Warriors outlast Panthers
Ever since opening its Class 5A schedule, PennTrafford had been beating up its opponents.
Not only had the Warriors averaged 40 points per game against teams in their classification, they were giving up less than a touchdown and had won three of those contests by the mercy rule.
Yet here they were headed into the fourth quarter tied with Big East Conference rival Franklin Regional and in need of a spark. And John Gay provided it.
Gay cut left, found a crease and turned it upfield for a 48-yard touchdown as part of his exceptional 12-carry, 145-yard performance as No. 1-ranked Penn-Trafford (7-0, 5-0) pulled out a 20-13 road win against the No. 5 Panthers (4-2, 4-2). The victory, coupled with West Allegheny’s overtime loss to Upper St. Clair, left the Warriors as the only undefeated team in Class 5A. And it wasn’t easy. “This was a playoff-type game and there were a lot of physical plays in this game and both teams needed that for the playoff run,” PennTrafford coach John Ruane said. “Franklin’s a tremendous team, they’re brutal up front and they have guys that can run the ball and they did a lot of damage to us, but the defense really showed what they are when they dug in their heels inside the 10.”
Penn-Trafford played without two-way lineman and Akron recruit Logan Hawkins, who missed the game with a lower body injury. Without him anchoring the front line, the Warriors defense became susceptible to the Franklin Regional wildcat offense that dominated the third quarter.
Running back Nate Leopold spent most of the second half in the pistol formation as he became the focal point of an offense that only gained 112 total yards in the first half. He beat that y himself after the intermission as he carried 17 times for 133 yards in the second half and made 25 trips for 160 yards in the game.
About the only person he couldn’t get away from was Gay. On the first offensive play after Gay scored the touchdown to put Penn-Trafford in front, Leopold shook loose and had a clear lane to the end zone, but Gay caught him from behind and dragged him down for a 43-yard gain.
Though Franklin Regional drove the ball to the Warriors 7, they could not punch it in as, on fourth down, quarterback Adam Rudzinski threw a fade to the back of the end zone that went off the hands of receiver Jacob Shedd and fell incomplete with 4:19 remaining.
“What we didn’t have that they had was that speed and Gay’s fast and I thought Leopold was going to break it and Gay caught him and that’s the difference in the game right there,” Franklin Regional coach Greg Botta said. “But we can’t keep coming away with field goals. When we get down in there, we’ve got to score and we had our opportunities and just couldn’t do it.”
Even after Franklin Regional came away empty on that drive inside the red zone, its defense stopped Penn-Trafford and gave the team an opportunity. The Panthers had to go 67 yards in 1:59 with no timeouts to win the game and actually picked up two first downs before Rudzinsky couldn’t field a low shotgun snap and Mitch Nedley gobbled it up for the Warriors to seal the deal.
“We don’t get nervous because we’ve been in situations where it’s close or we’re down at the end,” Ruane said. “We’ve got a lot of faith in our guys, we’re a senior-laden group and we just had to put it together.”