Aug 23, 2015 3 min read

Peters Township: 2-7 (1-6 Quad-A Southeastern)

The Indians no longer have the luxury of Cory Owen at quarterback. The dynamic quarterback is now impressing coaches at James Madison, but his departure is still felt in McMurray. The four-year starter led Peters Township to the playoffs for three seasons and added a new element to head coach Rich Piccinini’s pro-style offense. Now, Piccinini, who had a three-consecutive playoff appearances before last season, will turn to either Blake Smith, a 6-0, 190-pound junior, or Jake Cortes, a 6-5, 215-pound sophomore, to lead the offense. The competition was still even in the first week of preseason camp, but that will change before the season opens Sept. 4 at Woodland Hills. Luckily, the quarterback will have an offensive line anchored by a player like senior Jake Reardon. The 265-pound mauler can bench over 400 pounds and showed drastic improvement as a first-year starter in 2014. He is joined by two potential college players: junior Logan Stahl (6-4, 265) and junior Joe Girouard (6-4, 320). It’s a unit that will be much better and it will have to be.

The offense will run through junior tailback T.J. Kpan, who averaged five yards per carry last season and is arguably the top athete on the team. Seniors Clayton Yeates and Connor Manning, as well as junior Alan Snyder return at wide receiver. Peters Township will have to improve on both sides of the football to return to the playoffs. The Indians averaged just 16.6 points per game last season and allowed 33.4.

Aside from losing Owen, the defense took major hits because of graduation. Linebackers Tim Swoope and Jake Scott are gone, so are Ethan Anderson and Nick Kirsch from the secondary, but Christian Phelps is the only loss on the defensive line.

If the Indians are going to return to the WPIAL playoffs, they’ll have to win the battle up front – a tall task in the Southeastern Conference. Six starters return on both offense and defense, but inexperience is still a weakness. It’s just too difficult to determine how Peters Township will fair against opponents like Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park and Mt. Lebanon.

Players to watch: T.J. Kpan, Jake Reardon, Alan Snyder, Conor Manning, Clayton Yeates.

Biggest Game: Week Three at Canon-McMillan. How do you rebound from missing the playoffs? Beating your rival on their new hom turf is a good start. It’s the type of game that would boost the confidence of a first-year starting quarterback.

Stat to think about: The Indians have not won a playoff game since 2003 and have never won a WPIAL title.