Gateway is going to ride what has been successful
Gateway coach Don Holl has been consistent with his message throughout the playoffs.
Play to your strengths and rely on what got the Gators to their first-ever PIAA playoff win and advanced it to the PIAA 5A semifinals.
Basically, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
Armed with prolific passer and senior Brady Walker, stud receiver and junior Courtney Jackson and freshman standout Derrick Davis, the Gators (13-1) will look to outpace Manheim Central (13-0) at 7 p.m. Friday at Altoona’s Mansion Park Stadium.
“The best way to win is to do what you do better than the other team does what they do, and I think that’s kind of their M.O., too,” Holl said. “They believe in what they do, they have talented players, they’re well coached. Their schemes are good, their fundamentals are good, their personnel’s good and usually that results in a good product.”
Since the PIAA playoffs and championships began in 1988, Manheim Central has advanced to the Class 3A final three times. The Barons beat Pine-Richland in 2003 and lost to Thomas Jefferson in 2004 and Selinsgrove in 2009.
The Gators will face Barons sophomore quarterback Evan Simon, who has thrown for 2,061 yards, 22 touchdowns and 9 interceptions this season. Tyler Flick, who has rushed for 1,467 yards, is out with an elbow injury and did not play in Manheim Central’s 30-29 quarterfinal win against Governor Mifflin.
Instead, the Barons looked to senior Gio Lester to implement their rushing attack.
“I’d say they’re probably a team that wants to get in the spread formation to have opportunities for running lanes,” Holl said.
Through 14 games, the Gators are averaging 37.2 points per game on offense and allowing 18.5 points per game on defense.
Gateway overcame three first-half turnovers to beat Hollidaysburg, 49-30, in the quarterfinals last Saturday.
Walker completed 23 of 30 passes for 367 yards and three touchdowns, adding a 14-yard touchdown run as the Gators tallied 596 yards of offense in the win. That propelled Walker to No. 3 in WPIAL passing history with 8,059 career passing yards and moved him closer to becoming only the second quarterback in WPIAL history to throw for 4,000 yards in a season.
Jackson finished with 225 yards on 11 catches and scored on passes of 53 and 33 yards, plus a 78-yard touchdown run.
One of the Gators’ biggest strengths might be forgetting all that, Holl said.
“One thing that I think we’ve become very good at is staying in the moment,” Holl said. “And at times, it’s so cliche, but just believing in the process, the routine. … This is a new opponent. We have a countdown timer. We change the name on there and we reset it to kickoff and basically now we’re in Manheim Central week and what are we doing against them and why are we doing it and let’s go do it.”
It might be the Gators first PIAA playoff run, but they’ll try to extend it as long as possible.
“A couple things come into play,” Holl said. “They work really hard for a long time at this in the offseason, and in season, and we talk about the grind and that kind of thing. It’s just super gratifying to see them have success.
“The other part is, any certain team is only a team for one season. The longer the season goes, especially when the team is close-knit and tight like I really believe our kids are, they want to keep going. They want to play more.”