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Monday, August 28, 2023 | 10:13 PM
Jeff Helsel | Mon Valley Impartial
South Allegheny’s Cameron Epps makes a catch in opposition to Southmoreland final season.
With regards to highschool soccer in August and early September, conditioning is big. Many instances is comes right down to a battle of attrition as kids work their manner into “soccer form.”
So it was onerous to determine what was extra spectacular in Week Zero, the overall yards gained or the quantity of carries on opening night time for South Allegheny sophomore Cameron Epps.
Epps carried the ball 26 instances on a heat night time in Glassport, dashing for 226 yards — a median of greater than 8.5 yards a carry — in a victory over Yough
“I used to be most impressed with Cameron’s potential to hold the ball 25 instances,” new South Allegheny head coach Brian Hanson stated. “He’s not the most important man, however his offseason coaching permits him to excel on the sector. He does what we require, however he additionally spends a major period of time coaching with Shelby Harris and it reveals on the sector.”
Hanson took over at South Allegheny after a profitable run as coach at West Greene, the place he at all times appeared to have a stud operating again.
“At West Greene, we had Ben Jackson and Colin Brady,” Hanson stated. “Each of them have been actually enjoyable to educate. Epps is extra like Jackson within the sense that he by no means comes off the sector. He’s extraordinarily environment friendly with the ball in his fingers. What I imply by that’s Epps can speed up and decelerate with out taking additional steps. He performs the sport full velocity due to this.
“Like Jackson, he has that uncommon trait that he can play full velocity and be in complete management of his physique. Epps is extraordinarily versatile, too. He can line up at receiver and create some good matchup issues as properly.”
After Yough took an early lead, Epps stated he may really feel among the wind popping out of the Gladiators’ balloon. Nevertheless the younger operating again pumped life again into SA when he scored on a 6-yard run to tug the Gladiators to inside some extent.
A 42-yard scoring run within the second quarter by Epps put the Gladiators up for good, with an 8-yard landing run within the third quarter serving to to seal 28-14 win.
Cam is now attempting to make a reputation for himself because the Epps household tree of success at South Allegheny continues to develop.
Older brother Antoine Epps performed soccer and basketball at SA and is now taking part in soccer at Duquesne. Huge brother Bryce Epps is a freshman basketball participant at La Roche after changing into the Gladiators all-time main scorer.
The South Allegheny victory in Week Zero matches its win complete from of final season, so there’s early season pleasure because of Epps and his teammates.
“The group performed properly contemplating that it was the primary sport of the season beneath a brand new regime and having 5 potential starters out for the sport,” Hanson stated. “I assumed the group confirmed a ton of grit and toughed out some nerve-racking conditions. At a number of factors within the sport, we had 5 freshmen taking part in.
“This was the primary residence win at our new stadium, so seeing the grins and attitudes was gratifying. Now we have a protracted approach to go, however I believe if we simply deal with bettering and being nice teammates, now we have an opportunity to essentially construct one thing.”
Week Zero honorable point out
Payton Wehner, Central Catholic
On a group loaded with expertise, senior quarterback Payton Wehner usually will get misplaced within the shuffle. With new coach Ryan Lehmeier calling the photographs, Wehner was close to excellent within the season opener at Woodland Hills, connecting on 17 of 19 passes for 304 yards and 5 touchdowns on passes of 9, 68, 54, 46 and 6 yards to Peter Gonzalez (2), Vernon Settles (2) and Jacob Sassic because the Vikings cruised previous the Wolverines, 43-7.
Jack Fennell, North Catholic
A gap night time soccer sport was a sport of Rock ‘em, Sock ’em Robots because the offenses from North Catholic and Serra Catholic stored touchdown haymakers, turning into the very best scoring contest within the WPIAL in Week Zero. Trojans senior operating again Jack Fennell rushed for 171 yards and scored on runs of 56, 62 and 1 yard, plus the icing on the cake: a 39-yard pick-6 within the fourth quarter to seal a wild win over the Eagles, 49-42.
Eric Doerue, South Park
Due to storm injury and an influence outage the night time earlier than, South Park thought it may need to postpone its scheduled Week Zero sport in opposition to East Allegheny. The EA college district supplied to host the sport Friday afternoon, and South Park hopped on the bus and headed east. No reality to the rumor junior operating again Eric Doerue drove one of many buses after main the way in which on the sector with 183 yards dashing and a gap rating 2-yard run because the Eagles edged the Wildcats, 22-16.
2022 HSSN Gamers of the Week:
Week 11 – Braylon Thomas, Union
Week 10 – Matt Sieg, Fort Cherry
Week 9 – Jonny Huff, Neshannock
Week 8 – Cadin Olsen, Armstrong
Week 7 – Roman Sarnic, Franklin Regional
Week 6 – Landan Stevenson, Mapletown
Week 5 – Jake Wolfe, Montour
Week 4 – Jaren Brickner, Beaver Falls
Week 3 – Jake Phillips, Hempfield
Week 2 – Luke Cignetti, Shaler
Week 1 – Cruce Brookins, Metal Valley
Week Zero – Conlan Greene, Penn-Trafford
Tags: South Allegheny
