Week 2 Game Preview: Thomas Jefferson Vs. Gateway

We have a really good non-conference WPIAL matchup. Gateway will be hosting Thomas Jefferson Friday September 3^rd. During the offseason, Gateway received a couple of transfers, one being the top 2024 QB in the WPIAL in <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="64000" first="Brad" last="Birch"]</strong>, along with his brother <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="27595" first="Brett" last="Birch"]</strong>. In their Gateway debut the Birch brothers both had good games. Brad went 15-25 with 275 yards and 3 touchdowns while Brett had 6 receptions for 135 yards and 2 touchdowns. Birch also has senior WR/DB and Cincinnati commit <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="27561" first="Patrick" last="Body"]</strong> and junior WR <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="140965" first="Malachi" last="Moore"]</strong>. [player_tooltip player_id="64000" first="Brad" last="Birch"] is going to have to watch out for Thomas Jefferson d-line with junior <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="64014" first="Jordan" last="Mayer"]</strong> and senior <strong>Connor Murga</strong>. Mayer holds 2 FBS offers. Murga had an impact in last year’s playoffs. &nbsp; Thomas Jefferson offensively has quite a bit of question marks. There’s been a QB battle between senior <strong>Joe Lekse</strong> and sophomore <strong>Brody Evans</strong>. They lost a couple of their top wide receivers last season as well. They also lost 1 running back but still have Murga in the backfield who had 111 carries for 821 yards and 15 touchdowns.  Up in the trenches, they got Kent State commit <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="155796" first="Nick" last="Bryan"]</strong>. Linebacker <strong>Aiden Smith</strong> is going to have to keep Murga in check.  The receiving core and Gateway secondary will be interesting. I expect Gateway to win that matchup with Body back there. Freshman DB <strong>Kenny Lewis</strong> could see some snaps as a well. I am really interested in how this game will turn out.