With two weeks to go in the regular season, the high-powered Hopewell Vikings aren’t quite in do-or-die mode yet, but the pressure is mounting going into a pair of pivotal showdowns against Central Valley and North Catholic at their home stadium.
Of course, with their backs up against the wall, it sure does help to have one of the best quarterbacks in the land on their side in sophomore sensation James “Booboo” Armstrong.
“When it’s all said and done, I believe [Armstrong] will be one of the best to ever do it from the WPIAL. Definitely from Beaver County,” said Hopewell coach Matt Mottes. “He can throw a ball accurately 65 yards. He’s tough. He can run you over or run right by you. He’s fearless.”
A 6-foot-4, 225-pound southpaw with a flair for the dramatic and a pair of games with 600-plus total yards already to his credit, there simply aren’t many QBs like Armstrong, who couldn’t have a more fitting surname. For the season, he has completed 84 of 131 passes for 1,721 yards and 19 touchdowns to just two interceptions. He also has 77 carries for 608 yards and a team-high 12 rushing TDs.
“Coaching [Armstrong] and getting to know him, it’s not what he does on the field but what he does off the field that impresses me [the most]. He’s always working out after practice,” Mottes said. “What impresses me is what nobody sees. How do you get to those results? And it’s his hard work and his dedication. It’s doing the stuff nobody wants to do. We get to the field house at 7:30 a.m. to watch film, and he’s there to work out.
“He demands to be better.”
Although it may sound like Armstrong does it all for Hopewell (6-2, 2-2), the truth is, fellow sophomore Nasir Wade deserves just as much credit for the team’s success. Wade (5-10, 170) leads the Class 3A No. 4 Vikings with 901 yards rushing on just 78 carries, and the electric tailback also has 16 receptions for 321 yards with 11 total TDs on the year.
“He runs like Barry Sanders,” Mottes said.
Coming off a commanding 48-20 win at Freeport, Hopewell will return home to take on Central Valley this Friday in a game that could set them up for a loftier seed come playoff time — provided they win their regular-season finale against North Catholic, that is. If the Vikings lose both games, they will wind up in fifth place in the stacked Western Hills Conference for the second year in a row.
That means next week’s game against the Trojans, who own the highest-scoring offense in Class 3A at 48.2 ppg, is the one that matters most. Still, for as far as Hopewell is concerned, the playoffs might as well start now.
“Now we’re coming into a game where you’re facing a guy like [Central Valley coach] Mark Lyons, who’s a Hall of Famer who has 200 wins in his career and I have 10,” Mottes said. “You can talk about my sophomore QB all you want, but I think it boils down to experience.”
Much has already been written about Armstrong’s knack for making big plays with both his arm and his legs, and the Vikings’ ability to put up points in bunches. After all, they have scored 30-plus points in seven out of eight games so far this season, and 40-plus points six times.
Their resume speaks for itself, including a 31-6 triumph over Class 4A No. 5 New Castle on Aug. 29, while their only losses are a rousing 51-50 defeat against Beaver on Sept. 12 followed by a blowout loss against defending WPIAL champion and PIAA finalist Avonworth the next week.
So the question is, not necessarily how far can this team go this year, but are we looking at just the beginning of something that could be much, much greater over the next two to three years?
“Our whole philosophy for the last two years has been to just compete,” Mottes said. “We’ll try to put our players in the best position to win. Sometimes we win; sometimes we don’t. But we’re going to give it 100%.
“I’m not sure if we’re better than Central Valley or not. I’m not sure if we’re going to win. But they’re going to know they were in a battle.”
Grabowski back in top form for Penn-Trafford
After battling a foot injury that cost him the majority of his sophomore season, Penn-Trafford junior Ben Grabowski has announced his return in a big way for the Class 5A No. 5 Warriors in recent weeks, recording back-to-back games with more than 150 yards rushing and multiple TDs on the ground.
After rushing for 151 yards and a pair of scores in Penn-Trafford’s 33-23 rivalry win over Gateway on Oct. 3, Grabowski one-upped that output on only four carries last Friday, tallying 172 yards and three TDs in a 48-14 win against Franklin Regional. That stretched the Warriors’ winning streak to four games in a row going into Friday night’s matchup against Armstrong, with back-to-back home games on tap for Penn-Trafford to close out the regular season.
And with Grabowski’s resurgence in the backfield alongside sophomore Cody Yacamelli, who looked like a star in the making earlier in the season, the Warriors may have the most potent 1-2 punch in all of Class 5A when it comes to running the rock. Good luck stopping that tandem of tailbacks once the weather gets cold.
Milestone watching
One of the top quarterbacks in the area who also happens to be a four-year starter at safety, Nolan DiLucia continued his ascension up the WPIAL’s all-time passing leaderboard for Class 5A No. 2 Peters Township last Friday.
A Villanova recruit, DiLucia threw for 246 yards and three TDs in a 31-7 win at South Fayette, carving up the Lions’ defense to help the Indians remain undefeated and on top of the loaded Allegheny Six Conference standings with two weeks left to play. For the season, DiLucia has now completed 107 of 162 attempts for 1,795 yards and 17 TDs to just three interceptions, moving him into eighth place in WPIAL history with 7,835 yards passing for his career.
Elsewhere, Fort Cherry senior Matt Sieg surpassed former Sto-Rox quarterback Lenny Williams for the most career offensive yards in WPIAL history during the Rangers’ 56-19 win over Bishop Canevin, while West Mifflin junior Armand Hill eclipsed the 4,000-yard rushing mark for his career in a 42-6 win against Indiana. A West Virginia recruit who once ran for 495 yards in a game as a freshman — the second-highest single-game tally in WPIAL history — Hill now has 938 yards rushing for the season and 4,157 yards for his career.
Steve is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at srotstein@unionprogress.com.
