Bouncing back?
The Seneca Valley-Canon-McMillan and Greensburg Salem-Mars previews will appear in Friday's edition.
SLIPPERY ROCK — Larry Wendereusz placed the blame for the Slippery Rock High football loss to Reynolds last week squarely on the shoulders of one person.
Larry Wendereusz.
“I didn't do a good job preparing our guys and our staff,” said the Slippery Rock head coach. “When we step off the bus, we have to be ready to play a football game and we weren't. Last week was 100 percent on me.”
Slippery Rock got off to a slow start against Reynolds, but rallied for a 21-13 lead in the fourth quarter.
But two turnovers turned into 12 points for the Raiders in a 25-21 setback.
Wendereusz said he is making sure this week that it doesn't happen again.
The Rockets (1-1) can't afford another slow start and rough finish against Franklin and quarterback Ian Haynes when the two teams clash at 7 p.m. Friday at Slippery Rock.
Haynes has a strong, accurate arm and scrambling ability. The senior has completed 37 of 59 for 583 yards and seven touchdowns already this season and has 7,489 passing yards in his career.
He needs just 231 yards to break the District 10 career passing yardage record.
Haynes' passing skills were on full display in a win against Oil City last week. The Oilers were able to sack Haynes seven times, however.
“Oil City is a very strong team up front,” Wendereusz said. “We're not there yet. I don't think we can bring three and get there. We have to bring four, five, maybe even six.”
Wendereusz said more important than the amount of pressure is the deception within that pressure.
Slippery Rock plans on disguising its rush and coverage as much as possible to confuse Haynes.
“He can put it anywhere he wants from any distance,” Wendereusz said. “We have to keep him in the pocket because he loves to run around and he has two really good receivers who can make plays.”
Slippery Rock isn't going slow down it's up-tempo offense to try to keep Haynes off the field.
If anything, the Rockets want to speed things up.
“We've worked on tempo even more this week,” Wendereusz said. “We want to be even faster. We had a faster pace at practice. We tried to see how many plays we could run in a certain amount of time and we were able to run 22 plays in 10 minutes.”
Wendereusz doesn't want the other team to dictate how he and the Rockets run their offense.
“We're not going to change what we do too much,” he said. “We sat a little more late against Reynolds and it cost us. We have to stay with what we do and what we do well.”
7 p.m., FridayMoniteau kept it close against powerhouse Clarion last week, thanks in part to two successful fake punts, but ultimately fell, 42-8. ... Meanwhile Ridgway rolled to a 42-6 win over St. Marys.Ridgway is led by senior quarterback Paul Gresco, who has thrown for 303 yards and three touchdowns this season. Senior running back Matt Dush leads the ground game with 121 yards on 19 carries.Moniteau's offense is struggling. The Warriors are only averaging 3.3 yards per carry and have only gained 421 yards in two games.
7 p.m., Fridayat FoxburgBoth teams are coming off non-conference wins. While Curwensville took down Cameron County, 20-0, the Falcon Knights won at Sheffield, 20-14.The Golden Tide's victory was the first for 1st-year coach Jim Thompson. ... Curwensville is starting a freshman at QB, Dan McGarry, who has completed just 9 of 24 passes for 154 yds. with 2 TDs and 3 INTs. ... The team relies more on its ground game, in particular Jr. Duane Brady, who has 117 yds. and a TD on 29 carries.Union/A-C Valley rallied from a 14-8 halftime deficit to knock off Sheffield. ... QB Luke Bowser had a hand in all 3 TDs in the game for the Falcon Knights, rushing for 2 scores and throwing a 3-yd. scoring toss to Tony Thompson for the go-ahead score in the 4th quarter. ... Bowser leads the team with 59 rushing yards with no other player running for more than 25 through two games. ... The Falcon Knights feature nine players with at least 10 tackles, led by Jr. LB Eli Penny's 19.Curwensville edged Union/A-C Valley last year, 14-13.
12:30 p.m., SaturdayThe Prexies are rolling up yards and points on offense again. Washington has scored 48 and 42 in each of their two wins this season.Zahmere Robinson rushed for three touchdowns last week in the 42-14 win over Charleroi. Wash High scored 28 unanswered second-half points in that win.Robinson ended up with 233 yards on 19 carries.
