Bishop Guilfoyle edges out Westinghouse in PIAA Class A struggle

By: Dave Mackall
Friday, November 21, 2025 | 11:48 PM

Westinghouse football coach Donta Green stood in a light rain and told his players how proud he and his fellow coaches were of a group that perhaps few believed in.

“But we believed in you. That’s why we’re the only ones still out here on the field with you guys,” Green said Friday night, his voice rising in the cold night air, near the Indiana/Westmoreland county border at River Valley High School’s Panther Stadium. “We’re going to plow through this and move on.”

The Westinghouse players then stood, some hugging, some sobbing as a compassionate Green looked on following a 7-6 loss to Bishop Guilfoyle Academy in a PIAA Class A quarterfinal.

“It might sound crazy, but I’m excited,” the Bulldogs coach later told reporters. “I’m excited to see the growth that’s going to happen from this moment. Every loss — since I’ve been here for the last seven years — every loss has propelled our program, and I’m hoping this one propels us to a place where we want to be.”

Green led the Bulldogs to back-to-back runners-up in the PIAA Class 2A playoffs in 2022 and ‘23.

“I’m actually excited to see how the guys respond.”

Defending PIAA Class A champion Bishop Guilfoyle Academy scored on its first possession on a 4-yard run by Jake Kissell, Carter Boland tacked on the extra point, and the Marauders, champions from District 6, held on to beat City League runner-up Westinghouse with a stout defense that extinguished several Bulldogs threats.

“It was a complete effort — coaches, players and for the fans to come out tonight,” Marauders coach Justin Wheeler said. “It’s an exciting win. I know we win a lot, but this was a big win against a really good football team.”

Bishop Guilfoyle Academy (11-2) advances to the semifinals next weekend against District 12 champion Belmont Charter, a 52-40 winner over District 2 champion Lackawanna Trail in the quarterfinals.

The game will be played either Friday or Saturday at a site to be determined.

Bishop Guilfoyle Academy used 7 minutes, 58 seconds to march 71 yards on 14 plays on its only scoring drive.

“We put in a new defense for this game, and there was confusion on the first drive,” Green said. “We were able to settle them down and make the proper adjustments from that point. We honestly felt they couldn’t do much to us. They had a couple of drives because they have good players. That’s what happens. You can’t really shut good players down. You just slow them down enough to get the ball back. That’s what I thought we did for most of the game. But we’ve just got to execute when we have opportunities.”

Bishop Guilfoyle Academy, which rolled past Westinghouse, 56-15, in last season’s quarterfinals, found the going quite a bit tougher this time around.

If not for some costly penalties, things may have turned out differently for the Bulldogs (7-5), who were blanked by University Prep, 26-0, in the District 8 City League championship game before blowing out District 5 champion Meyersdale, 44-0, in a District 5/8 subregional playoff game a week ago.

“This was a really good football team, and it took everything we had to get a win tonight,” Wheeler said. “And I told them we were going to need that. For these guys to get a win, when we knew (Westinghouse was) going to be ready for us this year — no one’s sneaking up on anyone — for our guys to put in that effort and shut down that offense in the second half, it was just an incredible win.”

With backup quarterback Omar Pack, who rushed for 128 yards on 19 carries, running the offense for a second straight week, Westinghouse answered Bishop Guilfoyle’s opening scoring drive with a touchdown of its own on the Bulldogs’ first possession.

K-Shawn Hawkins’ 6-yard run pulled Westinghouse within 7-6. But an unsportsmanlike conduct call prior to the conversion try moved the ball 15 yards further away from the goal line, and the Bulldogs were stopped well short on a 2-point run attempt.

Pack was subbing for regular starter Zahir Ismaeli because Green said Pack was “someone who could run the offense we (recently) adopted” in the wake of several injuries to the offensive line.

Penalties nullified Hawkins’ apparent 60-yard touchdown and stunted another Westinghouse opportunity to score from the 1-yard line, both in the third quarter.

After the ball was moved back to the Bishop Guilfoyle 6, Westinghouse managed to advance to the 1 again, only to have Wheeler’s son, also named Justin Wheeler, tackle Hawkins at the line of scrimmage while teammate Declan Peterson stripped the ball from the Bulldogs running back and recovered it to end the threat.

On top of it, Westinghouse was called for a facemask penalty.

“We have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot,” Green said. “We can’t make goofy mistakes. We can’t have goofy penalties. And we’ve got to coach better. We’ve got to prepare our guys. That’s what it comes down to.”

Tags: Westinghouse