Wildcats top Spartans
There could have been quite a few reasons why East Allegheny got sloppy early in the second half in its Class 2A Century Conference showdown at Brentwood.
Whatever they may have been, though, the Wildcats had blown a 12-point lead and were in a tie game midway through the fourth quarter.
“Nothing went our way,” East Allegheny coach Dom Pecora said. “As mad as I am that we were better and nothing went our way, we won.”
That 33-19 victory came in large part to running back Tyvon Wright, who scored three touchdowns including a 5-yard run with 1:36 remaining to break the tie and give No. 4-ranked East Allegheny (2-1, 2-0) the lead for good. He added a 41-yard interception return with 1:17 left to ice it at Herb E. Troy Memorial Field.
“I had some history with Brentwood because I played them in eighth grade on this field and I had a touchdown late and they called it back and we lost by two and I did not want to lose to them again,” Wright said. “This was my second chance and I said to myself that if I ever got a chance to play Brentwood again I would not lose to them.”
East Allegheny took a 13-7 lead at halftime and extended it to 19-7 just three plays in when Tamaine Underwood, who finished 13-of-21 passing for 209 yards, connected underneath with Dan Kasmier, who turned the short gain into a 52-yard touchdown. That score, as well as a dominant Wildcats defense, forced No. 3 Brentwood (2-1, 1-1) to eschew the running game and made the offense into a one-dimensional passing attack.
“We couldn’t run the ball for an inch in the first half and we just figured, we had guys open and, if we could protect [quarterback Michael Trent] then we felt we could throw the ball a little bit,” Brentwood coach Kevin Kissel said. “But at halftime we just had to junk the run and throw the ball.”
Trent did not have a bad game as he completed 18 of 42 for 212 yards, including 10 of 28 for 143 yards and a score in the second half. But he was under a constant barrage by a quick East Allegheny defense led by senior defensive end T.J. Banks, who had four sacks and several pressures despite being double- and triple-teamed throughout.
“He must have made that referee mad at some point in his life because he got tackled on every play,” Pecora said. “He got held, he got tackled, I don’t know, but T.J. took over the game on defense and, if you find a better football player, let me know who it is.”
Banks also scored East Allegheny’s first touchdown to tie the score, 7-7, 1:19 into the second quarter. But right after his third sack of the game late in the third quarter, Brentwood mounted its comeback. Faced with a fourthand-6 at the East Allegheny 49, Trent hit a wide-open Austin Veatch inside the left hashmarks and he ran it in the rest of the way to close the gap to 19-14 with 4:34 left in the period. After the two teams traded interceptions, Brentwood’sDeAngelo Brisco tackled Davon McDougald in the end zone for a safety and Michael Folino tied it with a 24-yard field goal with 6:49 remaining in regulation.
“When it was 19-19, I thought for a minute it was going to go our way and then we had to go all the way down the field on our last drive,” Kissel aid. “I thought we had them on a fourth down play they converted, but we still let them go 75 yards on that last drive and that killed us.”