Week 7 of the high school football season kickstarted the final stretch towards the playoffs. With that came a few monster performances, including another record-breaking night for on of the WPIAL’s best players to hit the gridiron in its history.
This season, KDKA Radio will again nominate players each week to join the KDKA Radio Super 7 Awards watch list. Every Monday, a new crop of players will be unveiled based on their efforts that previous Friday night. At the end of the year, KDKA Radio will announce the winners of the award for each WPIAL classification, as well as the Pittsburgh City League.
Here are the top performances from Week 7:
Tyler Eber, Thomas Jefferson
Following a loss to Trinity to begin October, Thomas Jefferson was in need of a bounce back win Friday. They got it thanks, in large part, to Tyler Eber.
The junior rushed for 280 yards and all six Jaguars touchdowns in a 42-6 pummeling of Ringgold.
Following a sophomore season in which he accounted for over 2,600 yards and for 34 touchdowns, Eber has put together another strong season with 1,192 rushing yards and 16 scores.
The Jaguars travel to Chartiers Valley for a massive conference game Friday.
Tyler Smiley, Ellwood City
Also in need of a win, Ellwood City entered Friday night’s game against rival Riverside following off a couple of competitive losses.
Tyler Smiley got the Wolverines back in the win column, passing for 297 yards and five touchdowns in a 48-14 win over the Panthers.
As a team, Ellwood City racked up nearly 500 yards in the runaway win.
Smiley also made seven tackles and had a sack on defense as the Wolverines moved to 3-2 in the Midwestern Conference.
Matt Sieg, Fort Cherry
Matt Sieg’s senior season has been one about breaking records.
A couple of weeks after snapping the WPIAL’s all-time touchdown record, he broke the district’s all-time yardage mark Friday in a massive statistical performance.
Sieg rushed for 270 yards and three touchdowns, returned a punt 55 yards for a score and an interception 86 yards for another in a 56-19 win over a strong Bishop Canevin team.
In the process, Sieg snapped Sto-Rox’s Lenny Williams’ mark of 11,559 combined passing and rushing yards. Sieg has passed for 4,634 yards and rushed for 7,164 more, while scoring 128 touchdowns.
Sieg, formally a Penn State commit, reopened his recruiting following head coach James Franklin’s dismissal Sunday.
Derek Diamond, Frazier
On Friday, a Diamond shined bright in Perryopolis.
Frazier tailback Derek Diamond rushed 37 times for 284 yards and five touchdowns in a 41-20 runaway win over Riverview.
The win was a key one for the Commodores, who vented Riverview with a pair of conference wins this year.
Diamond has rushed for over 1,200 yards and 12 touchdowns this year.
The high school football season continues this Friday with broadcast coverage of North Allegheny at Pine-Richland. Pregame coverage begins a 6 p.m. with kickoff at 7 p.m. on 100.1 FM and AM-1020 KDKA.