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Saturday, September 9, 2023, TRIB-LIVE
Building confidence was never going to be easy for first-year Fox Chapel football coach Dave Leasure. When the Foxes scrimmaged Hempfield, the program got a jolt. Fox Chapel scored three touchdowns and didn’t give up any.
But when they started regular season play, the Foxes quickly had to make adjustments. They opened the regular season with a 35-0 loss to Peters Township and 34-10 loss to Plum.
“After Hempfield, we felt good about ourselves,” Leisure said. “Then you go out to Peters Township and you are down 35-0 at halftime. We were overwhelmed. We hadn’t seen that type of relentlessness on either side of the ball. We did some good things against Plum.”
Bumps in the road were always expected for Leasure. He is attempting to try to rebuild a program that hasn’t won a game in, by his count, 672 days, as of Sept. 6.
Milestones for improvement that Leasure has been looking for involve dedication to the program. Leasure only had five players absent from practice on Labor Day, which includes one who missed due to being in the hospital.
“These kids have lived it,” Leasure said. “They are working as hard as they can. Missing five of 62 kids on Labor Day are part of the things that we point to that we are working toward. We take it one game at a time.”
Against the Mustangs, Max Melocchi made some big plays in the passing game. He completed 4 of 6 passes for 105 yards. Running back Kellan Bleier has established himself as Fox Chapel’s top running back.
Tight end Troy Susnak hasn’t caught a pass yet, but Leasure said he has been a solid blocker. Tyrese Samuels has run a kick back for a touchdown and also intercepted a pass.
Mason Miles has returned from a knee injury and leads the team with nine tackles per game. Fox Chapel’s schedule won’t get much easier for the rest of the season, but Leasure believes this team will show strong improvement throughout the year.
The Foxes won’t open Northeast Conference play until they take on defending state champions Pine-Richland on Sept. 22 on the road.
“I see improvement every day, offensively probably a little more than defensively, just because that’s going to take a little bit longer until we can really get guys in the right position that are physical and play downhill and get after it,” Leasure said. “Really, the same can be true offensively as well. We aren’t blocking with the type of intensity I like.”