Getsy has Panthers rolling early in victory

Lance Getsy felt a little bit of trepidation when he took his place on the Franklin Regional sideline for the first time as the Panthers head coach.

“The nerves are always going to be there and I think they’ll still be there when I’m 65,” Getsy said. “It never gets old and that’s why we do this because it’s not nerves of fear, it’s nerves of excitement, so, yeah, I had it for sure.”

It was to be expected. Even though he had worked on the staff previously, he was still taking over for a man in Greg Botta who had patrolled that same patch of turf for 27 seasons and brought the school its only WPIAL and PIAA titles in 2005. In addition, the Panthers were hosting a Plum squad that some believe is a dark horse candidate to make an appearance at Heinz Field later in the year.

In the end, he need not have worried. Not with Caden Smith on the field.

Smith turned in one of the best games of his career as the senior threw a 64-yard touchdown pass on a reverse option, intercepted two passes and brought one back 98 yards to the house, all in the first half, then added a third pick in the third quarter as the Panthers gave Getsy his first win as the Franklin Regional coach with a 41-12 upset victory over the Post-Gazette’s No. 4

Class AAAA team.

“This is awesome and he deserves nothing more than a first-game win as head coach,” Smith said. “For everything he’s done and done for us, it’s the only reason that score was on that scoreboard.”

Smith was everywhere in the first half and he wasted no time making an impact.

On the first play of the game, Plum tried an endaround option with Logan Brooks, but Franklin Regional smelled out the chicanery and the senior receiver was intercepted by Smith and returned to the Panthers 47.

That turned into an 8-play drive capped off by a 2-yard quarterback draw from senior Connor Donnelly and a 7-0 lead just 3:40 into the game.

“We talk about, whenever you get up on somebody, you want to keep pouring it on and don’t let them breathe and that’s what we did,” Getsy said. “We wanted a quick start, all summer long in 7-on-7s and in our scrimmage last week, we started out slow, so we focused a lot on a quick start and setting the tempo and we did that.”

Smith struck again on the Panthers next possession after Plum turned it over on downs at the Panthers 36. He wheeled out to his right and lofted a pass about 40 yards downfield to wide- open sophomore wide receiver Ayden Hudock, who raced the final 30 yards to complete a 64-yard catch and run to drop the Mustangs into a 14-0 hole with 5:02 remaining in the first quarter.

Plum didn’t do much right offensively in the first half as it turned the ball over on downs twice and came up empty in its only red zone appearance. Even that turned into offense for Franklin Regional as, on fourth and 23 from the Panthers 24, Mustangs quarterback Sean Franzi threw one up for grabs toward the goal line that was intercepted by Smith at the Panthers 2 and returned 98 yards for a touchdown and a 27-6 lead they took into the intermission.

Plum’s only offense in the first half came from its defense when freshman corner Darin Nelson returned an interception 17 yards for a score, but Franklin Regional countered when Zach Bewszka returned the kickoff 79 yards for a score.

It happened again in the second half when after Logan Brooks scored on a 28yard run with 54 seconds left in the third quarter, Hudock brought the kickoff back 80 yards to the house for a 34-12 Panthers lead heading to the fourth quarter.

“It’s a lot of little things and we have a lot of things to clean up, but we’ve got time,” Plum coach Matt Morgan said. “This was Week Zero and a glorified scrimmage and, you always want to beat your rival, but I think we’ll be okay if we clean up some stuff and move on.”