3 Things to Look for: Central Valley vs Hampton
Tagged under: District 7, Gameday Hub, News, pfn
Greg Hillman | September 24, 2026
MONACA, PA– Hampton travels north this week to face Central Valley, a team they have never beaten. The Warriors have allowed only 18 combined points against the Talbots in their first three contests and have won all three by a hefty margin.
The Warriors are getting some local attention after reaching the WPIAL 3A semifinals a season ago. Now, in 4A, the Warriors are looking to make an immediate impact in their new classification despite having two losses to 3A teams.
Central Valley returns a couple of key starters, including senior quarterback Braddock Ambrose. Last week, Ambrose struggled through the air, completing 10 of 18 passes for 144 yards and 2 interceptions in a loss to Hopewell.
Both teams are coming off losses from a week ago, with Hampton falling to Mars 14-7 and Central Valley losing to Hopewell 34-6. In their respective games, neither team had an offensive showing, scoring only once.
With both teams looking for what could be a critical 4A game, here are 3 things to look for when Hampton takes on Central Valley in Monaca.
- Running game.
Dan Gigler’s defense has been THE best in all of 4A this season. That’s not an opinion; the statistics back it up. Coming into Week 4, Hampton has only allowed an average of 17 points per game. #1 in 4A. Even in a loss last week, the defense played well enough to keep Hampton in the game until the very end. Their lone setback was in Week 1, when Quinn Olsen ran all over Fridley Field, and when Mars’ Brady Brennan garnered so much attention that the Planets were able to use their running game more effectively to open up some holes in the Talbot’s defense.
The Warriors also had a terrible showing offensively last week. They carried the ball 35 times for just 23 yards total. Three players ended up with negative rushing yards. This came after a 221-yard outpour in Week 3 against Shaler. With the exception of last week, the Warriors have rushed for over 100 yards in every game. Hampton’s run defense has been decent this season aside from the Mars game. Central Valley’s run offense has been a strength. So, it’s a battle of attrition. And the trenches are where a lot of these games are won or lost.
- Reschoff’s rollouts.
It seems that the Hampton offense wants to get quarterback Andrew Reschoff out of the pocket more. With having to scramble a lot in the early portions of the season, that may not be a bad idea. Reschoff did it a lot in the game against the Ringgold, where he connected on a lot of his throws. Last week, once Reschoff started rolling out of the pocket, the offense seemed to find a little bit of a rhythm despite only putting up one score. When asked last week whether the Talbots want to continue to do that, this was head coach Steve Sciullo’s response.
“We feel like if we can get him out there, he can do okay; we can get him started and settled down; he can hit some balls. [In the Ringgold game] he hit a million of them up to Heath [Borgo], and he was on,” he explained after the loss to Mars.
While there was little to show for last week, Reschoff did make some connections while rolling out. And he does seem comfortable in those types of play calls. How well will that work against a tough defense?
- The trenches.
Hampton did not have a good showing up front last week. Something Steve Sciullo took note of. Central Valley has a young line. Eight of their twelve offensive linemen are underclassmen. Not to mention, Hampton has a small height advantage in that department. So, with a young and somewhat undersized line, how well will Hampton’s more experienced line hold up or push back? That will be a factor in who wins this game. Much like it was last week for both of these teams. Central Valley’s line wasn’t much better. Ambrose ran the ball 8 times and came away with -14 rushing yards. But it was one game against a really good Hopewell that are making headlines themselves.
So which team bounces back? This game is as close to a must-win as you can get. You never know what committee member could be watching if it came down to that.
Hampton and Central Valley kick off from Monaca on Friday at 7:00 pm.
