular- season finales became regular- season openers. That means the top two teams in Class 1A will do battle on Friday night in a game that will go a long way toward determining playoff positioning at the end of the year.
Since 2014, Jeannette holds a 2- 7 record vs. the Bears, but the Jayhawks have won two of the past three meetings. Clairton won at home last year, 26- 7, on its way to capturing its 10th WPIAL title in the past 15 seasons.