Rams dominate Tigers again in 6A
Pine-Richland vs. Central Catholic for championship
When Pine-Richland blew out an undefeated North Allegheny team by 28 points two weeks ago, the prevailing thought seemed to be that things would be different if the two met again in the WPIAL Class 6A semifinals because North Allegheny was too good of a team.
That premise was correct because the rematch was indeed different.
It was worse for North Allegheny. Pine-Richland, behind another big game from quarterback Cole Spencer, beat visiting North Allegheny, blowing by the wounded Tigers, this time by a score of 49-14.
This win puts Pine-Richland (10-1) into the title game Saturday at Heinz Field against Central Catholic. Pine-Richland will try to become one of the few teams in WPIAL history to win three consecutive championships in the largest classification. North Allegheny finished 9-2.
These sizable losses are rare for North Allegheny. The 35-point loss was the second-worst for the Tigers since Art Walker became coach in 2005. The 49 points tied for the second-most ever scored on a Walker team. Central Catholic scored 55 in 2016 and, coincidentally, Pine-Richland scored 49 two years ago.
North Allegheny wasn’t at full strength, playing without two of its top defensive players (defensive linemen Sam Sheridan and Amosis Porter), who were out with injuries. Linebacker Nathan Hoke, another one of North Allegheny’s top defensive players, left with a leg injury in the second quarter and leading rusher Percise Colon missed much of the first half with an injury and had only 59 yards on 9 carries.
But it’s questionable if those players’ presence would make that much of a difference because North Allegheny hasn’t had an answer for Pine-Richland quarterback Cole Spencer. In two games against North Allegheny, Spencer threw for 757 yards. This time, he was 21 of 27 for 361 yards and six touchdowns after throwing for five touchdowns in the first meeting. Pine-Richland was ahead by 42-14 late in the game, but the Rams apparently weren’t satisfied yet and Spencer threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Charlie Mill with 1:10 left. He also threw two touchdowns to D’Avay Johnson and one each to Luke Meckler, Seth Bolin and Luke Miller.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our players,” said Pine-Richland coach Eric Kasperowicz, whose team scored the first 21 points of the game. “Our kids were so honed in on what they were going to do. Our kids were just ballin’.”
Pine-Richland celebrated on the field afterward and Spencer pulled out a small white packet and said, “Here, you want some ketchup?”
Then he flashed a big smile. “When you think of it, we really had three weeks to prepare for this team,” Spencer said. “If you have three weeks to prepare for a team, you better smack them in the mouth. That’s what we did and we’re going to Heinz.”
Spencer was helped by receivers who made a few terrific catches. Johnson only caught two passes, but both were exceptional catches and went for touchdowns of 49 and 27 yards.
Meckler, a running back, made a nice grab of a pass out of the backfield and turned it into a 75-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Meckler hammed it up, waving bye-bye to a North Allegheny defender at the 25, prompting an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Meckler also had his best game of the season running the ball, gaining 120 yards on 12 carries. He scored on a 41yard run. Pine-Richland outgained North Allegheny, 504-304.
“The game came down to who was the most physical team and were the most physical team without a doubt,” Kasperowicz said. “We controlled the line of scrimmage and we ran the ball a little more. I said since I’ve been here that in Western Pennsylvania, you have to be able to run the football still to some extent and play great defense to win championships. We did both of those tonight.”