Westmoreland County high school football notebook: When Penn-Trafford, Gateway meet, ‘this game is a big deal’

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Thursday, October 5, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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Fierce rivals Penn-Trafford and Gateway appear to be rounding into form just in time for another encounter.

The Warriors (3-3, 2-0) will host Gateway (3-3, 3-0) in the annual “Battle for the Bell” game at 7:30 Friday night.

This will be one of the few times where, at least in recent years, neither team is ranked in the Tribune-Review Class 5A top five. But the anticipation remains the same.

The Victory Bell, which was first awarded to the winning team in 1924 when the competing schools were Trafford and Pitcairn, went missing for more than 50 years before it was brought back in 2008.

It has been an on-again, off-again matchup. The teams did not play in 2014, ’15 or ’20.

Gateway leads the all-time series 12-11 after taking last year’s game 21-10.

The Warriors and Gators also went looking for their offenses and have found them in recent weeks.

The question is, which team is hotter going into Friday?

Gateway has been a different team since senior Brad Birch returned from an injury.

Birch led the Gators to three straight wins over Franklin Regional (44-24), Plum (49-14) and Hempfield (63-21).

He has thrown for 981 yards and 10 touchdowns. He threw five TD passes last week.

“Their passing game is really good,” Penn-Trafford coach John Ruane said. “They make plays downfield. They take shots at all three levels: short, intermediate and deep.”

Penn-Trafford senior receiver and safety Carmen Metcalfe said getting to the Gators early is the key to slowing them.

“They like the play action,” Metcalfe said. “We can’t come off slow. We have to play our reads, and we should be all right.”

Penn-Trafford beat Hempfield (41-18) and Norwin (56-28) in back-to-back weeks, with its rushing attack blossoming behind strong line play and the one-two punch of running backs Tasso Whipple and Ben Grabowski.

Whipple, a junior, ran for a school-record 300 yards against Hempfield and added 194 last week. Grabowski, a freshman, gained 206 yards and four touchdowns against Norwin.

“Our guys up front have been coming off the ball a lot faster,” Ruane said. “We’ve been really good on third down. We have to correct some things. We’ve had way too many penalties.”

Gateway-Penn-Trafford is the KDKA Radio game of the week and will be broadcast (audio only) by the network.

“We both had slow starts, now we’re playing for first place in the conference,” Ruane said. “This game is a big deal. The winner has a good shot at a playoff spot.”

More interest in Tatsch

Latrobe junior Alex Tatsch grabbed three more Division I scholarship offers this week, from Virginia Tech, Liberty and Cincinnati.

Tatsch (6-foot-3, 211 pounds), a running back and linebacker, is on the Power 5 radar with offers from West Virginia, Boston College, Marshall and Connecticut.

First to 1,000?

Whipple has gained 494 yards in his last two games, vaulting him into the Westmoreland rushing lead with 801 yards on 103 carries. He is on the fast track to 1,000 yards.

Da’sjon Craggette of Southmoreland is second with 725 yards, Ahmad Ward of Derry has 724, Jeannette’s Noah Sanders 659 and Kyle Dupill of Franklin Regional 616.

Points of interest

Which is the highest-scoring team in Westmoreland County?

Jeannette has that distinction through six weeks of the season with an average of 34.7 points.

Five others teams also are scoring more than 30 a game: Franklin Regional (32.8), Belle Vernon (31.6), Greensburg Central Catholic (31.3), Mt. Pleasant (30.8) and Latrobe (30.2).

While every county team is scoring in double figures, Ligonier Valley is last with a 12.7 average.

Pro dad

A pair of brothers at Greensburg Central Catholic have a father who played in the NFL. And GCC has an assistant coach with pro experience.

Junior Jackson McMullen and freshman Brock McMullen are the sons of Kirk McMullen, a West Allegheny and Pitt grad who played for the Cincinnati Bengals for seven games in 2001 as a tight end and long snapper.

Kirk McMullen is an assistant coach for the Centurions.

Jackson McMullen is a quarterback and linebacker. He played a few series in the team’s scrimmage at Derry on Aug. 19. Brock McMullen is a wide receiver.

The 6-foot-4, 255-pound Kirk McMullen also played two years with the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe.

In 2003, he had 40 receptions for 316 yards and two touchdowns.

Cause and effect

Earlier in the season, Jeannette senior quarterback Payton Molter said he would donate $20 for every he touchdown he scored to Lisa Friscarella, a family friend and Jeannette graduate who is battling cancer.

Molter has helped the Jayhawks get into the end zone quite a few times, so his charitable gesture is adding up. But that is fine with Molter, who has accounted for 16 touchdowns — 10 passing, six rushing — for a total of $320.

“It’s something I wanted to do to help her,” said Molter, who works at Bella Terra Vineyards in Hunker. “That would probably be my entire paycheck over the summer, but it doesn’t matter. It’s about Lisa and seeing her get better. We’re all hoping for the best.”

In an unsolicited move that impressed Molter, the Westmoreland Sports Network announced it would match his total.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Greensburg C.C., Jeannette, Latrobe, Penn-Trafford, Southmoreland