Leopards look to feast on Bison
By JEREMY SELLEW
jsellew@yourmvi.com
Belle Vernon Area head coach Joe Salvino has been through this before. Coming off a WPIAL title game loss isn’t easy, but if there’s one coach that can lead his team on a state title run after a loss in the WPIAL playoffs, it’s Salvino. Both state titles at Monessen came after failing to win a WPIAL title.
Now that’s the mission for the Leopards.
BVA (19-7) travels to St. Mary’s High School tonight for it’s PIAA first-round contest against District 9 champion Clearfield (15-8) at 7:30 p.m.
The trip will take nearly three hours one way for the Leopards, nearly twice as long as the game itself. It’s one of the biggest obstacles in the team’s path.
“That’s a big concern of mine. Plus, we don’t have school tomorrow but with senior projects going on, they’ll still be up early and in somewhat of a normal routine,” Salvino said. “But traveling three hours is totally ridiculous. With the six classes, you don’t have the East versus West anymore. It’s ridiculous.”
The Bison are coming off their sixth straight district title, but the WPIAL teams they’ve faced in the first round of the PIAAs are 4-0 against them. They also lost to Obama Academy from the Pittsburgh City League in 2015.
“I looked at most of their scores. They look like they’re happy with low-scoring games,” Salvino said. “They’re hard to get a read on because there are only two 4A schools up there. So they play a lot of teams up or down in class.”
The Bison will show a starting lineup of Matt Pallo at a guard position. Cade Walker will be at small forward with Luke Winters, Karson Rumsky and Andrew Lopez.
Walker and Rumsky, both 6-3, are the focal point of the Bison offense.
“They really look for those two guys offensively,” Salvino said. “They’re going to run a dribble-drive type of offense. If we come out in a zone, they’re fine with being patient.”
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