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Aliquippa's Bobby Cashaw, left.
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Brian Batko's high school football chat transcript: 10.7.16

Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette

Brian Batko's high school football chat transcript: 10.7.16

POLL: Who wins tonight? A. Aliquippa (58%) B. Clairton (42%)

Brian Batko: Good morning. This feels like as big a day as I can remember for high school football in Western Pa. with Aliquippa taking on Clairton tonight. The novelty of this game will make it tough to live up to the hype.

Guest: Why hasn't Zane Dudek from Armstrong received more division 1 scholarship offers? He has been racking up video game type numbers against decent 5A competition and the 40 time is also impressive with being a track star.

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Brian Batko: Folks have been asking that often this season, and I've heard/read some different opinions on why that is. Some say he might not have enough shiftiness or vision or quickness to make it as an FBS back. Shiftiness and quickness, good hips and all that, I'll leave that up to a more seasoned football evaluator than myself. But I've had many coaches tell me Dudek's vision is off the charts, and as you mentioned, Guest, he obviously has straight-line speed, he's not that small, and his numbers are off the charts.

Aliquippa's Avante McKenzie (35)
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I personally don't think there are too many knocks on Dudek, but then again, I'm not the one handing out scholarship offers.

VoiceoftheGlobetro...: Hey Brian. How about yet another impressive program turn-around for Dan Bradley at OLSH? They were beat by mercy rule 8 of 9 games last year and have flipped the script this season. Where do you see the Chargers? Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here (I am) but they are the only team in the WPIAL that could play a home game in the championship?! ha-ha.

Brian Batko: Good afternoon, Voice. It's definitely pretty impressive what OLSH is doing. We actually had a story on them today by Drew Karpen, which you can read here.

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But I question how they will do tonight against Rochester. OLSH got smacked in its season opener by Northgate, and has done some smacking of its own since then against weaker teams. Now, Northgate has proven to be legit in 1A, but the Flames were edged last week by the same Rochester team OLSH plays tonight, so I'll be interested to see if OLSH is any better equipped to handle a top 1A team this time around. That's funny about RMU being OLSH's home field and also the venue of the 1A title game, but I'd honestly be shocked if the Chargers made it there.

Brian Batko: Also, others are going to ask this question about OLSH: Where would it be without contributions from transfers? I'm not one to play judge and jury on this sort of thing, but certainly some new guys have helped this team a lot, including QB Tyler Bradley, son of coach Dan Bradley, who transferred from Avonworth. And I also wonder if Avonworth would be in better shape this year in 2A had Bradley the QB stayed. Lopes are just 2-3.

Mark: Brian, Mars got a tough Homecoming Night draw with TJ coming to town. What do the Planets need to do to stay in this game?

Brian Batko: Hi Mark, thanks for chatting. Before I answer, I'll ask this myself: Why would Mars play TJ its toughest home game of the year on homecoming? I don't know how that all works, what goes into those kinds of decisions, but to me it's always obvious who you should try to play on homecoming: the worst team on your home schedule. Certainly not the best.

Drew Karpen
OLSH football on another streak ... this time it's positive

Anyway, tonight, I think the Fight'n Planets have to try to run on TJ if they can, keep it away from the Jags offense and shorten this game. Isaiah Johnson and Garrett Reinke have run for more yards than any WPIAL duo other than Zane Dudek and his backup, and Dylan Rush (Mapletown) and his back-up.

Steve R: Over/Under on yards Dudek has at home against Latrobe tonight?

Brian Batko: Steve, this is a tough one because Latrobe is a struggling team in 5A, so you'd think Dudek could run wild, but how many carries will he get in the second half? You look at some of his biggest performances, and those came in some competitive games. McKeesport was OT, Gateway was in it in the second half, and even last week when he set the record, Plum was scoring at least a little bit. I'll set the o/u for you at 200 and actually take the under...

Dallas hemphill: OLSH transfers are one problem people have with private schools as i said before. avonworth being a small school, cant replace a starting qb.. anyways, with Pine Richlands QB being out for the season, can anyone come close to competing against PCC

Brian Batko: Hey Dallas, yeah we talked about that a little bit last week. But it's not like OLSH is ripping through 1A, so maybe it (rightfully?) goes under the radar a bit.

As for the new balance of power in 6A ... yikes. All along, I've figured the only team that can maybe hold a candle to CC is PR, and that was of course with a healthy Jurkovec. Now, I don't know. MAYBE North Allegheny, because they had some players injured the first time the two teams met, including standout QB Ethan Maenza, but Central really beat on NA in that one. I honestly think there might be like a 99 percent chance Central wins WPIALs.

The Artist formerly known as Batkos High Waisted Pants: Any sleeping giants you see in the WPIAL? I always thought Ambridge and Butler should be better than they are. Good in other sports, decent facilities, large enrollment for their classifications etc.

Brian Batko: Good day, TAFKABHWP. I think I mentioned last week that I've heard from people Butler should be better, and it does make sense. The football culture just isn't good there right now, and even more significant, it's just so hard to move up in the ranks of that conference with P-R, NA, now Central and Penn Hills. It's tough for me to identify any real "sleeping giants" but I do think there are some good teams currently playing in, say, 4A that could keep moving up classifications if their enrollments keep growing like they have.

Roscoe: Didn't a couple Quip players get arrested for those shootings last week? Now we are talking about a football game and they are even televising it? Is this sending the right message? Granted I don't have all the facts but seems like something wrong here? Your thoughts?

Brian Batko: I think this is a fair question, Roscoe. Definitely, what's happened in Aliquippa over the past week or so is, as coach Mike Zmijanac put it, distressing. To me, though, you kind of have to try to separate that from the game, because there a bunch of other kids on that Quip team, and of course the Clairton team, who had nothing at all to do with what happened. You never want to make football more important than life and death, and it's obviously a dark cloud hanging over what should be an extremely fun game, but at least tonight can be about something good for Aliquippa's other players. I'd encourage you and anyone else to read the new book about Aliquippa, "Playing Through the Whistle" by S.L. Price that went on sale Tuesday. The town has had its problems, no one denies that, but there's a sort of moral code that nothing bad happens there on a Friday night.

lovie: i like the snapchat filters

Brian Batko: Me too, love. @PGVarsityXtra tries to stay hip with the kids and all that. Now if only we could make one of those filters that would put Mike White's face on your face...

Steve R: Does Albert Gallatin end their long losing streak tonight? I say no and I say they will pass West Shamokin eventually.

Brian Batko: Not tonight at Greensburg Salem, but maybe in the last few weeks. AG finishes with Trinity, Uniontown, Laurel Highlands. Uniontown has been almost as bad statistically as AG this season, and Laurel Highlands also is 0-6. You know what? Put me down for an Albert Gallatin W this year.

Brian Batko: OK folks, that's all the time we have for today. Thanks for stopping by, I'll be here next week, too. Enjoy all the high school action tonight.

First Published: October 7, 2016, 1:44 p.m.
Updated: October 7, 2016, 5:20 p.m.

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Aliquippa's Bobby Cashaw, left.  (Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette)
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