Area ties to Waynesburg-W&J game today

Today’s showdown between undefeated Waynesburg and Washington & Jefferson will involve 24 players and three coaches with ties to the Youngstown area.

Waynesburg (7-0, 3-0 Presidents’ Athletic Conference), coached by Rick Shepas, a graduate of Cardinal Mooney High and Youngstown State, will try to turn the tables on No. 7-ranked W&J (7-0, 3-0), coached by Mike Sirianni, a former Mount Union assistant coach.

The game will be played at 1:30 p.m. at John F. Wiley Stadium in Waynesburg, Pa.

Waynesburg is off to its first 7-0 start since 1967 under Shepas, who is in his second year with a 17-10 record.

W&J is riding a 16-game regular season winning streak under Sirianni, who also played at Mount Union. Sirianni has a 47-7 record at W&J in his fifth season.

Sirianni’s defensive coordinator is John Klein (Mooney), in his fifth season since shifting from the Westminster staff.

Waynesburg is coming off a 45-7 romp past Bethany last Saturday, aided by freshman wide receiver Ray Hightower II from Ursuline who caught a pair of 24-yard scoring passes from freshman quarterback Kyle Kyper. Hightower finished with three pass catches for 51 yards.

This season Hightower has nine catches for 219 yards. He also returns kickoffs and is averaging 23.0 yards for seven returns. He ranks No. 3 on the team in all-purpose yards with 380.

But freshman running back Robert Heller has been the Yellow Jackets’ chief offensive threat. Heller leads the nation in rushing with 186.4 yards per game and also scoring with 16.4 points an outing.

And Waynesburg’s defense, led by senior end Mike Czerwein, is ranked No. 4 in the nation by limiting opponents to 206.7 yards a game.

Swallow has been prolific

W&J rolled past Grove City last Saturday, 49-14, as junior quarterback Bobby Swallow from West Branch High threw five touchdown passes, finishing 22-for-33 for 256 yards.

Swallow has thrown for 2,133 yards and 33 TDs this year on 134-for-191 (70.2 percent) with only two interceptions. He is averaging 304.7 passing yards per game, and is the main reason that the Presidents have the nation’s second-ranked total offense with 574.4 yards per game.

Swallow especially is effective early in the game. Of his 4,259 career passing yards, 36 percent of them have come in the first quarter. And of his 54 career TD passes, 38 percent were thrown during the first 15 minutes.

Another W&J leader is junior linebacker John Fahey (Boardman), who is the team’s second-leading tackler with 38 stops, including 26 solo tackles. He also has six tackles for losses of 24 yards, including two sacks for 16 yards, along with two pass breakups and two forced fumbles.

Also with Waynesburg are Tom Hudson, a sophomore wide receiver from Canfield, who has nine catches for 94 yards, and Kory Jackson, a freshman wide receiver from Chaney, with five receptions for 107 yards.

Other players involved

Rounding out the Yellow Jackets’ area delegation are sophomore Corey Smith (Lisbon, defensive back) and freshmen Mike Duponty (defensive back, Struthers), Anthony Calcagni (linebacker, Boardman), Matt Wilson (Struthers, linebacker), Byron Mosley (Ursuline, defensive back), Bryan Phillips (United, quarterback), J.J. Johnson (Salem, running back), Darryl Moore Jr. (Boardman, defensive lineman) and Andrew Grande (Sharon, defensive lineman).

Other W&J area players with some playing time are Josh Linton, a junior running back from Laurel with 93 yards rushing in 19 carries, senior Steve Mort (Hubbard, offensive lineman) who plays special teams, and Nick Puckett, a freshman running back from Southern with 30 yards rushing in three attempts.

The rest of the Presidents’ area group are sophomores Thad Sollick (Beaver Local, linebacker), Mike Wamsley (East Liverpool, defensive lineman) and Pat Holland (Howland, offensive lineman), and freshman Joe Combine (Reynolds, defensive back), Joe Winters (Columbiana, running back), Mark Pleiss (Warren JFK, offensive lineman) and Kevin Gilmore (Lakeview, defensive lineman).