University Prep stops Brashear, clinches title tie

Coming into the season University Prep already had won one City League football title during its brief six-year existence.

Winning a second under the circumstances surrounding the team before the Wildcats ever took the field this year is unreal.

University Prep (4-4, 4-1) clinched no worse than a tie for first place and guaranteed itself the No. 1 seed in the City League playoffs with a 13-0 victory against two-time defending champion Brashear (3-5, 3-2) at Cupples Stadium. The Wildcats, who beat Westinghouse earlier in the season, will claim the regular season title outright if the Bulldogs lose to Carrick in their final regular-season game today.

“Considering everything we’ve been through in the offseason with the unexpected transfers; we’re such a young team and a number of these guys weren’t even on our roster last year,” University Prep coach Lou Berry said.

A few weeks before the season, senior quarterback Kenny Robinson transferred from University Prep to Imani Christian of the WPIAL. Shortly thereafter, Asante Watkins and Samuel Fairley followed and, after their eligibility for this season was challenged by the WPIAL, the PIAA overturned the ruling allowing both to finish the season at Imani.

“If you’d have told me back in July that we would be the No. 1 seed going into the playoffs I wouldn’t have believed you,” Berry said. “We lost a couple of seasoned veterans and kids that are high-level Division I recruits, but that’s a testament to the kids, the coaches and the fact that we were able to regroup and retool because a lot of these kids are babies.”

Those youngsters came up big against Brashear. Junior quarterback Tawan Wesley threw a touchdown pass to Nasir Tatum on the team’s first drive, while sophomore running back DaMon Macklin diced up the Bulls defense with 14 carries for 91 yards. He scored a touchdown on the Wildcats’ second drive.

“Macklin’s one of those kids that is really stepping up for us on both sides of the ball and holds a lot of responsibility for a diminutive player,” Berry said. “We list him at 5-foot-5, but he’s probably about 5-foot3, but his heart is as big as the stadium and you can see the result with him picking up first down on third-and-long ...”

University Prep needed its ground game to be effective on a night when the game was started 10 minutes early in an effort to beat an impending storm. After flashes of lightning near the end of the first half, the two teams waited out an additional 15-minutes at halftime.

Brashear’s best chance ended on the last play before halftime when the Bulls fumbled at the Wildcats 1-yard line.

University Prep will play the winner of tonight’s game between Perry and Allderdice in the first round of the playoffs, while Brashear will play Westinghouse.