Two aces for NA golfers ..... Pitt recruit top 10 material ..... Other notes

Notes, anecdotes and thoughts from the high school sports world.

It's pretty unusual for a high school kid to get a hole-in-one in a match. But North Allegheny had two golfers ace holes today - in two different matches.

Colton Fedell, a North Allegheny senior, had a hole in one at Sylvan Heights in New Castle in a match against New Castle. He used an 8-iron on the 177-yard, No. 3 hole.

Meanwhile, at a junior varsity match against Central Catholic at Bob O'Connor Golf Course in Schenley Park, Jack Hopkins used a pitching wedge on the 118-yard, No. 5 hole.

I don't ever remember hearing anything like this in high school golf.

Pitt recruit ranks high

Player rankings for basketball players have been out for a while, but I thought it was worth pointing out because not everyone sees them. Did you know Pitt recruit Steven Adams is ranked among the top 10 players in the country by both rivals.com and scout.com? Adams, who is from New Zealand but is playing at Notre Dame Prep in Massachusetts, is a 6-10, 210-pound forward who is No. 4 in rivals.com and No. 7 in scout.com. Who said Jamie Dixon can't get the best players in the country?

State rankings

The Post-Gazette state football rankings came out yesterday. The Pennsylvania Football News rankings came out today.

Warriors for real?

That dang Terry Smith. Right again.

Before the season, the Gateway coach kept insisting to me that Penn-Trafford is worthy of a possible top five ranking in Class AAAA. I knew Penn-Trafford had a number of returning starters and knew the Warriors would be pretty good. But top five? Well, guess who is No. 5 in this week's Class AAAA rankings? Penn-Trafford.

No doubt about a game next week that has all the makings of the game of the week. It's Gateway at Penn-Trafford.

I'm curious to see if Penn-Trafford running back Manny Simpson keeps up his productivity, will Division I colleges become interested?

A place to Root

Root Sports is back with a live Friday game this week. It could be a pretty good one. Central Valley at New Castle. This game will start at 6:3 because Root Sports will air the Pirates-Dodgers game later that night. The station might have had to pull the plug early if New Castle played Central Valley at 7:30.

Root Sports did not carry a game last week and will not carry one next week.

Son of a Bullet

John Lerda is the starting quarterback this season for South Fayette. His father was one of the first quarterbacks at Brashear in the late 1970s and was the QB on Brashear's first City League championship team in 1979. Brashear opened after Fifth Avenue closed. In 1979, Brashear beat Peabody, 8-7, to win the title and Lerda took Brashear on a 96-yard scoring drive late in the game to win it. He threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Mark Speaks and then hit Danny Green for the winning two-point conversion.

Lerda finished 15 of 20 that day for 175 yards. I just read Steve Hecht's Post-Gazette article about the game. It was interesting because it was only the third year Brashear was open. Some people talked about how they didn't think Lerda would make it at Brashear. Even Lerda admitted he got into fights his first few years at Brashear.

When John Sr. played for Brashear, the team was the Bullets. The school changed the nickname a few decades later to the Bulls.

Tackle machine

Frank Vulcano is the athletic director at Chartiers Valley. His son is a tackling machine at Chartiers-Houston. Garrett Vulcano had 26 tackles last Saturday against Shenango. Twenty-six? I know. That's hard to believe. Did anybody else on Char-Houston's team touch anyone?