With more than half of his starters returning from a team that went 9-2 last year, South Park football coach Tom Loughran was expecting big things.
“We felt we were good enough last year, but injuries to our quarterback and tailback at the end of the season did us in,” Loughran said. “We knew we would be good offensively, with eight starters back.”
Loughran’s confidence was well-placed. The Eagles scored 28 points or more in all but two games, winning the state Class AA championship and becoming just the second PIAA team to finish 16-0.
Not surprisingly, South Park is the big winner in postseason honors, as well.
The Eagles placed four players on The Associated Press Class AA all-state team, determined through a vote of sports writers and broadcasters. In addition, Loughran was selected coach of the year and Eagles quarterback Connor Dixon was chosen player of the year.
Three Eagles were named to the first team, all on offense: Dixon, running back Tyler Scruggs and lineman Kirk Fulton. Wilson Area, Montoursville and Hughesville had two first-team picks apiece.
Dixon, a Michigan State recruit, finished ahead of Scruggs and Hughesville running back Danny Egly for the player of the year honors. Dixon completed 78 of 152 passes for 1,868 yards and 21 touchdowns and ran for nine scores.
“Other guys had more completions than he had attempts, but he was very efficient for us,” Loughran said. “He saved some of his best games for our biggest games.”
In the 28-17, come-from-behind win over Wilson in the PIAA final, Dixon threw for 210 yards and a touchdown, ran for two touchdowns and intercepted a pass. He was 11-of-18 for 221 yards and a touchdown as the Eagles held off Greensburg Central Catholic 24-20 in the District 7 (WPIAL) championship game. He also sealed that victory by making an interception near his own goal line on the last play.
“Coach was always telling me if I worked hard I had the talent to do special things,” Dixon said. “In our offense, you can’t redeem yourself right away if you make a bad throw. I think I matured a lot from my sophomore year to now. In order to be good, you have to learn to get past the bad.”
Wilson’s Bret Comp finished second to Loughran in the coach of the year voting. Loughran, who has coached the Eagles for 23 years, also guided South Park to the PIAA title in 1997.
There’s plenty of size on the first team. Besides the 6-foot-5 Dixon, all three running backs weigh 205 pounds or more and the offensive line averages 252 pounds.
There’s also a lot of productivity. Running backs Scruggs, Egly and Brad Lantz of Towanda combined for 97 touchdowns. All-purpose selection D.J. Lenehan of Wilson, only a junior, passed for 2,785 yards.
A pair of major-college recruits head up the first-team defensive line: Milton Hershey’s Abe Koroma is on his way to Penn State, while Northern Lehigh’s Tyler Tkach, a second-team pick last year, is headed to Pitt.
Grove City’s Jesse Alfreno and Greensburg Central Catholic’s Nick Sukay repeated their 2004 selections to the first-team secondary. Center’s Ashton Cobb, who has committed to Kentucky, and Quaker Valley’s Darren Rogers, who has committed to Kent State, join them in the defensive backfield.
Beaver Falls’ 6-3 Lance Jeter joins Wilson’s Brad Walter at wide receiver.
Tyrone 6-3, 325-pound junior Tyler Hoover was named to the first team as a defensive lineman. Hoover anchored a defense that allowed just 11 points and a little over 100 yards rushing per game during the Golden Eagles 10-1 season.
Theres no shortage of talent on the second team, either. South Fayette quarterback Andrew DiDonato finished as the WPIAL’s second-leading career passer with 6,573 yards. Running back Dave Paveletz rushed for more than 2,000 yards in leading Hanover Area to the District 2 championship.
Also in the second-team backfield is Seton-LaSalle’s Brandon Bogdanski, who rushed for 1,511 yards, caught 39 passes and scored 26 touchdowns. Burrell’s Aaron Brown, who found the end zone 23 times on receptions, rushes and returns, is the second team all-purpose player.
