Gateway Holds Off Penn-Trafford Rally To Claim WPIAL Class 5A Title

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, November 19, 2017 | 1:40 AM

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By Bill Beckner for TribLive.com

Derrick Davis said he didn’t try to do anything special in the WPIAL Class 5A football championship.

Imagine if he had.

The Gateway freshman put on a show on a big stage, intercepting two passes, including one to squash a pulsating final drive for Penn-Trafford, as the Gators bettered the rival Warriors, 21-16, for their first title since 1986.

Davis, who already has a scholarship offer from Pitt, also had a key sack on the Warriors’ final drive Saturday night at rain-drenched Heinz Field.

“He’s a grown little man,” Gateway quarterback Brady Walker said. “He’s going to be a star, and he’s going to go wherever he wants. He’s killing it.”

Second-seeded Gateway (12-1) held off a fourth-quarter surge by Penn-Trafford (11-2), which cut a 21-7 deficit to five points when John Gay IV scored on a 2-yard run with 5 minutes, 18 seconds to go.

Gateway turned it over on downs on the next drive and Penn-Trafford took over with 1:02 left at its own 36. But Davis sacked quarterback Cam Laffoon, then picked off a pass with 18 seconds left to seal it.

“Man was he all over the field,” Penn-Trafford coach John Ruane said. “He made tons of plays. It’s frightening that this kid’s a freshman. Things we thought would be open, somehow he came out of nowhere and picked them up.”

Ruane is a business teacher at Gateway and was making his sixth finals appearances, including four with Gateway as an assistant.

“I’m not real happy with Derrick and I am going to tell him that Monday in school,” the coach joked.

Davis, inserted into the lineup recently because of an injury, also scored a touchdown and rushed for 59 yards.

“He’s young, is he ready? We were going to find out,” Gateway coach Don Holl said. “We added more to his plate every week. We’re not surprised. He has been a critical part of our run.”

Davis capped an early third-quarter drive by plowing in from the 7 to push the Gators’ advantage to 21-7.

“I just went out and played my game and kept my composure,” said Davis, who also had nine catches for 49 yards. “Nothing special, just do what I can.”

Penn-Trafford was seeking its first WPIAL title. It also had title-game losses in 1997 and 2015.

Walker threw for 203 yards, completing 24 of 33 attempts, and ran for 52 yards.

“We knew we needed to throw the ball and run it well,” Walker said. “That’s what we did.”

Gay rushed for 53 yards and a touchdown for the Warriors, who shut out Gateway, 28-0, on Sept. 29.

Defensive adjustments made all the difference as the Gators chased Laffoon around and limited the Warriors offensively. Penn-Trafford had 40 yards at halftime and 97 for the game.

Laffoon was 6 of 18 for 78 yards.

“When it’s bad you learn a lot more from a loss than a win,” Holl said. “We felt like we got away from our identity. We changed into a different defense because of some of their strengths. This time we got back to who we are. Let’s play Gateway football and Gateway defense. I think our guys really were up the task.”

Another Penn-Trafford drive stalled when Laffoon was hit by Canaan Cleveland and he fumbled. Tui Faumuina-Brown recovered with 11:55 to go. The Warriors had just converted a fourth and 10.

The Warriors caught a break on the ensuing drive when a penalty forced Walker to punt from his own 17. A bad snap bounced out of the end zone for a safety and it was 21-9 with 8:50 remaining.

Penn-Trafford still had life with 5:18 remaining. Laffoon ran for 25 yards on fourth and 6 to set up Gay’s 9-yard score, the senior back dashing left and hurdling a defender before crossing the goal line.

Last week in the semifinals, McKeesport used a hook-and-lateral late to threaten Gateway’s lead. The Gators though, held on to win 28-21.

“All you can do is line up again and say, let’s get a stop,” Holl said. “We needed a stop … it was a pick that made it even cleaner.”

After a scoreless first quarter that saw dropped passes by Gateway and bad snaps by Penn-Trafford become troublesome, Gateway took a 7-0 lead with 9:30 left in the second.

A nifty fake and give to Jeremiah Josephs kept a drive going, and Walker ran in from 10 yards for a touchdown.

The Warriors answered immediately, in two plays. Laffoon took off for a 57-yard gain before Gay ran in from the 2 to make it 7-7.

Penn-Trafford had a sluggish first half, totaling just 40 yards (5 passing). The Warriors could not turn an interception by Matt Willkie and a fumble recovery by Laffoon into points and faced a pair of fourth-and-20-somethings.

“We did not play our best game by any stretch,” Ruane said. “As the game went on and we got a little more urgent, we started to make some plays. We gave ourselves a shot at the end and that’s all you can ask for. I have seen a lot of games down here that go right down to the wire. …We were in position to do it, but unfortunately we didn’t get the last break.”

After an odd sequence where Gateway intercepted a pass, fumbled and recovered, it went ahead 14-7. After the Gators converted a fourth down, Walker ran for 15 yards before floating a lob pass to Courtney Jackson for a 7-yard score with 4:24 left in the quarter.

A sack flattened a Warriors’ drive late in the half and also took them out of field goal range.

“What killed us early on was the two snaps,” Ruane said. “It was second and unmakeable against a secondary like Gateway’s. I thought our defense was really good, but our offense had zero rhythm in the first half.”

Gateway moves on to its first PIAA playoff game, next Friday or Saturday against Hollidaysburg (9-3).

Holl said it was fitting to win in the year legendary Pete Antimarino died, as a nod of respect to the former coach.

Antimarino was the coach of the Gators in 1986. He was 255-93-13 and won five WPIAL titles.

“His name is intertwined with our program,” Holl said. “Being a non-Gateway guy, I wanted to build our staff with Gateway guys. We have a lot of those guys who bleed black and gold.”

Tags: Gateway