From:
Friday, August 23, 2024 | 00:35
Christopher Horner | TribLive
Central Catholic head coach Ryan Lehmeier works with his team during the first practice of heat week on August 5.
St. Frances Academy, a traditionally talented high school football team from Baltimore, has a schedule full of top national teams.
St. Frances, ranked No. 13 in the country by USA Today, visits No. 1-ranked Mater Dei in Santa Ana, Calif., next month and hosts No. 2-ranked IMG Academy in October. But first, the team will travel to Pittsburgh this weekend to face Central Catholic in a Week Zero game at Wolvarena.
Central Catholic coach Ryan Lehmeier thanked his connections in the coaching circle for arranging this pairing.
“They were open and we were open,” said Lehmeier, a second-year coach. “I thought it would be a great opportunity to challenge ourselves and a great experience for our program.”
Rarely do the Vikings face an opponent with more major-college prospects. The teams play Saturday at 3:30 p.m. as part of a two-day, five-game showcase hosted by Woodland Hills.
Recruiting website Rivals.com lists St. Frances as having three seniors and two juniors rated as four-star prospects. Among the seniors, cornerback Blake Woodby and linebacker Bryce Deas are Auburn recruits, while cornerback Byron Baldwin has committed to Indiana.
Junior safety Jirah Edward (6-2, 192) has Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame, Oregon, Ohio State and Penn State among his two dozen offers. Junior defensive end Zion Lee (6-5, 225) has those schools, plus Alabama and others, among his 33 offers.
“There are definitely a few of them that aren’t hard to find (on film),” Lehmeier said.
Rivals also lists at least four St. Frances players as three-star recruits.
The team finished 5-6 last season with close losses to Mater Dei (20-7) and IMG Academy (17-14). However, in the four seasons prior to that, the Panthers had a combined record of 38-3. They finished the 2018 season ranked fourth nationally by USA Today.
“It’s all well and good to talk about it before the game,” said Lehmeier. “But on the day we play at Wolvarena, they will have 11 people and so will we.”
Woodland Hills’ schedule begins with two games on Friday. McKeesport plays Lake High School in Uniontown, Ohio at 5 p.m. Woodland Hills hosts Erie McDowell at 8 p.m.
The other Saturday games are Clairton vs. Steel Valley at noon and Beaver vs. Westinghouse at 7 p.m.
St. Frances Academy, Part 2
The St. Frances Academy program is large enough to field two separate teams: one that competes nationally and another that plays against teams from the Mid-Atlantic region.
That regional team will visit North Allegheny for a Week Zero game on Friday at 7:30 p.m., a matchup that was hastily put together in late July after two other opponents dropped out.
“We did everything we could to find a game,” said NA coach Art Walker, praising the work of athletic director Bob Bozzuto. “Someone said, ‘Hey, they’re coming to play Central. I think they have a regional team.’ … We asked and they said, ‘Yeah, we have an opening that day.'”
The team playing Central Catholic has games scheduled across the country. The regional team facing North Allegheny plays in the East Coast Power Prep League against opponents mostly from Maryland and Virginia.
North Allegheny shared videos from two contests last season, but other than that, not much information was available.
“I’ve never gone into a game so blind,” Walker said.
North Allegheny and Pine-Richland had originally agreed to play in Week Zero, but that changed when the WPIAL scheduled them for a non-conference game in Week 8. Walker said another school in Maryland agreed to play NA as a replacement, but backed out in July.
“For a week or ten days we had no opponent,” he said. “Then suddenly we got one. Amen, we did.”
Kicking for a good cause
Trinity senior Andy Palm kicks again with an additional goal.
The all-conference kicker raised $8,600 for pediatric cancer research with his on-field efforts last season and has announced he will raise money again this fall. Donors can donate a dollar amount for each kick he makes during the season.
His goal is to surpass last year’s total, and that effort begins Friday when Trinity visits Moon at 7 p.m.
As a junior, Palm made 42 of 42 extra points and three field goals. His fundraiser is organized by the online foundation Alex’s Lemonade Stand.
Road trips in week zero
Four WPIAL teams – Pine-Richland, Mars, Penn Hills and Imani Christian – took advantage of Week Zero flexibility to travel outside of Western Pennsylvania.
For the past nine years, teams across the state have been allowed to replace their second practice game with a real game. The WPIAL schedules the remaining nine weeks of the regular season, but schools choose their opponents in Week Zero.
Pine-Richland travels to Columbus, Ohio to play Hilliard Davidson while Mars heads south to face Boone of Orlando, Florida. Both games will be played on Friday night.
Penn Hills and Imani Christian will compete in the York Rose Bowl Kickoff Classic on Saturday. Imani Christian will play Philadelphia West Catholic at 10:30 a.m. and Penn Hills will play Susquehanna Township at 1:30 p.m.
The York event is organized by former Woodland Hills athletic director Ron Coursey, now AD at York Suburban.
Milestones and anniversaries
Jefferson-Morgan is celebrating its 100th football anniversary this season.
The small school in Greene County was originally called Jefferson Township High School in 1924. Morgan Township was added in 1957.
The Rockets have won three WPIAL titles (1951, 1973 and 1974), had 12 undefeated regular seasons and 12 conference titles. Notably, the school did not have a losing season from 1929 to 1956.
They open their milestone season on Friday at Chartiers-Houston.
• Norwin enters its Week Zero clash with rival Penn-Trafford with 399 wins. However, PT leads the standings at 30-8, including a 56-28 victory over Norwin last season.
• This is the 75th anniversary of West Allegheny football. The Indians need nine wins to reach .400.
Chris Harlan is a sports reporter for TribLive. He joined the Trib in 2009 after spending seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. Reach him at [email protected].
