Friday night proved to be the end of the line for two West Hills high school football teams seeking to earn berths in WPIAL championship games.
In a Class 5A semifinal game, No. 5 seed Moon Area came out on the short end of a 34-24 decision to top-seeded Pine-Richland at Chartiers Valley High School.
In Class 1A, third-seeded Bishop Canevin couldn’t keep pace with No. 2 seed Clairton, falling to the Bears 42-22 in a semifinal game played at Fox Chapel High School.
Moon wound up its season with a 9-4 record, the same mark posted by Bishop Canevin under first-year coach Rod Steele.
Pine-Richland 34, Moon 24
Khalil Taylor got the Rams off to a 14-0 lead, as he hauled in a 37-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Strader on the second play from scrimmage and then picked off an Andrew Cross pass in the end zone as the Tigers appeared poised to score the tying touchdown and returned it 104 yards for a score. A pair of Alex Mestra PATs gave the Rams a 14-0 lead.
Moon was far from finished, though, as Cross hit Braeden Stuart over the middle and he shook off several would-be tacklers to take it 64 yards for the score. Evan Senkevich’s PAT cut the deficit to 14-7 in the second quarter.
Senkevich’s 43-yard field goal made it 14-10 but Strader increased Pine-Richland’s lead to 21-10 when he rolled around left end and went 48 yards for a touchdown.
Moon clawed back, with Dionte Henry taking a direct snap from the Pine-Richland 40-yard line and going the distance for the score. Senkevich’s PAT trimmed the deficit to 21-17.
Henry wound up playing the rest of the game at quarterback after Cross was injured on the play just prior to Henry’s 40-yard touchdown.
Mestra’s 27-yard field goal boosted the Rams’ lead to 24-17, and Strader’s 7-yard touchdown run in the third quarter gave Pine-Richland even more breathing room at 31-17.
Moon refused to fold, though, and got within seven points when Henry hit Jared Moyer in the end zone from 6 yards out, trimming the Rams’ lead to 31-24.
But after Moon’s defense forced a punt, Moon’s offense could not get untracked, and it also was forced to punt. Pine-Richland started at the Tigers’ 37-yard line and took more than four minutes off the clock before Mestra put the game away with a 26-yard field goal with about 3 minutes to play.
Cross completed 11 of 16 passes for 183 yards and a touchdown before his injury. Henry led the Tigers in rushing with 93 yards on 13 attempts. Stuart finished with four receptions for 97 yards while Savario Vandetti caught six passes for 56 yards.
Clairton 42, Bishop Canevin 22
Deon Lovelace-Pompey ran for 134 yards and three touchdowns and Donte Wright rushed for two more scores to pace the second-seeded Bears past the No. 3 Crusaders at Fox Chapel High School.
The loss ended Bishop Canevin’s season at 9-4 while Clairton improved to 11-1.
The Crusaders got the jump on the Bears, scoring the game’s first touchdown on Damar Olds’ 3-yard run. Bishop Canevin failed to convert the PAT, and its lead stood at 6-0.
Wright scored the first of his two touchdowns, this one in the second quarter on a 1-yard run a two-point conversion pass gave Clairton an 8-6 lead.
Bishop Canevin answered when Minikon Johnson picked off a pass and returned it 72 yards for a touchdown, and a two-point conversion run put the Crusaders on top 14-8.
But the Bears then reeled off three straight scores, with Lovelace-Pompey having a hand in two of them.
His 14-yard touchdown run tied the score at 14-14, and Michael Ruffin’s 22-yard touchdown pass to Taris Wooding gave Clairton the lead it would never relinquish at 22-14.
Lovelace-Pompey then went in from 5 yards out, and a two-point conversion accounted for the only third-quarter score, leaving Clairton with a 30-14 lead heading into the final quarter.
Bishop Canevin’s Myontae Mott went in from 4 yards out, and a two-point conversion pass trimmed the lead to 30-22.
But Lovelace-Pompey delivered his third scoring run of the game, this one from 38 yards out, and Wright’s 2-yard touchdown finished off the Crusaders.
Olds completed 10 of 19 passes for 111 yards for Bishop Canevin, with Justin Melvin grabbing four of those passes for 67 yards.
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