4th-quarter touchdown pushes North Allegheny past Canon-McMillan into WPIAL finals

By: Antonio Rossetti
Friday, November 11, 2022 | 11:44 PM

As a scoreless tie dragged on with weather conditions making life difficult on both offenses, North Allegheny running back Andrew Gavlik started to realize that one score might win this WPIAL Class 6A semifinal matchup against Canon-McMillan.

With a little more than six minutes left in the game, teammate Logan Kushner delivered it.

Kushner scored from a yard out, leading North Allegheny to a 7-0 victory and a berth in the WPIAL championship game against Central Catholic next Saturday at Norwin.

“I just knew I had to get into the end zone, and I took it around the edge,” Kushner said. “It was wide open.”

Gavlik helped lead the team to the brink of the goal line on that drive and finished with 109 yards on 28 carries.

“We’d been waiting together for that drive the whole night,” Gavlik said. “We’d been in the red zone a couple of times and just weren’t able to finish, and to finally be able to get in, it just felt amazing. We knew we secured the win after that.”

The weather led to many fumbled snaps, which turned the game into a defensive showdown.

North Allegheny’s Tyree Alualu was one of the game’s leading tacklers. He credited the Tigers’ shutdown defense to their preparation during their off week.

“We just stayed locked in and never took our foot off the gas,” Alualu said. “We came in every day, put in work, kept watching the film and trusted in the gameplan.”

Despite the heavy rain, Alualu enjoyed seeing the number of fans that did show up. He was motivated to defend the home turf.

“It’s everything having all these people come out supporting us,” Alualu said. “It means the world. You can’t ask for anything better.”

The Tigers’ defense made plays early and often.

Canon-McMillan (5-6) fumbled on the first play of the game and North Allegheny’s Cameron Chmura recovered the ball at the Big Macs’ 30-yard line. Canon Mac’s star running back Jake Kasper, a 1,300-yard rusher in the regular season, was injured on the opening play and did not return.

Nothing came of the early turnover as the Big Macs blocked a 47-yard field goal attempt.

Both teams struggled mightily to move the ball mostly because of the weather.

Nonetheless, the Tigers (10-1) had another golden opportunity after Khyrin Boyd intercepted a Mike Evans pass with 6:57 left in the first quarter.

After getting the ball to the 7-yard line, the Tigers committed a 15-yard dead ball penalty, pushing them back to the 22. The Big Macs forced North Allegheny to kick a field goal, and Nick Van Winkle missed the 33-yard attempt right.

North Allegheny forced a three-and-out and manufactured a drive, heading deep into Big Mac territory. Nonetheless, Gavlik fumbled at the 13-yard line, giving Canon Mac the ball back.

Late in the second quarter, Boyd set the Tigers up with a big punt return to the Canon McMillan 22. Nevertheless, his return was in vain as Van Winkle missed a 26-yard field goal.

North Allegheny had multiple chances inside the red zone, but nothing came to pass as the game went into halftime scoreless.

Canon Mac gained momentum in the second half, beginning to move the ball on the ground more consistently.

Despite getting inside the Tigers’ 30-yard line twice in the third, Canon Mac couldn’t post a score.

The Big Macs had another opportunity, getting the ball on the North Allegheny 45-yard line after a fumbled snap on a punt, but the Tigers forced a three-and-out.

The Tigers hit a big play on a Boyd 20-yard jet sweep that got them to the Big Mac 30. A late hit out of bounds put the ball at the 15.

Gavlik ran the ball on a stretch play to the 1-yard line.

North Allegheny finally broke the scoreless tie when Kushner ran the ball into the end zone for the 1-yard touchdown. Peter Notaro drilled the extra point, making it 7-0.

The Tigers then forced a three-and-out with over five minutes to go and picked up a few first downs, running the clock out and winning the game.

“It was a hard-fought win,” Tigers coach Art Walker Jr. said. “I give Canon Mac all the credit in the world. They played their tails off. Definitely a tough game for both teams. But to get back with this group of kids, everything that they’ve worked for, and their focus, they stuck together and we’ve had some tight games. … These kids deserve it.”

The Tigers return to the title game for the first time since losing to Pine-Richland in 2020. Gavlik was a member of the team, and he is motivated to make sure there is a different outcome this time around.

“It was heartbreaking losing that game, and I don’t want to have that happen again,” Gavlik said. “I think that we’re going to be able to turn the tide this year.”

Kushner is ready to help lead the team into the WPIAL finals.

“I need to keep leading the team and improving every single week,” Kushner said. “The offense, we’ve just got to improve it.”

As for Canon Mac, coach Mike Evans was disappointed with how the season ended but was proud of his team’s defense and effort.

“I love the kids, and we fought and played really well on defense. We didn’t play good enough on offense,” Evans said. “That’s coach’s fault first, players’ fault second. We should have won this, and we just didn’t do enough. They just made one more play than we did.”

Tags: Canon-McMillan, North Allegheny