Central Catholic runs by Canon-McMillan

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, October 19, 2018 | 10:18 PM

Junior quarterback Gus Sunseri rushed for 102 yards and a touchdown to lead Central Catholic to a 35-7 victory over Canon-McMillan on Friday night.

While Sunseri was leading the offensive attack, the defense held the Big Macs to just 158 offensive yards.

Sunseri got his first career start under center after an impressive three-touchdown performance in a Week 7 victory over Butler.

“We tried a little wildcat formation last week (against Butler), and we thought we would try it again this week,” said Sunseri about the decision to go with him instead of junior Dominic Pieto.

Sunseri is the younger cousin of former Central Catholic and Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri, who led the Vikings to a 2007 PIAA championship. Tino and Gino live together in the Fox Chapel area, and the elder Sunseri passed some lessons down to his younger cousin.

“He taught me to be tough,” Gino Sunseri said. “We would do these games where he would give me the ball, say ‘get past me five times onto the couch and we’ll watch a movie,’ and he would always let me get by four times and then stop me the fifth time. I said that I’m not giving it up anymore, and I eventually beat him.”

The first score came from an 18-yard jaunt from sophomore running back Kenneth Blake, who finished with 90 yards on 11 carries. He didn’t see a whole lot of action until classmate Eddy Tillman was ruled out in the second half for an undisclosed reason.

As Canon-McMillan began a drive midway through the second quarter, senior linebacker Anthony DiFolco picked off a Jon Quinque pass at the Vikings 7-yard line and returned it 93 yards unscathed for the first of two defensive scores.

Canon-McMillan was able to find a way to move the ball on the Central Catholic defense with short-to-medium range passes from Quinque to wideouts Blake Joseph and Drew Engel, culminating with a 5-yard passing score to Joseph with 11 seconds remaining in the first half.

Sunseri would score from 4 yards out to make the score 21-7 with 10 seconds to play in the third quarter, and on the next offensive play Blake Joseph coughed up a screen pass to give way for Jaishon Hawkins’s scoop-and-score to put the game out of reach at 28-7 at the end of three.

Johnny O’Rourke capped off an impressive second half by racing 18 yards for a score through the middle of a battered Canon-McMillan defense that saw many two-way players on the field for the majority of the game.

Central Catholic (7-2, 5-2) qualified for the playoffs for the 19 ^th straight season.

The Vikings host Mt. Lebanon next week in the season finale. Canon-McMillan (3-5, 2-5) takes on Butler on the road in a must-win Week 9 showdown. If the Big Macs win next week, they qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2008.

Brandon Rossi is a freelance writer.

Tags: Canon-McMillan, Central Catholic