Gateway KOs Woodland Hills, 40-28
He has a name like Tom Brady, wears Peyton Manning’s number and grew up idolizing Brett Favre.
But Gateway senior Brady Walker continues to add to his own quarterbacking legacy.
Walker completed 24 of 40 passes for 394 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 60 yards and another score, sometimes extending plays and other times making them himself, as second-seeded Gateway held off visiting No. 7 Woodland Hills, 40-28, Friday night in a WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinal.
“He’s really good,” Gateway coach Don Holl said. “It’s just been neat to have a chance to coach him — and watch him.”
The Gators (10-1) took the field by running through a smoke machine, and their offense came out on fire. But once the smoke cleared, the Wolverines (6-5) got hot enough to make this one a back-and-forth shootout.
Walker, the WPIAL’s regular-season passing leader, hit on his first four passes for 59 yards to march up the field on the opening possession. It’s always nice to have class balance, and how’s this for varied contributions: Gateway got touchdowns from a freshman, junior, sophomore and senior.
That freshman would be tailback Derrick Davis, who had a coming-out party with 111 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries, including the first score to make it 6-0, followed by a 48-yard jaunt for a 13-0 lead with 46 seconds left in the first half. When Walker found streaking junior Courtney Jackson for a 73-yard touchdown on Gateway’s next series, at 19-0, it seemed the rout was on.
Davis added four receptions for 45 yards starting in place of senior Isaiah Cameron, who got hurt last week and didn’t play Friday.
“He’s the next one, for sure,” Holl said of his breakout ninthgrader. “We knew how good he was coming to us.”
After Woodland Hills settled down and got on the board to cut Gateway’s lead to 19-7 midway through the second quarter, things went haywire — twice.
First, Gateway answered that score with one of many daring decisions by Holl, who should maybe be called “Riverboat Don” after repeatedly gambling on fourth down, trying — and recovering — an early onside kick, and running trick plays like the one that made it a three-score game again. On fourth-and-4 at Woodland Hills 9, Jackson threw a wide receiver reverse pass to sophomore Tui Faumuina-Brown for a touchdown.
On the ensuing kickoff, Wolverines senior Naszhir Taylor took matters into his own hands — literally. He stuck up his right hand to tip the bouncing kick to himself, and simply took off up the middle, diving into the end zone 75 yards later before anyone could run him down.
That made it 26-14 going into halftime, and deja vu set in after the break. Walker took it in from 8 yards for a 33-14 lead, and again on the ensuing kickoff, this time it was senior Rodney Dennard who fielded a bouncing ball at the 4 and returned it 96 yards to the house.
Gateway turned it over on downs, and Taylor got loose again, catching a 53-yard touchdown from Daniel Jones to cut their deficit to 33-28 with 3:29 left in the third, but they would get no closer as Davis scored again to cap the next drive and the Gators pulled away.