USC Culminates First Week of Practice With Scrimmage

Sunday morning the 2011-12 Upper St. Clair football team will take their team picture. The smiles may be a bit forced as Saturday's scrimmage against Franklin Regional High School resulted in stern words from a dissatisfied head coach.

"We weren't ready to play," Coach Render said after the two-hour scrimmage.

You would expect to get that kind of reaction from an experienced head coach following their team's first scrimmage. They have only had 10 practices—two per day—under their belt. Any good head coach, especially one as successful as Coach Render, will always be looking to motivate their team. However, Saturday's scrimmage did have a lackluster feel to it and Render was probably more dissatisfied than he expected to be.

USC started with the ball for the first series of plays. Zach Deitrick had two power runs, an 18 yarder and a 32 yarder that took it deep into Franklin Regional territory.

The offensive line struggled during the next two plays setting up a 4th and goal at the 11. Star quarterback/linebacker Dakota Conwell scrambled and showed a glimmer of his excellent athletic ability, but was tackled inside the one yard line to end the series.

Next, it was the defense's turn to establish themselves, however, they got beat deep on first play with play action. A few plays later Franklin Regional was in the end zone. It was also the last time they broke the plane of the end zone, but the momentum of Saturday's scrimmage was clearly with the wrong Panther team.

"I expected to see more enthusiasm," Render said.

Conwell displayed some great leadership qualities while USC was on defense for the second series. As if almost sensing his coach's frustration he laid a ferocious hit to a Franklin Regional running back.

"Whoa," Conwell exclaimed from the field followed by a cheer from the home crowd there to watch the scrimmage.

Conwell was immediately flagged by the referee for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct for shouting after the play.

You could easily understand Coach Render's frustration. Even when things went right for USC on Saturday, the result was tainted.  

Unsportsmanlike conduct will be a point of emphasis with the WPIAL this year. It might be better to learn that in a scrimmage than a meaningful football game. Either way, Conwell did what he felt needed to be done to light a fire. He probably knew it was his last series as well and his last chance to make an impression on the day.

Most of the starters were done for the day after two series. Unfortunately, senior tailback/linebacker Deitrick—who shined in the first series—was done sooner than that. He left early in the scrimmage with some sort of left foot injury and spent much of the morning with ice on the sideline.

"Nothing major, I'll be fine, we'll wait and see," Deitrick said.

Senior guard/defensive lineman Jared Hess also left the scrimmage with an injury to his left forearm. Neither injury appeared to be serious.

USC did score on two of their six series. Sophomore running back Phil Saracco highlighted the second hour of the scrimmage with two nice runs on a drive, the second resulting in a score. Sophomore running back Steve Mackowick scored a touchdown as well with a nice spin move past a defender and into the end zone. Senior kicker Killan Mulkern missed on a 52-yard field goal on another series.

USC did not turn the ball over all afternoon and forced three turnovers themselves. The defense recovered a fumble in the trenches and both sophomore Trevor Morrow and sophomore Terry McLinden had interceptions. There were plenty of good individual performances, but nothing sustained enough to excite their head coach.

"He wasn't very pleased," senior tackle/defensive lineman Jake Radziukinas said.

After Sunday's picture day, the team will be back at it for two-a-days Monday through Thursday, followed by one final scrimmage at North Hills Friday at 6:30 p.m.

This is the final week the team is allowed to practice twice a day. Once school starts—the week of the opener against Shaler—WPIAL allows only one practice a day.

Given Saturday's events, it should be a spirited week of practice for the Panthers. The scrimmage at North Hills will hopefully emulate that very same intensity.