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PR To Give New Up-Tempo Offense Another Test Against Butler

Football game starts at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Pine-Richland Stadium.

picked up the pace in practice this week and looked more like a 3-0 team rather than one looking for its first victory.

Coach Clair Altemus said the Rams [0-3] are disappointed, but far from discouraged after back-to-back close losses to [21-20] and [21-17].

“I see tremendous improvement week to week,” Altemus said. “You could see it in our kids’ eyes after the North Hills loss. They knew they let one get away.”

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Pine-Richland will give its new up-tempo offense another test in a WPIAL Class AAAA Northern Seven Conference home game against Butler [2-1] at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

“Our goal is to run 90 offensive plays every game,” Altemus said. “We had 79 against North Hills, so we’re 11 away from that goal. We ran 55 plays the first game, 64 the second, so we’re making steady progress and we keep moving toward that goal.

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“We expect a nice crowd and a nice night for the [Butler] game,” the coach said. “Maybe we’ll get some fireworks going on our side.”

Pine-Richland fell behind 14-3 at North Hills, then shocked the Indians by rallying to take a 17-14 lead with six seconds remaining in the first half. Rams halfback Brock Baranowski broke loose – and broke several tackles – on touchdown runs of 34 and 1 yard.

Baranowski finished the night with 132 yards on 17 carries.

“We finally have a healthy Brock Baranowski, and our offensive line played a solid game,” Altemus said. “When Brock finds a crack in the defense, he’s up and through it.”

Pine-Richland quarterback Austin Whipple completed 18 of 35 passes for 188 yards against the Indians.

Rams kicker Ben Engle added a 41-yard field goal to open the scoring.

“Good things will happen if we keep our noses to the grindstone,” Altemus said. “When our kids finally turn that corner, watch out. They could be dangerous.”

Butler opened the season with three consecutive home games starting with a 24-14 victory over New Castle. Butler lost a 49-7 decision to defending state champion North Allegheny, but bounced back with a 16-6 win over Canon-McMillan last week.

Butler has one of the more colorful team names in the WPIAL, the Golden Tornado.

However, Butler has struggled to win for more than a decade despite having the largest student enrollment in the league.

“I think they look at this game as their barometer, and a lot of their fans are going to come to our stadium Friday night to see how good they are, to see if they’re for real or not,” Altemus said. “Butler is a much-improved team. They started out 2-1, and now their kids are starting to believe.”

Pine-Richland opened the season with a 34-7 non-conference loss to highly ranked .

The Rams continue conference play at Erie McDowell on Sept. 30, followed by a home game with on Oct. 7.

 

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