Going into a pivotal showdown between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in Class 4A in the PUP’s Game of the Week, McKeesport phenom Kemon Spell said he noticed an interesting quote taped up in the team’s locker room courtesy of Mars running back Ayden Yocum.
“I walked in the locker room, and I’ve got this note sticking on my locker,” Spell said. “He goes, ‘Kemon Spell is just another player.’ That made me feel some type of way deep down.”
Well, 420 all-purpose yards and six touchdowns later, it’s safe to say Spell proved his point on Friday night.
When it was all said and done, Spell had rushed for 236 yards and four TDs on 18 carries to go with two receptions for 73 yards and a score while tacking on a scintillating 86-yard punt return TD for good measure. After trailing by 25 points at halftime, the Class 4A No. 2 Planets (6-2, 2-1) attempted to mount a spirited rally coming out of the locker room, but Spell’s heroics put an end to it as the top-ranked Tigers (5-3, 3-0) pulled away for a commanding 56-31 home victory.
“I tell people all the time, he was put on this planet to play this game,” said McKeesport coach Matt Miller. “He has all the tools. He’s definitely on the NFL radar, for sure. As a 16-year-old. A lot of times, you’re trying to project. With him, you don’t have to worry about projecting.”
Regarded by many as the most jaw-dropping talent to come through Western Pennsylvania since Terrelle Pryor starred at Jeannette in the late-2000s, Spell is a five-star recruit ranked by Rivals as the No. 1 running back and No. 9 overall prospect in the 2027 class. Going into the evening, Spell was committed to Penn State, but like Pine-Richland star Khalil Taylor, Spell revealed after the game that his recruitment is now back open.
“I’ll be visiting Georgia real soon. I’m going to Notre Dame next week,” Spell said. “I’m still up in the air about everything else.”
From the opening whistle, it was clear that Spell (5-10, 210) was ready to take over the game. After scoring an 8-yard touchdown on the opening drive, Spell followed with a 6-yard TD scamper on the next possession to give the Tigers an early 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
On the first play of the second quarter, Mars got on the board with a 2-yard TD run by Jameson Garvin, but Spell immediately responded with a highlight-reel, 25-yard score while leaving a pair of helpless defenders in his wake. He got his helmet ripped off while fighting his way into the end zone, but nothing was going to stop Spell from hitting pay dirt on Friday — again and again and again.
“We find ways to motivate kids, and he responded, that’s for sure,” Miller said.
After another spectacular 51-yard run by Spell set up a 1-yard TD run by Javier Everett to stretch McKeesport’s lead to 28-10, the Tigers got the ball back with about 10 seconds remaining in the half at their own 34-yard line. Rather than just taking a knee and going into the locker room, Miller decided to line Spell up at wide receiver and have his son, quarterback Matt Miller Jr., heave up a deep ball down the right sideline.
Why not, right?
Six seconds later, Spell was in the end zone for six points after a perfect pass from Miller Jr., giving McKeesport a 35-10 halftime lead.
The Planets came out fighting after the break, scoring less than two minutes into the third quarter on a 1-yard TD run by Garvin followed quickly by a 4-yard TD run by Yocum after forcing and recovering a Tigers fumble. All of a sudden, McKeesport’s lead had been trimmed to 35-24, and with nearly two full quarters to play, Mars seemed to have plenty of life left.
Then, the Tigers picked up a huge fourth-down conversion on a great catch by Javien Robinson, and Akeem Cochran ran untouched into the end zone for a 33-yard score on the next play to make it 42-24. Moments later, Spell put the game to bed with an 86-yard punt return TD to extend McKeesport’s lead back to 25 points late in the third quarter.
“I’m proud of our guys and how they fought in the second half. That’s what I just told them,” said Mars coach Eric Kasperowicz. “[Spell] is up there. That’s a special kid. He’s going to have a bright future, for sure.”
Early in the fourth quarter, Spell broke free for a 55-yard TD run up the middle — setting a new career high with his sixth score of the game — and that was all she wrote. Yocum would go on to add a 93-yard TD run for Mars late in the fourth quarter against the Tigers’ backups, finishing the game with 24 carries for 234 yards and a pair of TDs.
Now up to 1,224 yards rushing on the season, Yocum has rushed for 200-plus yards in four consecutive games for the Planets. Still, there was no doubt who the best running back on the field was on Friday night — and he was anything but regular.
“I executed it on the field. Six touchdowns,” Spell said. “I’m not regular. I’m the real deal.”
Steve is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at srotstein@unionprogress.com.
