Big 2nd quarter sparks Penn Hills over Penn-Trafford in WPIAL Class 5A playoffs

By: Dave Mackall
Friday, November 3, 2023 | 11:18 PM

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They played Thunderstruck, among AC/DC’s most powerful anthems, after another lightning strike by the Penn Hills offense early in the fourth quarter Friday night of the Indians’ 63-28 rout of Penn-Trafford in a WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinal football game at Yuhas McGinley Stadium.

It was strike after strike as No. 2 Penn Hills easily advanced to the semifinals Friday against No. 3 Pine-Richland.

Julian Dugger threw four touchdown passes — two each to Cameron Thomas and Martel Palmer — to lead Penn Hills (9-2), which scored four second-quarter touchdowns to pull away after a seven-point lead.

No. 7 Penn-Trafford (5-6) was guilty of committing five turnovers, four of which led to Penn Hills scores.

“Honestly, if you watched the way the game went, it wasn’t really lopsided,” Penn Hills coach Charles Morris Jr. said. “There were a few turnovers here and there that kind of changed the game. Those guys (Penn-Trafford) executed, offensively. We’ve got some things we’ve got to tidy up on the defensive side of the football. We just came out on the winning end with the turnovers.”

Dugger threw touchdown passes of 25 and 57 yards to Thomas and 12 and 57 yards to Palmer and also scored on an 18-yard scramble on a broken play in the second quarter for Penn Hills.

“They are fast,” Penn-Trafford coach John Ruane said. “The fastest team we’ve seen all year, that’s for sure. And they made plays and created a lot of opportunities. We turned the ball over a ton, and they took advantage of every single one of them.”

Every Penn Hills possession resulted in a touchdown, and, in a bizarre twist, neither team punted.

While Dugger, a Pitt recruit, maximized his measly seven pass attempts by completing six for 171 yards and no interceptions, Penn-Trafford quarterback Jonny Lovre connected on 10 of 16 attempts for 146 yards but threw three interceptions.

The Warriors boasted two 100-yard rushers — Tasso Whipple, with 115, and Ben Grabowski, with 114.

“We played OK for a little bit in spurts,” Ruane said. “But you turn the football over against a team like that, and you’re going to pay. They made us dearly pay for turning the football over. Kudos to them. They had a great game plan. I didn’t have ourselves ready to play.”

Morris praised his coaching staff and players for their work leading up to the game, conceding his concern for Penn-Trafford’s abilities.

“Our preparation was great,” Morris said. “We watched hours and hours and hours of film. We spent a lot of hours preparing. It’s a testament to our coaching staff and our kids’ will. We push them and talk about adversity and how to respond in a positive manner. We talk about just clicking and staying focused on what we can control. That’s been our message all year.”

Penn Hills scored twice in the first quarter and erupted for four touchdowns in the second to enjoy a 42-14 halftime lead.

Amir Key got things started for the Indians just 4 minutes into the game, scoring on a 5-yard run, and Thomas caught a 25-yard pass from Dugger with 1:07 to go for a 14-0 lead.

After Whipple scored on the first of his two 1-yard runs for Penn-Trafford to cut the Penn Hills lead in half, Dugger’s 18-yard run on a broken play put the Indians ahead, 21-7.

Penn-Trafford kept it close on Whipple’s second 1-yarder with 6:24 left in the second to pull the Warriors within 21-14.

But Penn Hills capitalized on turnovers, scoring three unanswered touchdowns before the first half had ended.

Malik McCloud took an onside kickoff 51 yards to the end zone, Palmer outran the Penn-Trafford defense and caught a 12-yard pass from Dugger and Key raced 8 yards for yet another score to provide Penn Hills with its 27-point advantage at the break.

“That’s all there is to it,” Ruane said. “Penn Hills is better than us. But I’m not disparaging anything effort-wise with our kids. They played hard for the entire 48 minutes.”

Penn Hills had two apparent touchdowns nullified by penalties and came back both times to score.

Dugger’s 57-yard touchdown pass to Thomas at the 8:58 mark of the third quarter increased Penn Hills’ lead to 49-14 and set off a celebration in the Penn Hills end zone as Thunderstuck blared through the stadium speakers.

“Julian did a great job,” Morris said, “along with Cam Thomas, Martel Palmer and a couple others.”

Whipple’s third touchdown run — a 2-yarder with 1:45 left on a running clock in the third — gave Penn-Trafford its third touchdown, but it was too late.

Martel Palmer caught a 57-yard pass from Dugger early in the fourth to increase the Indians’ lead to 56-21 before Penn Hills thwarted another Penn-Trafford drive as Thomas recovered a fumble at the Warriors 12 and raced untouched 88 yards for Penn Hills’ final touchdown.

Lovre’s 20-yard touchdown pass to Nick Reiff with 1:21 to go for Penn-Trafford rounded out the scoring.

Despite the one-sided outcome in favor of Penn Hills, Morris didn’t discount Penn-Trafford’s presence. The Warriors are just two years removed from WPIAL and PIAA Class 5A championships in 2021.

“Nothing but respect for coach Ruane,” Morris said. “He’s a heck of a coach. I knew it was going to take all of our preparation and execution to even have a chance to beat these guys.”

Tags: Penn Hills, Penn-Trafford