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WPIAL Week 2 preview: can Trinity slow down Laurel Highlands?

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As you soak in the start of the NFL season, remember that there are still eight weeks of the WPIAL football regular season. That’s a lot of football to be played, so don’t get hung up on Week 1 results.

We’ve seen how Week 1 hype quickly becomes a shaky reality. The direction of a season can change in a matter of seconds and plenty of teams have bounced back after rough first games to make the playoffs or better.

We did learn that Drew Saxton is the right fit for South Fayette’s offense, Ringgold is as good advertised, Wash High’s defense is one of the best and Burgettstown is greatly improved. But the difficult performances by Mapletown, Carmichaels and Trinity should not matter.

Those teams are far from being a finished product and Week 2 will show that.

This was the most difficult game to pick this week. I’ve had coaches tell me that it’s extremely difficult to stop the Mustangs’ offense. You can only hope to slow them down. If the Hillers accomplish that, they’ll win this game.

My reasoning for picking LH: it’s still early in Jon Miller’s tenure as head coach and I’m not sure Trinity avoids enough mistakes to win. The offense needs to score a lot of points and that won’ happen if they commit penalties like they did last week.

That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trinity won. The Hillers need a better offensive attack and they have to put pressure on Laurel Highlands quarterback Jimmy Pierce.

I won’t spend much time on this one because there will be a story in Friday’s edition, but the Centurions have 17 seniors, including Brian Pevarnik, who was a force last year. He’ll share carries in the backfield with Frazier transfer Alvin Ross.

Both teams will have to contain the other’s rushing attacks. The Commodores did a great job of wearing down Monessen’s offensive line in Week 1 and will have to do that against Beth-Center.

Picking the Centurions to win is a credit to how good they are this season. They are one of my sleepers in Class A.

The Cougars’ Week 1 loss followed the same narrative as their 2014 season. The have an effective passing attack, but can be one-dimensional and struggle on defense. Charleroi was defeated by Southmoreland 46-29.

We did learn that senior Trey Douyon is one of the most underrated players in the area. He returned two kickoffs for touchdowns (86 & 80 yards) and caught a 77-yard touchdown from Geno Pelligrini.

But the offensive line could not create room for running back Brock Shannon, and the Scotties rushed for 305 yards to control time of possession. It will need to establish a running game against McGuffey.

The Highlanders will also look to have a better running game in Week 2. They ran for just 124 yards against Mount Pleasant, but junior quarterback Marcus Czulewicz threw for 195 yards and three touchdowns.

Once again, McGuffey came up short against the Vikings. The Highlanders will be ready to make a statement at home against Charleroi.

The Mikes could not do much on offense against Bentworth in the season opener, finishing with 201 total yards and being shut out in the first half. On defense, they allowed three passing touchdowns and struggled with consistency.

But their offense is still finding its identity with a new quarterback and the Bearcats were a tough opponent to open with. Meanwhile, the Maples ran into Beth-Center with a few injuries. They were defeated 48-12, but did show signs of a solid rushing attack.

Can they bounce back with a win over Carmichaels? It won’t be easy.

Look out for the Rangers. Devon Brown threw for two touchdowns and Nick Cook ran for two to help the Rangers defeat OLSH in Week 1. It was closer than I expected, but like I said earlier, don’t read into season openers too much.

We did learn that Brown is a solid high school quarterback and Cook looks like the next great back for Fort Cherry.

Brentwood struggled with Vincentian Academy, which won only two games in 2014. The Spartans can run the ball with Pat Carr, but they are breaking in a new quarterback and they are undersized on the line.

I look for Fort Cherry to be 2-0.

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