West Allegheny shook up the playoff picture, earning themselves a win over the host Montour Spartans 13-7 in overtime Friday at Thomas J. Birko Memorial Stadium, claiming a share in the section title and their first section win since 2018.
It was 7-7 in overtime. On fourth down, Montour running back Caden Halajcio was tackled short of the end zone by Roman Police, giving the ball to the Indians.
West Allegheny had the game and the section in its hands. All the Indians had to do was take it.
Police then found a hole and broke it on second and goal at the 8-yard line, giving the Indians a section title.
“That game-winning touchdown was amazing, and it’s just awesome that me and all my boys get to celebrate this win tonight,” Police said after the game Friday. “On defense, on the game-winning tackle, it just came down to putting your body on the line, so we did what we had to do.”
The Indians, Spartans, and the Aliquippa Quips are tri champs, but Aliquippa and West Allegheny clinch the playoffs, leaving Montour as a wild card if selected by the committee.
The Spartans came into the game 4-0 in the conference and 8-0 overall. West Allegheny improved to 4-1 in the conference and 4-3 overall.
It was a heartbreaker at Montour. On the first play of the game, Trey Hopper found a streaking Marcus Battles for a 63-yard touchdown. Brock Cornell went up to intercept the pass, but Battles came up and snagged it, taking it to the house.
“After that, we were lockdown on defense,” Cornell said. “We had a great scheme coming into it. All these dudes, I love these dudes. We have belief, and we know we can do it. No one believes in us because we’re a bunch of 5-foot-8 guys, 150 pounds, and we’re playing against dudes two times our size. I’m ridiculously proud of these dudes.”
The first-quarter touchdown would be it for the Montour offense. West Allegheny held Montour to 182 yards of total offense and 60 yards in the second half, shutting out Montour from the first quarter on.
In the third quarter, the Indians mustered their first points and held the ball close to the entirety of the quarter. Cornell ran a quarterback keeper over the center to tie the game.
Montour was unable to get into field goal range or into the red zone, forcing overtime leading to the West Allegheny win.
The Indians dominated on time of possession.
The offense was led by Cornell, who ran for 137 yards on 33 carries, punching in one touchdown.
Police ran for 68 yards on 13 carries, including the game-winning touchdown.
As for the Spartans, Hopper completed 5 out of 9 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown.
Montour only threw three passes in the second half.
The committee will now decide where Montour will be seeded as it lost its automatic bid.
“I’ve been coming to the game literally since I was born,” Cornell said. “My dad’s the defensive coordinator. Something I always dreamed about was winning a section championship and making a deep run in the playoffs. Now we get a chance to do that. If we didn’t win, we would have left it up to the committee to make the decision, but we won, and we took it upon ourselves to get into the playoffs.”
OLSH 20, Keystone Oaks 19
Vann Kavals threw for one touchdown and ran for another and Demar Chatfield added another touchdown run to pace the Chargers (5-4 overall) past the Golden Eagles (4-3) in a nonconference game.
Keystone Oaks scored the game’s first two touchdowns – one on Owen Gearhart’s 30-yard pass to Sean O’Brien and the second on Brenden Quarles’ 11-yard pass to Gearhart. A missed extra point on the second touchdown left the Golden Eagles on top 13-0 – and would prove decisive later in the game.
OLSH finally got on the board in the third quarter when Kavals connected with Iseia Fields-Schulz on a 36-yard touchdown pass and Patrick Altmar’s PAT cut Keystone Oaks’ lead to 13-7.
Later in the quarter, Kavals scored on a 4-yard run, but the PAT was no good, leaving the score tied at 13-13.
Chatfield then scored on a 15-yard run in the fourth quarter, and Altmar’s PAT made it 20-13.
Keystone Oaks answered with its final touchdown when Quarles hit Gearhart from 14 yards out to make it 20-19, but the extra point attempt was no good, giving the Chargers the win.
Kavals completed 15 of 27 passes for 212 yards and also ran 14 times for 83 yards. Schultz caught seven passes for 113 yards in the win.
Cornell 41, Monessen 6
Khylil Johnson rushed for 181 yards and four touchdowns to help the Raiders pound the Greyhounds and clinch third place in the Class A Black Hills Conference.
Cornell improved to 4-2 in conference play and 8-2 overall. A total of 16 teams will advance to the Class A playoffs – the top three teams in the class’s four conferences plus four wild card teams.
Cornell rolled up 425 yards of offense, including 365 on the ground. Walter Clarit contributed 133 yards on 14 carries for the winners and eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark on the ground for the season with 1,049 yards on 100 carries.
After a scoreless first quarter, Clarit put the Raiders on the board with a 10-yard run in the second quarter. A two-point conversion pass made it 8-0.
Johnson then scored the first of his four touchdowns, this one on a 26-yard run, and a Monessen score left the score 15-6 at halftime. Johnson then followed with two third-quarter touchdown runs of 28 and 35 yards.
In the fourth quarter, Cornell tacked on a safety that was credited to Santana Lee and Ashton Jones, and after Johnson’s 53-yard touchdown run, Lee went in from 6 yards to close the scoring for Cornell.
Bishop Canevin 42, Burgettstown 6
Kole Olszewski threw for 247 yards and four touchdowns as the Crusaders cruised to an easy win in their regular-season finale.
Bishop Canevin finished the regular season with a 5-1 record in Black Hills Conference action and 7-2 overall. The Crusaders already clinched second place in the conference and earned a spot in the WPIAL playoffs.
Olszewski teamed with Damar Olds on three of those scoring tosses from 18 yards, 12 yards and 46 yards as Bishop Canevin met little resistance.
Olszewski’s first touchdown pass of the night went to Jayden Lindsay from 18 yards out and from that point on the Crusaders were never threatened.
Ka’Vere Holeman scored on a 5-yard run and the Crusaders’ final score came on a 20-yard pass from Trey Johnson to Justin Saunders.
Moon 28, South Fayette 7
Four different players contributed a touchdown as the Tigers finished regular-season play by beating the Lions in a Class 5A Allegheny Six Conference matchup.
Moon improved to 2-3 in conference play and 5-4 overall while South Fayette dropped to 1-4 and 6-4.
Andrew Cross hit Savario Vandetti on a 43-yard touchdown pass for Moon’s first score, and Paul Bronaugh’s 54-yard run and Evan Senkevich’s second PAT made it 14-0.
Braiden Stuart then broke off a 59-yard touchdown run and Senkevich’s PAT increased the lead to 21-0.
South Fayette scored on Drew Welhorsky’s 29-yard touchdown pass to Ben Cavenaugh, but Moon’s Nick Prezoli answered on a 23-yard touchdown run, and Senkevich’s fourth PAT closed the scoring and gave Moon the 28-7 win.
Carlynton 54, Charleroi 27
Devonte Dean rushed for 236 yards and had a hand in seven touchdowns as the Cougars finished play in the Class 2A Century Conference at 3-3 and 6-4 overall.
Dean scored on runs of 6, 2, 55 and 5 and also returned a kickoff 85 yards for a score.
He completed 7 of 10 passes for 174 yards and connected with Damien Holloway on touchdown passes of 38 and 36 yards.
John Sciulli added 128 yards rushing and scored once while Holloway hauled in five passes for 106 yards, including the two touchdowns.
Waynesburg 51, Sto-Rox 7
Jacob Stephenson scored on runs of 15 and 45 yards and threw for a third score and Ross Tennant added a pair of touchdown runs as the Raiders (4-2, 6-4) rolled past the Vikings (0-6, 0-9).
Photos by Mike Longo Jr.
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