Under the Lights: Week Nine
High school football is back around America and Pitt's recruits and commits have been active for all of their respective high schools. Check out results and clips from around the country.
READ ALSO: Under the Lights: Opening Weekend | Week Two | Week Three | Week Four | Week Five | Week Six | Week Seven | Week Eight
A bounce-back, dominant road win near the end of the schedule was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Montvale (N.J.) St. Joseph's Regional Green Knights. A 24-10 victory at Paramus (N.J.) Catholic's house was spring-boarded in large part by the efforts of Pitt's pair of Green Knights commits, tight end Matt Alaimo and quarterback Nick Patti. Patti completed 16 of his 23 passing attempts for a whopping 301 yards and two touchdowns, while also throwing one interception.
Both of Patti's scores were thrown to Alaimo, who had his biggest game of the season with seven receptions for 159 yards, including a wildly impressive one-handed 50-yard bomb. Patti also helped out with 24 yards rushing and Alaimo contributed a sack on the defensive side of the football.
You can check out Alaimo's highlights from the game below and can follow this link to check out his regular season senior highlights.
While Scranton (Pa.) Lackawanna Community College is usually among the best JUCO programs in the country, the Falcons came out flat in a Saturday road game. Lackawanna fell 24-0 to Glen Illyn (Ill.)'s College of DuPage. The loss leaves Lackawanna with a 6-2 record heading into their final regular season matchup of the season. Prior to that November 12th contest against Georgia Military College, scheduled for a 1 P.M kick-off at Marshall University's field. Stats are not available for Pitt offensive tackle commit Chase Brown from the contest.
Another week and another comfortable win for Pitt commits Devin Danielson and Noah Palmer at Jefferson Hills (Pa.) powerhouses high school Thomas Jefferson. In the final contest of the regular season, the Jaguars steam-rolled conference opponent West Mifflin 37-7. The dominant victory over a team slotted for a 4A playoff slot certainly portends well for the Jaguars, who held West Mifflin to just seven first downs in the contest.
The Jaguars finish with the regular season with an 8-1 record and will move on to the WPIAL's 4A playoffs as the 3-seed, beginning on Friday night at 7:30 PM with a home game against 6-seed Washington (Pa.) Trinity. In the second week of the season, Thomas Jefferson shutout Trinity with a 35-0 victory.
Stats or highlights are not available for Palmer or Danielson from the performance.
After losing three of their last four games, Pitt linebacker commit Wendell Davis Jr. and his teammates at Richmond (Va.) Benedictine School snapped their negative streak and rebounded with a big victory. A road game at Gaithersburg (Md.) Avalon resulted in a 13-0 shutout for Davis and the Benedictine defense. Highlights or stats are not available from the performance. Benedictine has improved to 5-3 and will play their final regular season game of the year at St. George (Va.) Blue Ridge on Saturday, November 4th at 2 PM.
On Friday night, Pittsburgh (Pa.) Central Catholic continued their hot streak heading into the playoffs, wrapping up their regular season with a fourth consecutive victory and a shutout against Penn Hills (Pa.). The 21-0 performance from the Vikings was led by their defense, including Pitt defensive tackle commit David Green. Green accounted for a sack and four tackles on the evening to help Central Catholic finish with an 8-2 record heading into the playoffs.
The Vikings earned the two-seed in the 6A bracket of the WPIAL playoffs, where they'll play Peters Township in a home game at Cupples Stadium on the South Side on Friday night.
While his senior season may not have gone exactly as he pictured it, Pitt commit Jake Kradel finished his career at Butler (Pa.) with a home victory on Friday night. The Golden Tornadoes took on and defeated Canon-McMilan at home, hanging on to survive a late rally from the Big Macs and outlasting them to a 28-26 win. Kradel accounted for a fumble recovery and three tackles in the final game of his high school career. Butler finished the year 3-7.
Check out the highlights from Kradel's senior season in their entirety, embedded below.
A rough October losing streak for Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha Catholic finally came to an end on Saturday. The three-game skid for the Stags was snapped by a convincing 49-6 road victory at Forestville (Md.) Bishop McNamara, getting back on track in a major way and improving to 5-4 on the year.
Stats aren't available from the performance for Pitt commits John Morgan, a defensive end, or Judson Tallandier, a defensive back, but you can view an impressive quarterback hurry from Morgan embedded below.
Phenix City (Ala.) Glenwood's dominant October continued with their fourth straight convincing win. After a 3-3 start to the season, this 156-20 run in the month of October has convincingly thrust the Gators into the two-seed spot in the largest classification (AAA) of the Alabama Independent Schools' Association playoffs. The cap to the regular season was a 49-7 rout of Abbeville (Ala.) Christian Academy to finish 7-3 on the year. In the victory, Pitt wide receiver commit Cameron O'Neil accounted for three receptions on the evening, including a 14-yard touchdown catch. O'Neil was banged up on the catch and sat out the rest of the game, but you can catch his highlights from the performance below.
On Friday afternoon at 4 PM, O'Neil and his teammates will begin their playoffs with a home game against Selma (Ala.) Morgan Academy. In the fifth game of the regular season, Glenwood defeated Morgan 31-21 on the road. The winner will advance to the semi-finals of the bracket.
Another week and another comfortable win for Pitt commits Devin Danielson and Noah Palmer at Jefferson Hills (Pa.) powerhouses high school Thomas Jefferson. In the final contest of the regular season, the Jaguars steam-rolled conference opponent West Mifflin 37-7. The dominant victory over a team slotted for a 4A playoff slot certainly portends well for the Jaguars, who held West Mifflin to just seven first downs in the contest.
The Jaguars finish with the regular season with an 8-1 record and will move on to the WPIAL's 4A playoffs as the 3-seed, beginning on Friday night at 7:30 PM with a home game against 6-seed Washington (Pa.) Trinity. In the second week of the season, Thomas Jefferson shutout Trinity with a 35-0 victory.
Stats or highlights are not available for Palmer or Danielson from the performance.
A bounce-back, dominant road win near the end of the schedule was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Montvale (N.J.) St. Joseph's Regional Green Knights. A 24-10 victory at Paramus (N.J.) Catholic's house was spring-boarded in large part by the efforts of Pitt's pair of Green Knights commits, tight end Matt Alaimo and quarterback Nick Patti. Patti completed 16 of his 23 passing attempts for a whopping 301 yards and two touchdowns, while also throwing one interception.
Both of Patti's scores were thrown to Alaimo, who had his biggest game of the season with seven receptions for 159 yards, including a wildly impressive one-handed 50-yard bomb. Patti also helped out with 24 yards rushing and Alaimo contributed a sack on the defensive side of the football.
A rough October losing streak for Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha Catholic finally came to an end on Saturday. The three-game skid for the Stags was snapped by a convincing 49-6 road victory at Forestville (Md.) Bishop McNamara, getting back on track in a major way and improving to 5-4 on the year. Stats aren't available from the performance for Pitt commits John Morgan, a defensive end, or Judson Tallandier, a defensive back.
In odd fashion, Pitt commit Marquis Williams has actually played two games since the last Under the Lights updated. Due to complications from hurricane season, Ft. Lauderdale (Fla.) Cardinal Gibbons played two contests with quick turnarounds, earning victories on Friday, October 27th and Monday, October 30th.
On Friday, Cardinal Gibbons routed the Ft. Lauderdale (Fla.) Stranahan Mighty Dragons by a lopsided score of 46-6. Williams accounted for three tackles in the victory. Monday night's game was a similar story, as Gibbons earned a comfortable 36-6 victory and Williams notched a pass break-up. Official highlights are not available from either game, but Williams recently tweeted out a homemade highlight from several of his games (and celebrations) this season, which has been embedded below.
Gibbons will play their third game in eight days on Friday night in a home game against Hollywood Hills (Fla.). The visitors are just 2-7 and will be hard-pressed to compete with this 8-1 Gibbons squad despite the second consecutive short turnaround for the Chiefs. Only undefeated Plantation (Fla.) American Heritage, who defeated Gibbons earlier in the season, remain ahead of Gibbons in the 5A District 16 standings.
Pitt offensive line commit Blake Zubovic and his Belle Vernon (Pa.) Leopards finished their perfect regular season on Friday night with perhaps their most dominant victory of the season. The Leopards rolled into Ambridge (Pa.) and came away with a 42-0 victory, finishing with a 9-0 record heading into the WPIAL's 4A playoffs. Although they finished with a perfect record, Belle Vernon will be the two-seed with a 7:30 PM Friday home game against Mars.
Check out Zubovic's highlights from the final regular season game of his senior season below: