New Castle/Chartiers Valley – Soph. quarterbacks lighting up stat sheets

Both the New Castle Red Hurricanes and Chartiers Valley Colts are off to 2-0 starts this season, and both teams are led by sophomore field generals.

John Matarazzo (New Castle) and Wayne Capers, Jr. (Char. Val.) have gotten off to fantastic statistical starts to their seasons, too. Both saw time as freshmen, though Capers saw more action because of an injury to the Colts’ starting quarterback later on in the season.

Through two weeks, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s weekly compilation of statistical leaders, Capers is an impressive 13-of-17 for 366 yards and five touchdowns. A dual threat, he’s added four scores on the ground.

Matarazzo, meanwhile, is a cool 23-of-33 for 446 yards and five scores. The Post-Gazette reported that the Hurricanes’ field general threw for 368 yards in a 35-16 victory against Indiana last week.

The Colts host 2-0 Belle Vernon this week. New Castle gets set to battle with 1-1 Blackhawk.

Laurel – Are the Spartans this year’s Class “A” surprise team?

Recently, it seems like there’s one team in the WPIAL that just comes out of nowhere in the “A” classification. In 2003, it was Springdale who knocked off a potent Sto-Rox team for the championship. Just last season, Avonworth went 11-1 and reached the “A” semifinals.

Could this year’s dark horse be the Laurel Spartans, even though, in reality, they aren’t a dark horse anymore?

After a stunning 15-8 victory against Clairton in Week 1, all Laurel did was go out and knock off North Catholic, a team some think has the potential to make a nice little WPIAL playoff run.

The 28-7 victory helped serve notice that this Lawrence County school certainly won’t go down without a fight.

It gets no easier for the Spartans, who face South Side Beaver this coming Friday night. Also, in the very near future, Rochester looms on the horizon (two weeks from Friday).

Jeannette –“ New” head coach, same results; Jayhawks keep winning & scoring lots of points

Roy Hall, a long-time Jeannette assistant, took over as head football coach of the Jayhawks after two-time WPIAL champion Ray Reitz accepted the same position at Greater Latrobe. After a 48-6 record under Reitz, the Jayhawks are still rolling.

Jeannette is 2-0, and routed East Allegheny (45-13) and Brownsville (35-7) to open their season, averaging 40 points per game. Since the start of the 2003 season, Jeannette has gone a cool 69-10 (.873). Jeannette is the second-winningest program in WPIAL history, with 653 victories, trailing only New Castle (682 wins).

Here’s something equally impressive: in its last 46 games, which dates back to the start of the 2006 season, Jeannette has scored 1,962 points. That’s an average of 42.65 points per game. The Jayhawks have scored 40+ points 31 times in that 46-game span.

It seems the scoring binge won’t stop this week – Jeannette is scheduled to play South Allegheny. The Jayhawks won last year’s meeting, 45-0.

Hopewell – Vikings rolling along, but Rushel Shell doesn’t lead WPIAL in rushing

When the topic of explosive offenses that rely on the ground game comes up, the Hopewell Vikings need to be mentioned among the state’s best.

Albeit, the Vikings thus far have played Knoch, a program not quite the same since a surprising season a couple of years ago, and Mars, a school that just moved above the “AAA” cutoff last season.

But one needs to consider the fact that Hopewell only beat the Knights and Planets by a combined score of 54-7 last season. This year, that margin increased to 94-28.

Hopewell’s phenom of a running back, Rushel Shell, is off to a fantastic start (surprise, surprise). According to stats kept by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette through Hopewell’s first two games, Shell has amassed 428 yards and eight touchdowns.

However, that’s not good enough for the top spot in the WPIAL. Shell trails Central Catholic running back Damion Jones-Moore, who has 467 yards in two games, according to the Post-Gazette.

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