Today’s Erie Times-News featured a story on Erie County’s four major-college football recruits.

Michigan State Mark Dantonio talked about Cathedral Prep seniors Damion Terry and Delton Williams, both of whom will be Spartans in the fall. When talking about McDowell senior James Conner, Pitt coach Paul Chryst simply said, “There is a football player.”

Read more about what the coaches had to say about Erie’s major-college recruits.

McDowell running back/outside linebacker James Conner signs his National Letter of Intent with Pitt Wednesday at McDowell's library. MATT MEAD/Erie Times-News

Today is National Letter of Intent Day, and many area football players and other athletes are set to sign with Division I and Division II schools or commit to program at other levels.

The Erie Times-News took a look at the area football players expected to sign today. Read a short bio on each player. Here’s the list:

Football
Damion Terry, Cathedral Prep – Michigan State
Delton Williams, Cathedral Prep – Michigan State
John Chereson, Cathedral Prep – Notre Dame (walk-on)
Erik Swanson, Cathedral Prep – Pennsylvania
Jake Plonski, Cathedral Prep – Mercyhurst
Nick Dubowski, Cathedral Prep – Indiana (Pa.)
Brendan Klemensic, Cathedral Prep – Gannon
James Conner, McDowell – Pittsburgh
Sean Gallagher, McDowell – Edinboro
Riley Dunbar, McDowell – Mercyhurst
DeShawn Coleman, Hickory – West Virginia
Dionte Pope, Hickory – Edinboro
Artrel Foster, Meadville – Temple
Quinn Thompson, General McLane – Connecticut
Aidan Graham, General McLane – Clarion
Nathan O’Brien, Eisenhower – Lock Haven
Aaron Lundmark, Eisenhower – Grove City
Logan Rickert, Reynolds – IUP

——————–

Following are the athletes from other sports who plan to sign today. Read a short bio on each athlete.

Baseball
Eli Flynn, Cathedral Prep – Concord College (W.Va.)
Scott Hess, Cathedral Prep – Indiana (Pa.)

Cross country
Ethan Louis, Cathedral Prep – Dayton
Austin Pondel, Corry – Penn State
Hunter Johnston, Saegertown – Dayton

Soccer
Cory Kuzilla, Harbor Creek – California (Pa.)
Olivia Augustyniak, Mercyhurst Prep – Duquesne
Sarah Kaiser, Mercyhurst Prep – Cleveland State

Track and field
Jaynee Corbett, Corry – Youngstown State

Volleyball
Maria Peluso, Fort LeBoeuf – Shippensburg

Wrestling
Evan Daley, Fort LeBoeuf – Clarion

Water polo
Michael Squeglia, Cathedral Prep – Gannon

Note: Coaches are encouraged to notify the Times-News if an athlete plans to commit to a college.

Let’s recap Week 13, shall we?

Game of the week: No. 1 Notre Dame at USC

Final score: Irish 22, Trojans 13

Pregame rant: This is pretty simple. The Irish win, they’re playing for a national title.

Notre Dame hasn’t won it all since the 1988 season, but hasn’t really contended for one since 1989 when it lost to No. 1 Colorado in the 1990 Orange Bowl.

So for the Irish, this is a long time coming. For USC, this is a season it’d like to forget.

The Trojans have lost four games, their best player – quarterback Matt Barkley – is out with a shoulder injury and they’re coming off a 38-28 loss to in-town rival UCLA.

Beating the Irish would sure wipe the slate clean for USC.

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Let’s recap Week 10, shall we?

Game of the week: No. 1 Alabama at No. 5 LSU

Final score: Tide 21, Tigers 17

Pregame rant: As good as this game will be, we don’t want to see the Tide and Tigers play in the national title game again.

Alabama hasn’t lost since it fell 9-6 in overtime at home to the Tigers. The Tide dominated LSU in the national title game, but the Tigers can avenge that loss and really put themselves in the national title picture.

The Tide are first in the nation in run defense. LSU is eighth. So the team that has the better quarterback should win Saturday.

Edge Alabama.

A.J. McCarron has thrown 18 touchdowns, no interceptions and can make all the throws. If Zach Mettenberger is called upon to beat the Tide, it’s not going down.

Post-game commentary: McCarron wasn’t his best until it matter most.

With that Death Valley crowd roaring and ready to pounce on him for predicting the Tide would win, McCarron was 4-of-5 for 72 yards and a game-winning touchdown pass with 51 seconds left to beat the rival Tigers.

Mettenberger actually played well. Was 24-of-35 for 298 yards and a touchdown.

Truth be told, the Tigers had this game won. They had more yards, won the turnover and time ouf possession battle and limited Alabama to 1-of-9 on third-down conversions.

So why did they lose? Penalties and bad play calling.

The Tigers had seven penalties for 51 yards and LSU coach Les Miles called a fake field goal on a 4th-and-12 play down 7-3 in the first half.  It failed miserably.

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Here are three college football games worth watching in Week 10.

Game of the week: No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide (8-0, 5-0 SEC) at No. 5 LSU Tigers (7-1, 3-1 SEC), Saturday, 8 p.m., WSEE (CBS).

Pregame rant: As good as this game will be, we don’t want to see the Tide and Tigers play in the national title game again.

Alabama hasn’t lost since it fell 9-6 in overtime at home to the Tigers. The Tide dominated LSU in the national title game, but the Tigers can avenge that loss and really put themselves in the national title picture.

The Tide are first in the nation in run defense. LSU is eighth. So the team that has the better quarterback should win Saturday.

Edge Alabama.

A.J. McCarron has thrown 18 touchdowns, no interceptions and can make all the throws. If Zach Mettenberger is called upon to beat the Tide, it’s not going down.

Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s recap Week 7, shall we?

Game of the week: No. 17 Stanford at No. 7 Notre Dame

Final score: Irish 20, Cardinal 13 (OT)

Pregame rant: The Irish have an offensive-minded coach in Brian Kelly, but have relied on their defense to win games. Allowing 7.78 points a game, Notre Dame is second only to top-ranked Alabama in scoring defense.

The Irish are first in touchdowns allowed with three.

However, Stanford has the type of offense that can grind it out and impose its will on a defense. Stepfan Taylor is 15th in the nation in rushing with 560 yards and five touchdowns. If the Cardinal can consistently block Irish senior stud linebacker Manti Te’o, who has 48 stops, Taylor will have room to run.

If not, it will be business as usual for Te’o and the Irish defense.

Post-game commentary: The debate over whether Taylor scored or not from the 1-yard line in OT is a valid one, but someone explain how you run the same play, bad weather or not, on 3rd and 4th down out of a tight formation with everyone in the box to stop the run.

What this game tells me is if you’re playing Notre Dame, better put them away early. The Irish have won three games by seven points or less. They beat Purdue 20-17, Michigan 13-6 and Stanford in overtime.

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In his high school days, Matha was a standout athlete at McDowell before going to Pitt./Photo by Jack Hanrahan/Erie Times-News

Transferred. Injured. Ineligible.

Senior right tackle Dan Matha has had his share of obstacles, but is once again a force on the field in helping No. 22-ranked Indiana (Pa.) boast one of the top rushing teams in NCAA Division II.

” It’s a great feeling,” Matha said. “It’s been a lot of bumps along the way. Haven’t always been healthy. So to finally be healthy. It’s a weight off my shoulders.

“To be able to play and do the things I know I’m capable of doing. Not really being hindered by an injury or pain or anything, it’s long overdue.”

With the 6-foot, 7-inch, 290-pound Matha helping clear space to run free, the Crimson Hawks (5-1, 2-1 PSAC West) are seventh nationally in rushing and have the nation’s second-leading rusher in senior Harvie Tuck.

“We vote every week in the offensive meeting room which side of the line did better,” Tuck said. “The right side has been getting a lot of wins. Probably four out of the six weeks, they’ve won and I think part of it is because of Dan.”

It wasn’ t that long ago Matha, an McDowell High graduate, was at Pitt wondering if he’d ever become healthy enough to even compete for a starting spot, let alone play.

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Let us recap Week 2, shall we?

Game of the week: No. 7 Georgia at Missouri

Final score: Bulldogs 41, Tigers 20

Pregame rant: Sheldon Richardson set it off by describing Georgia as playing “old-man football” following the Bulldogs’ 45-23 win against Buffalo.

“I watched that game. I turned it off, too,” said Richardson in a story by the Columbia Tribune. “It’s like watching Big Ten football. It’s old-man football.”

That’s big words, big fella.

Post-game commentary: The ‘Dawgs welcomed the Tigers into the SEC with a harsh dose of “grown-man football” as Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray called it. Georgia forced three turnovers and scored the game’s last 24 points to prevail.

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Let us recap Week 13, shall we?

No. 23 Penn State (9-3, 6-2 Big Ten) at No. 15 Wisconsin (10-2, 6-2 Big Ten)

Pregame rant: Now the NCAA is getting involved in the whole Penn State situation surrounding former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Playing a game of football has been the best way for Penn State’s players to deal with what’s going on. The Nittany Lions will have to play one of their best games of the season to defeat Wisconsin. The question is can Penn State, which is ranked 106th in scoring offense (20.9 ppg.) score enough points to win?

Postgame commentary: The Nittany Lions couldn’t muster enough points nor stop Wisconsin in their 45-7 loss to the Badgers. Montee Ball ran for 156 yards and four touchdowns. The win puts Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game. As for the Nittany Lions, the focus will remain on the actions off the field. Sad story on a variety of levels.

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