Week 4 of Beaver County High School Football on Pittsburgh Sports Now is made possible by Vocelli’s Pizza, State Representative Rob Matzie and The Printing Press.
Here’s PSN’s weekly recap of Beaver County Friday Night High School Football.
New Brighton 27 Beaver Falls 20-
For the first time since 2006, “The Little Brown Jug” is back in New Brighton. Deshawn Clark’s interception late in the 4th quarterback prevented a Beaver Falls touchdown and allowed the Lions to hold on for their second win of the season. Two weeks ago, New Brighton held a 20 point fourth quarter lead over North Catholic before allowing it to slip away. Not Friday night against Beaver Falls.
Touchdowns for New Brighton were scored by Jackson Hall on a 6-yard run, Jake Francona 19 yard pass from Hall, DeShawn Clark 20 yard run and a 2 yard run. Clark led the New Brighton offense with 120 yards rushing and 60 yards receiving.
Beaver 24 Central Valley 22-
Dramatics in this game as Beaver kicker Will Connelly converted a 31-yard field with over 2 minutes left to give the Bobcats a big win. Connelly is a preferred walk-on to play at Pitt next season.
The win improved Beaver’s record to 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the 3A Beaver Valley Conference. Central Valley fell to 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the conference. Aliquippa and Quaker Valley are tied for first place followed by Beaver and Central Valley. If the two teams finish in a tie for third place, Beaver would get the tie-breaker based on Friday’s win. Beaver will be favored in their 3 remaining section games (Ellwood City, Hopewell and Beaver Falls) so this could prove to be a big win.
Scoring for Beaver were Te Vonn Williams 51 yard run, Brodie List 46 yard pass to Tyler Wallace and Brad Barker on a 29 yard interception return. Central Valley touchdowns were scored by Jawan Hall 58 yard run, Danny Santia 15 yard run and Micah Thomas on a 3 yard pass from Curtis Latshaw.
One other note, Barker’s interception was the 15th of the season for Beaver’s defense and 7th that was returned for a touchdown.
Riverside 26 Freedom 7-
Riverside and Freedom entered Friday night’s game undefeated in the Class 2A Midwestern Conference which meant their matchup would be a battle for first place.
Once again, the matchup went Riverside’s way as they were led by Noah Harris and his 3 touchdowns. Freedom scored the games first touchdown when Zach Rosa hit Noah Yeck on a 55-yard pass but after that it was all Riverside.
Riverside’s defense came up big again holding Freedom to just 25 yards rushing. The Panthers defense has now allowed just two offensive touchdowns in the last 4 games.
Freedom not only lost a game but might have also lost a key player for next weeks game vs. South Side. Late in the game, quarterback Zach Rosa was ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct. An ejections carries an automatic one-game suspension under PIAA rules.
Rochester 40 Northgate 0-
With four weeks left in the regular season, the Rochester Rams are performing at a high level both offensively and defensively.
In a dominating performance against Northgate, the Rams defense pitched their first shutout of the season while on offense they had three runners go over 100 yards rushing. Caleb Collins rushed for 193 yards (3 touchdowns), Mahlik Strozier (1 TD) had 121 yards and Noah Whiteleather went for 100 yards.
The Rams offense ended up rushing for 479 yards and started out the game by scoring touchdowns on six of their first seven possessions.
Rochester is 5-0 and in first place in Class 1A Big Seven Conference and will clinch a playoff spot with a win this Friday.
Aliquippa 52 South Park 0-
The shutout streak for the Aliquippa defense lives for another week.
The Quips (3-0, 6-0) have played six games and their defense still hasn’t allowed a single point. How dominant were they on Friday night? So dominant that they didn’t allow South Park a single first down in the entire game.
Offensively, like it has all season it’s been a team effort for Aliquippa. Star junior MJ Devonshire and Tariq Jones scored 2 touchdowns, quarterback Eli Kosanovich accounted for 3 touchdowns while William Gipson and Quantavius Smith also scored for the Quips.
Aliquippa’s ground game was once again dominating as Avante McKenzie rushed for 140 yards on 11 carries and Jones went for 119 yards on only 9 carries.
Aliquippa now has three big games in a row against Clairton, Quaker Valley and Central Valley.
Quaker Valley 40 Hopewell 10-
Quaker Valley’s magical season continued as they overcame a slow start to come away with a convincing win over Hopewell. The high-powered Quaker Valley offense scored 3 fourth quarter touchdowns to break open a relatively close game.
The Quaker Valley offense spread out the touchdowns as Jordan Taylor (36 yard run), Isaiah McNair (3 yard and 19 yard catches), Ricky Guss (14 yard run) and Jordan Taylor (40 yard and 16 yard runs). Taylor led the Quakers on the ground with 20 carries for 157 yards.
Scoring for Hopewell were Garrett Nicol on a 1-yard run and Samantha Hysong kicked a 35-yard field goal.
Other Beaver County Scores-
Ellwood City 20 Valley 18
Western Beaver 27 Shenango 21
Mohawk 35 South Side 27
West Allegheny 31 Kiski 7
Indiana 20 Ambridge 0
South Fayette 43 Blackhawk 0
Fox Chapel 42 Moon 6
VOCELLI PIZZA/DUNKIN’ DONUTS PLAYER OF THE WEEK- New Brighton’s Deshawn Clark who clinched the Lion’s win over Beaver Falls with a late interception. Clark collected 180 total yards along with 2 touchdowns for the Lions.
Clark wins gift cards to both Vocelli’s and Dunkin Donuts.
