By Drew Karpen / Tri-State Sports & News Service, October 21, 2016, postgazette.com
It has been a streaky year for the Fox Chapel football program.
The Foxes (3-5, 3-4) started out at the bottom with five consecutive losses to begin the season, but quickly have risen to the middle of the pack in the Class 5A Allegheny Nine Conference with wins in each of their past three weeks.
“We have gotten over the hump,” coach Tom Loughran said. “We have been playing well. We started to put together more complete games.
“We had a difficult first five games. We didn’t play badly, but if we want to win we need to play a complete game. We have been preaching that to the kids. We just have to do what we do better and we have been.”
Loughran is in his second season at Fox Chapel after spending the previous 32 years as the head coach at South Park.
The main difference Loughran has viewed in his time at Fox Chapel is the number of players on his squad has increased.
While at Class 2A South Park, many of his players were forced to become two-way players. That is something he is trying to get away from at Fox Chapel.
“At South Park we tried to platoon as much as possible at that level,” Loughran said. “We feel like we are doing a good job at that here and I would like to platoon more. It keeps the players more fresh when they don’t have to play both sides of the ball.
“You have to earn your playing time. We want to put players on the field that can compete.”
A couple of players earning their playing time have been juniors Nick Gizzo and Micah Morris. Both Gizzo and Morris were not starters at their respective positions at the start of the season.
Gizzo has done an exceptional job at quarterback for the Foxes, tallying 11 touchdowns, good for fourth in Class 5A.
“Nick has been in the system,” Loughran said. “He has done a real nice job with running the ball. He has done a good job with running the option. We are getting better at that.
“We work on throwing the ball all the time. It is something I wish we would be better at, but we are working hard at it. Nick has done a good job, but it is something we can work on.”
Morris has become one of the top rushers in Class 5A, ranking third with 874 yards while scoring eight touchdowns.
“Micah has been playing well,” Loughran said. “He has had a couple of big rushing games the last few weeks. Neither Nick nor Micah started at their positions this year. Our offensive line has done a nice job of recognizing their blocking.”
Although a slot in the playoffs may be just out of the reach, the Foxes are focused right now on competing game by game.
Fox Chapel will play its final conference game tonight when it plays host to Chartiers Valley (2-6, 1-5).
“The kids are concentrated on Chartiers Valley,” Loughran said. “We have two more games left. Let’s concentrate on one game at a time. We are narrowed minded in that respect.”