Geneva to host all-star football

Western Reserve’s Mike Kopachy will coach
Ohio’s team.

By MARK W. MILLER

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

BEAVER FALLS, Pa. — Brandon Moherman of Western Reserve High and Poland’s Chris Lovell will share quarterback duties when the Ohio All-Stars go against the Pennsylvania stars in the 28th Penn-Ohio Stateline Classic football game Friday at Geneva College. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

The Pennsylvania stars lead in the series 18-9, but Ohio has won the last two games.

Coaching the Ohio Stars will be Mike Kopachy, Western Reserve’s coach, and he has four players that helped the Blue Devils win the 2006 Inter-Tri-County League Tier Two title.

Blue Devils players

Moherman (6-foot-2, 200 pounds) will continue his football career at Baldwin-Wallace College. He completed 190-of-255 passes for 2,000 yards and 27 touchdowns last season. He carried a 3.7 grade point average.

Lovell (6-2, 185) completed 60 percent of his passes last year for more than 1,000 yards and six touchdowns in leading Poland to a tie for the Metro Athletic Conference championship. He was team captain for both the varsity football and basketball teams and also will attend B-W.

Western Reserve’s Chris Truitt (6-2, 180), a tight end-wide receiver, caught 40 passes for 450 yards and 11 TDs last season.

Springfield’s Corey Cunningham (6-2, 185) is another outstanding wide receiver. He is headed for Bowling Green.

Line advantage

The Penn stars will have a huge line advantage with seven athletes weighing 265 pounds or more.

Tackles Zac Kasparek (6-6, 305) of New Brighton and Stiles O’Brien (6-5, 280) of Ellwood City will attend Akron and Youngstown State, respectively.

Adam Shankle (6-1, 265) of Springfield, the biggest Ohio lineman, will attend Slippery Rock.

Kopachy said, “Our strength will be on both sides of the ball. Speed and physical quickness will make up the difference for our lack of size.

“We scrimmaged a little bit Friday and saw a lot of good things,” Kopachy said. “Patrick Stecker of West Branch was sharp and Nick Puckett of Southern and Shane Reed of East Liverpool really ran the ball well.

“We saw what we thought would work against the kind of defense we’ll be facing,” Kopachy said. “Our quarterbacks distributed the ball to a lot of guys and they stood in there and made some nice throws.”

Kopachy has three players from Steubenville’s Div. III state championship football team — Tyree Dunn, Sam Pavlik and Maurice Bougard, the 2007 Division II state 100 (10.8 seconds) and 200 (21.5) champ.

The Ohio stars practice this week in Columbiana from Monday through Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m.

miller@vindy.com