The 2018 Keystone Oaks Golden Eagles = The 2018 Pittsburgh Steelers
Source: TRIB LIVE and Logan Shrubb (HUDL)
Bear with me now, when I tell all of you that the 2018 Keystone Oaks Golden Eagles have empathy for 2018 Pittsburgh Steelers because the Golden Eagles know what the Steelers are going through. If you follow the Pittsburgh Steelers, you know that the Steelers had enough talent on their team to win a Super Bowl; but, the sad thing for the Steelers is that they will be not going to the 2018-19 NFL postseason as they finished the season with a 9-6-1 record.
There might be some of you that are reading this, right now, thinking to yourselves about how the 2018 Pittsburgh Steelers can be related to the 2018 Keystone Oaks Golden Eagles. Well, some of you might not agree with what I am going to say and that's fine with me. The 2018 Keystone Oaks Golden Eagles had enough talent on their team to get into the WPIAL football Class 3A playoffs. When the playoff brackets for the 2018 WPIAL football postseason, I looked at all the matchups and all the teams that were in the playoffs. I agreed with a lot of the teams that were in the playoffs; but, I noticed that there was one team that did not make the WPIAL playoffs that I thought deserved to make it into the playoffs and that was Keystone Oaks. The 2018 Golden Eagles had an overall record of 6-4 and a section record of 3-4. So, it makes sense why they did not make the playoffs. You had to feel a little empathy for the Golden Eagles because they had worked hard to put themselves into games.
The Golden Eagles had some impressive wins, this season, as they whooped Seton LaSalle Hopewell, South Park, Deer Lakes and Waynesburg Central. The Golden Eagles also defeated Highlands by a score of 49-42. That was a very entertaining game as all you saw in that game was straight up offense. The Golden Eagles had three losses that I think were tough losses and losses that I think should have turned into wins. The Golden Eagles also lost a fourth game in the 2018 WPIAL football regular season as they lost to Aliquippa by a score of 59-0. Like, there is nothing the Golden Eagles could have done. The game was played at Aliquippa and it's hard to play against Aliquippa to begin with and playing them on the road makes it 100x harder to beat them. That was basically the only game that I knew that Keystone Oaks really did deserve to lose.
Now, let's talk about the three games that the Golden Eagles should have won. You have to feel empathy for the Golden Eagles when they lost to Quaker Valley by a score of 50-43. That game was full of offense as well. Keystone Oaks was losing 43-36 to Quaker Valley, the reigning 3A WPIAL football champions. There was less than a minute left to go in the fourth quarter and the Golden Eagles fans are thinking that they need God or someone spiritual to help them tie this game. God or that spiritual force came as Golden Eagles wide receiver, CJ Morrow, caught a 25 yard pass from Golden Eagles quarterback, Logan Shrubb to tie the game at 43-43 with 0:38 left to go in the fourth quarter. The game then went to overtime and Quaker Valley quarterback, Ethan Moore, threw a passing touchdown in overtime to help the Quakers lead by a score of 50-43 with the Golden Eagles getting a possession in overtime. You all need to know that Moore's performance against Keystone Oaks was one of his best performances of the 2018 WPIAL football season as Moore rushed for three touchdowns and threw for three touchdowns in that game. Next year, Moore is going to play college baseball at Kent State. Oh, I am getting off topic. Anyway, so in order for the Golden Eagles to extend the game they need to score another touchdown in overtime. The Golden Eagles get the football and all of a sudden it's 4th & Goal from the one yard line as they need one more yard to tie the game up. What happens? Shrubb ran with the football and could not score. Final score, Quaker Valley 50 and Keystone Oaks 43. If you can find a way to tell me that the Golden Eagles should have not deserved to win that game, then be my guest. That's a game the Golden Eagles should have won and Shrubb and the rest of the team knew it.
Sometimes in the game of football, there is this one play that can change the outcome of the whole entire game that happened when Keystone Oaks went on the road to play Beaver Falls in the beginning of the month of October. The Golden Eagles were battling against Beaver Falls as the game was tied 14-14 with halftime approaching. Then this play happened for Beaver Falls that gave them momentum for the entire rest of the game. So, at the end of the second quarter, Beaver Falls quarterback, Dayln Brickner, rushed for a 36 yard touchdown, as time expired in the first half, to help Beaver Falls have a 21-14 lead at halftime. This was not just an ordinary 36 yard quarterback scramble for a touchdown, Brickner was looking like a professional on that play, he scrambled out to the left and for a brief second it looked like Brickner was about to throw the football. Brickner then decided he had to run with the football as he cut back right with the football twice and escaped two Golden Eagles defenders. After that, Brickner did a spin move for fun and cut back to left and started running to the left side of the field. Just as Brickner decided to cut back to the left, two other Golden Eagles defenders tried tackling Brickner and it did not work and all of a sudden with a couple of nice blocks from Beaver Falls' offensive linemen, Brickner had a wide path to the left to rush for the touchdown. That was the key moment that boosted Beaver Falls' confidence and shrinked the Golden Eagles' confidence. Beaver Falls won that game 41-21. I really think that if Brickner does not score before halftime and one of the Golden Eagles' defenders make the tackle on Brickner then that game would have been much closer and Keystone Oaks would have had a better chance to win that game. It happens all the time in the NFL, there is that one play that helps a team win a game that switches the momentum around.
When Keystone Oaks lost their first game of the season against Central Valley, that's when I knew that in the game of football that it is super important to make smart calls. So, the Golden Eagles were losing to Central Valley 28-21 and the Golden Eagles needed to make a play to help tie the game up and they were able to do that as Logan Shrubb ran for a one yard touchdown. Did you notice in the game against Quaker Valley and this game against Central Valley that some spiritual force is really helping Keystone Oaks to have a pretty good 2018 season? Well, the Golden Eagles decided to go for 2 instead of kicking the extra point with their field goal kicker, Gio Valforte. As a result, the Golden Eagles could not score on the 2-point conversion and they lost to Central Valley by a score of 28-27. I am telling all of you that if Keystone Oaks would have kicked the extra point, that they could have won the game in overtime. There was at least 2 games that I remember in the 2018 NFL Regular Season that an NFL team tried going for two at the end of the game and when they failed, they lost the game. In Week 7, the Tennessee Titans attempted a 2-point conversion late in the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Chargers in London and the Titans could not convert and lost. In Week 11, the Carolina Panthers attempted a 2-point conversion late in the fourth quarter against the Detroit Lions in Detroit and the Panthers could not convert and lost. Ever since that game, The Panthers were terrible for the rest of the season and they saw themselves not going into the 2018-19 NFL postseason.
I compare the 2018 Keystone Oaks Golden Eagles to the 2018 Pittsburgh Steelers because of the fact that the Golden Eagles were so close to winning games, but could not win all of them. The 2018 Steelers should have at least a 15-1 regular season record; but, with a lot of the errors they made throughout games they were not able to get a good record.
The Golden Eagles had enough talent to get themselves to the 2018 WPIAL Class 3A football championship game. They had players on the team that were making noise. Their quarterback, Logan Shrubb, threw for 1,532 yards and 14 touchdowns during the 2018 season. Their running back, Ezekiel M. Daure, was a beast this season as he rushed for 1,546 yards and scored 31 touchdowns. The Golden Eagles wide receiver, CJ Morrow, was pretty darn good as well as he recorded 61 receptions for 952 yards. He almost had 1,000 receiving yards on the season. Daure was also putting up numbers as a wide receiver. Keystone Oaks also had a field goal kicker on their team that also played soccer for the Golden Eagles in Gio Valforte. Valforte converted 45 extra points during the 2018 season.
Some people might have thought to themselves that the Golden Eagles defense could have been better; but, their still defense was still able to make plays. Their defense situation is the same as the Steelers. People have questions about the Steelers defense; but, let me tell you that the Steelers defense can make plays.
The Steelers face a problem going into the offseason as they wonder if Antonio Brown will still be on the team for the 2019 NFL season due to some of the things that have been going on in the locker room. The Golden Eagles will face a minor problem in the offseason as they will look to find Daure's replacement for the 2019 WPIAL football season. Daure will graduate in 2019, and the Golden Eagles coaching staff will need to find someone who can just be as productive as Daure. Daure had more rushing yards than the other eight players for the Golden Eagles that ran with the football in the 2018 WPIAL football season. It's too bad that the Steelers and Golden Eagles did not get into the playoffs in their respected leagues. Both football cultures are great and have talented football players on their rosters.