Armstrong River Hawks Season Preview

by Jake DeLuca

The Armstrong River Hawks are preparing for their second football season since the school opened as they look to improve on their impressive first year in which they finished the season with a record of 6-4.

There is a lot of turnaround on the River Hawks roster this year as Armstrong only has four returning offensive starters and five returning defensive starters. Along with losing starters due to graduation, the River Hawks starting quarterback Dawson Porter (2nd leading rusher and scorer on the team in 2015) suffered an injury suffered while playing baseball that required surgery.

Luckily, for the second year Head Coach of the River Hawks Frank Fabian believes he has some young players that will be able to fill the void left by last years’ graduating class. Fabian said some players have already stood out in practice and the 7-on-7 tournament.

“In our 7-on-7’s that we had this summer, Shawn Giddings has been a welcome sight. He was a transfer last season, and now in year two with us he has jumped out to us (coaches) in our summer workouts. Ryan Pearce had a very good summer as well, we are expecting big things from him this year. Nate Baillie is an All-Conference offensive lineman. Kyle Bowser is another kid on our offensive line, and he’s done a nice job in the weight room and he’s very athletic. I think Nate and Kyle are very athletic linemen, so we will probably lean on them up front. Then we will look at Ryan Pearce and Shawn Giddings to take some pressure off of Zane (Dudek) as well.”

Last season, now Senior Zane Dudek rushed for 2,059 yards (9.4 yards per carry) on 220 carries (205.9 yards per game) for 23 touchdowns. If that wasn’t enough, Dudek added two touchdowns via kickoff return, and on the defensive side Zane had six interceptions and two fumble recoveries, showing why he is the MVP of the River Hawks. Currently Zane is deciding on which college he wants to take his talents to, including many division one and Ivy League teams.

Fabian went on to discuss his injured starting quarterback Dawson Porter and praised back-up/new starter Michael Lohte.

“He (Porter) was our second leading rusher (behind Zane Dudek) and our second leading scorer as well. I will say Michael Lohte has stepped into that role. He has started two games at the end of last season when Dawson got hurt and has played in other games. He has had a very good summer. This year, he is getting all the repetitions with our first team, and I see a big change in him as well. He seems more comfortable with the offense and he did very well this summer in our 7-on-7 sessions.”

Entering their first year as a part of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) Five-A section(the River Hawks were in Quad-A last season) the River Hawks (comprised of players from Ford City and Kittanning) are still getting use to the higher level athletes in the section.

“What I’m hearing is it is going to be a very tough league. We have Penn-Trafford in the league and they played for the (WPIAL) Quad-A championship last season. McKeesport is in our division, and they have four division one football players already. Franklin Regional is a perennial power in Triple-A, Gateway had a coaching staff change but they always have very good athletes. Plum from what I’m hearing has division one football players. There are going to be a lot of good football players in this league,” Frank Fabian said of the competition.

Even though the River Hawks are probably not the most athletic team, Fabian says his team has something you cannot teach.

“I don’t think we are going to be the most athletic team, but our mantra is blue collar. We have a bunch of blue-collar hard-nosed kids. We are looking forward to letting these young players play and seeing how they respond.”

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