Peters Township headed to WPIAL final
Thomas Aspinall (8) celebrates with Justin Tornatore (0) after scoring his second touchdown in Peters Township's 41-18 victory over Moon in the WPIAL Class 5A semifinal game.
Eliot Shratz (21) and Justin Tornatore (0) join in celebrating with Darius McMillon (9) after his interception helped clinched Peters Township's 41-18 victory against Moon and sent the Indians to the WPIAL Class 5A final.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Preston Blair (26) bursts through the line for yardage before being tackled by Josh Bladel during WPIAL Class 5A semifinal playoff action. The Indians beat Moon, 41-18.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Peters Township defenders Mickey Vaccarello, left, and Reston Lehman contain Moon running back Josh Bladel during WPIAL Class 5A semifinal playoff action.
Mickey Vaccarello, Reston Lehman
Peters Township defensive lineman Jake Velgich (6) moves in for the sack of Paul Bronaugh from Moon during WPIAL Class 5A semifinal playoff action.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Peters Township quarterback Nolan DiLucia (17) completes a pass despite the defenisve efforts of Moon’s Nicholas Clemens during WPIAL Class 5A semifinal action.
McDONALD – Moon’s unconventional offense gave Peters Township’s vaunted defense some fits, but once the Indians made an adjustment, coach TJ Plack’s team ran away from the Tigers for a 41-18 victory Friday night in the semifinals of the Class 5A WPIAL playoffs at South Fayette High School.
Peters Township (12-0) advances to next Saturday’s title game at Norwin High School. The Indians will play Pine-Richland for the championship at noon. The Rams rallied for a 16-9 victory over Penn Hills.
“We have played against that type of offense before, so we knew what to expect,” Peters Township coach TJ Plack said. “Our guys and our coaching staff made some changes.
“I just told our kids we have done a lot in our eight years here. We have four conference championships, and this will be our third trip to the WPIAL finals. They always talk about which team has been the best here at Peters in the last eight years. I tell them, ‘If you want to separate yourselves, we gotta go 1-0 next week.'”
The Tigers (6-6) lined up Joshua Bladel, Paul Bronaugh, Nazir Brookins and Braeden Stuart in a wildcat formation and ran them at will, which resulted in a 22-play drive that took 11:18 of the clock and Hayden Boland kicked a 32-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead with 8:09 left in the second quarter.
“Josh (Bladel) is a hard-nosed throwback kind of player,” Moon coach Ryan Linn said. “He missed almost half of his junior season last year with an injury. He helped us get through a lot of tough times this year with his play. It is tough to lose this game, but at the end of the day, we had a helluva season.”
Peters Township responded to Moon’s score with the only touchdown it would need, as Preston Blair scored on an 8-yard run and Carter Shanafelt made the first of five PATs for a 7-3 advantage with 5:52 left in the second quarter.
Blair’s score was set up by Nolan DiLucia’s 42-yard pass to Shanafelt to the Tigers’ 8.
The Indians forced the Tigers to fumble on their next drive and Eliot Schratz made the recovery at the Moon 21.
Peters Township took advantage of the scored field and Vinny Sarcone’s 2-yard run extended the lead to 14-3 with 4:36 left in the second quarter.
The Indians scored their third touchdown in less than six minutes when Nick McCullough caught a 7-yard pass from DiLucia for a 21-3 advantage with 27.1 left before halftime.
“It is always nice to get a cushion,” Plack said. “We knew they were going to keep playing hard.”
Peters Township’s Thomas Aspinall caught the first of two touchdown passes from DiLucia with 1:52 left in the third quarter to extend the Indians’ lead to 28-3. Aspinall caught a 41-yard touchdown reception with 7:08 left in the fourth quarter after Darius McMillon’s interception set up the Indians with good field position.
Aspinall caught 4 passes for 104 yards. DiLucia was 15-of-24 for 198 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Bladel scored Moon’s lone touchdown seven seconds into the fourth quarter and Boland made the extra point. Bladel gained 87 yards on 27 carries in the final game of his high school career.
The Tigers’ Braeden Stuart scored on a 43-yard run.
Sarcone closed the scoring on a 22-yard run in the fourth.
Peters Township’s Jake Velgich recovered a fumble for one of three takeaways for the Indians’ defense.
“We had too many turnovers and penalties, and you can’t have that against a team like this,” Linn said.