Peters Township battles Penn Hills to bitter end
By Eleanor Bailey/Almanac Sports Editor/ebailey@thealmanac.net
Peters Township’s Josh Casilli reaches for the reception during the Indians’ WPIAL Class 5A semifinal playoff game against Penn Hills at Norwin High School Friday.
Peters Township’s Ryan Magiske hurdles over a defender while teammate Shane O’Connell goes for a block during Friday’s WPIAL Class 5A semifinal playoff game against Penn Hills.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Eleanor Bailey
Peters Township fans root on their team during Friday’s WPIAL Class 5A semifinal playoff game against Penn Hills.
Peters Township's Corban Hondru attempts to tackle Dante Cephas (4). The Penn Hills tailback scored two touchdowns in a 22-14 win against the Indians.
Peters Township players Grant Nelson (53) and Tyler Messman (74) are shown after the Indians 22-14 WPIAL Class 5A semifinal playoff loss to Penn Hills Friday at Norwin High School.
It was the ideal recipe for success for Peters Township’s football team in the first half of its Class 5A semifinal contest against Penn Hills on Friday at Norwin High School.
The Indians struck first. They won the battle in the trenches. They won the turnover battle. They won the field-position battle.
PT held a 14-0 lead with three minutes left in the second quarter, but the veteran group from Penn Hills knew that no deficit would be too tough to come back from because of their high-powered offense.
Penn Hills scored the final 22 points of the contest and won all those small battles in the final 24 minutes to edge Peters Township, 22-14, and earn a trip to the finals next Friday.
“They got a little more physical in the second half and got their running game going,” PT coach T.J. Plack explained. “We were a little banged up on the outside and they are just hard to stop for a full game. We got behind the sticks a couple of times late in the second half and we just couldn’t win the field-position battle at all in the second half.”
Penn Hills will be looking for its fifth title and its first championship since 1995 when it faces West Allegheny, a 42-28 winner over top seed Gateway, at Norwin.
This was Peters Township’s third appearance in the semifinals and first since 1976.
“We looked human at times,” Plack said. “Things just didn’t click on offense. I thought our defense fought and clawed the whole game. We knew we had to contain their quarterback and we couldn’t give up any big plays. We tackled very well in space and I thought our defensive backs did a good job of defending the deep ball.”
After a scoreless third quarter and trailing 14-8, Penn Hills (13-0) had the ball at its 36-yard line. Four plays later,the Indians tied the score with a 24-yard scoring pass from Hollis Mathis to Dante Cephas at the 10:01 mark of the fourth. The two-point pass failed.
Peters Township (10-3) had trouble in the second half moving the ball and couldn’t find any flow on offense. After the teams traded punts, Penn Hills’ Daequan Hardy recorded an interception and returned it to the Penn Hills 32-yard line.
Five plays later, Terry “Tank” Smith rumbled for a 5-yard scoring run and added a two-point conversion run to give Penn Hills a 22-14 lead with 3:37 left in the game.
PT was able to pick up one first down on its next drive, but a high pass on fourth-and-seven from the 45-yard line ended any chance of a comeback for the No. 3 seed. PT managed only 40 yards of offense in the second half.
“Penn Hills has a lot of athletes, but they win games up front,” Plack said. “They were strong at the line of scrimmage and really dominated the line. They limit you a lot on offense and you face a lot of third-and-longs. We couldn’t convert on third downs.”
After Penn Hills was forced to punt on their opening drive, Peters Township got big plays from its passing game when Logan Pfeuffer found Jackson McCloskey for a 33-yard completion on third-and-seven.
PT, however, came away with no points after a missed 23-yard field goal.
The potent Penn Hills’ offense, which averages 41 points per game, was forced to punt again. This time PT capped a 10-play, 43-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run by Ryan Magiske in the opening seconds of the second quarter.
After the teams exchanged interceptions on the next two possessions, Penn Hills couldn’t punch the ball into the end zone and turned it over on downs at the 27-yard line. Pfeuffer hit Seth Lukski with a 46-yard screen pass to get the drive going, and four plays later, Pfeuffer hit McCloskey on the post pattern with a 21-yard scoring toss to extend PT’s lead to 14-0 with 3:15 left before halftime.
Penn Hills rallied before halftime with a solid drive that ended when Mathis found a jumping Cephas for a 7-yard touchdown pass. Hardy added the two-point conversion run and the No. 2 seed trailed 14-8 at intermission.
Mothis led Penn Hills with 148 yards on 10-of-27 passing. Smith ended with 18 carries for 65 yards. This was the first time this season that Penn Hills faced an opponent from Pennsylvania and the scoring differential wasn’t in the double digits.
Pfeuffer capped off his sensational, sophomore season with 171 yards on 12-of-23 passing. Magiske finished the game with a team-high 45 rushing yards on 15 rushes.
“This didn’t happen over night,” Plack said. “It was a great year for the program. This took time to build and we are hoping to continue to build things here at Peters Township. We have a lot coming back and I don’t think they will be satisfied with just this season. We are just creating a winning atmosphere here.”