Belle Vernon dominates East Allegheny in WPIAL playoffs

By: Jeremy Sellew
Friday, November 11, 2022 | 11:01 PM

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All the talk this week was red wave or blue wave. But all No. 9 East Allegheny saw was a green wave on “The Beach” at James Weir Stadium.

Top-seeded Belle Vernon spotted the Wildcats (8-4) a lead before exploding for 55 unanswered to roll into the WPIAL semifinals with a 55-7 win.

In a soggy game that was more like a beach swallowed by high tide, the Leopards turned to their rushing attack and churned out 369 yards on the ground, led by five-star recruit Quinton Martin.

Martin carried the ball a season-high 18 times for 204 yards and four touchdowns — all in the first half.

“We knew with the weather, we weren’t even going to be able to do much in our passing and screen game,” BVA coach Matt Humbert said. “We even increased our wildcat package a bit, and I thought it was really effective.”

The Leopards turned it over on the opening drive with a Jake Gedekoh fumble but immediately got the ball back on an Anthony Crews interception of EA quarterback Michael Cahill.

But after a Leopards punt, the Wildcats hit the big play with a conversion on third-and-30, a 74-yard completion on a slant from Cahill to Brennen Rutledge. Rutledge was chased down by Martin at the BVA 2 before Cahill called his own number from 5 yards for the opening score.

“He better of chased him down there,” Humbert said of Martin’s hustle play. “But it just shows that second gear that we’ve been seeing from him the past few games. That was a leadership play.”

The Wildcats enjoyed their lead for just over a minute as Martin carried three times for 43 yards, ending with a 25-yard touchdown run.

After a bad EA punt, it was Gedekoh’s turn, carrying the ball five straight times and scoring on a 4-yard run to give the Leopards (8-2) a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

“Jake is the type of kid I don’t have to worry about ‘is he going to be OK’ after fumbling the ball,” Humbert said. “Usually he doesn’t switch the ball in his hands much, and he was doing it all over the place early. He ran strong for us the rest of the game.”

Gedekoh finished with 55 yards on eight carries in a half of action.

The Wildcats offense was nowhere to be found the rest of the night, as Martin continued racking up numbers and touchdowns. He ripped off a 62-yard run before his 2-yard touchdown that made it 21-7.

After Colton Lee recovered a fumble deep in EA territory, Martin scored from 1 yard to make it 27-7.

Another fumble on an exchange from Cahill to Kam Marshall was recovered by Leopards defensive lineman Steve Macheska. Five straight runs from Martin out of the wildcat ended with a 10-yard touchdown. Gedekoh added a 2-point conversion to make it 35-7.

“I think Q is feeling really good,” Humbert said. “We saw it in the EF game a couple of weeks ago: He’s just finding that extra burst. He really pulled that out when he hit the hole a few times today.”

Macheska added a sack of Cahill to force another Wildcat punt from their own end zone, and this time the BVA special teams got into the act.

A dominant push by Braden Laux allowed Dom Sasko to get a hand on Cahill’s punt. Macheska fell on it for another touchdown and gave the Leopards a 42-7 lead at the half.

With the running clock rolling in the second half, Belle Vernon added two more scores: a Tanner Steeber 15-yard run from the QB position and Kole Doppelheuer’s 34-yard sprint to the end zone.

“I can see why that team won eight games,” Humbert said. “The weather was an issue, but (Cahill) is shifty back there and we had a hard time bringing him down. They were bigger than they looked on film, and they had some athletes.”

Cahill finished with 10 carries for 39 yards. As a team, the Wildcats rushed for 74 yards and had 76 yards through the air.

With the win, the Leopards advance to play No. 4 Freeport (10-1) in the semifinals next week at a site to be determined.

“We’ve seen them on film a couple times because of crossover games,” Humbert said. “They’re similar to what we saw here and last week. Spread, some RPOs and screens. They’re going to be physical. We’ll prepare as we always do, though, and break them down.”

Tags: Belle Vernon, East Allegheny