Charleroi outlasts McGuffey in shootout between Class 2A contenders
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Saturday, October 13, 2018 | 12:24 AM
McGuffey entered Myron Pottios Stadium Friday night with an unblemished record atop the Class 2A Interstate Conference.
But Charleroi’s stadium, affectionately known as “The Pot” tends to brew up some home cookin’ for the Cougars.
Friday night was no different.
The two conference heavyweights went toe-to-toe throughout the game, but it was Charleroi pulling away in the fourth quarter for a 46-33 win, putting itself right back in the hunt for a conference title.
The two teams combined for 842 yards of total offense in the contest.
Charleroi quarterback Geno Pellegrini accounted for 301 of the Cougars’ 464 yards. The Robert Morris commit finished with five touchdowns, four through the air as he completed 11 of 20 passes for 200 yards. He ran for 101 yards on 10 carries with a 17-yard touchdown.
Lance Getsy’s Cougars threw a curveball at the Highlanders’ defense, coming out in a five-wide set with four receivers on one side.
“We knew if we came out it that, we were going to force them to make adjustments,” Getsy said. “They had to change up to an even front, something I haven’t seen them do all season long.”
Pellegrini admitted to licking his chops when the coaching staff put in the offensive scheme for the week.
“It was a whole new offense for us that we started this week,” Pellegrini said. “We knew they weren’t going to be able to stop it.”
The Highlanders opened the scoring converting a fourth-and-1. It was quarterback Marshall Whipkey rolling to his right and hitting Christian Clutter for a 30-yard catch-and-run touchdown. Charleroi’s John Vargo blocked the point after to make it 6-0.
The Cougars answered right back and carried a 7-6 lead at the end of the first quarter when Pellegrini hooked up with Legend Davis on a 12-yard touchdown. It was the first of three scoring connections for the pair.
“All those guys are playmakers,” Pellegrini said of his offensive arsenal. “I’m comfortable throwing to all of them out there.”
The Cougars’ defense stood tall, sacking Marshall Whipkey on a fourth-and-3 to get the ball back to their offense.
“Any time your offense puts up points the way ours does, you want to get the ball back to them as much as possible,” Charleroi defensive tackle Colton Kisner said. “We got each other’s backs out here.”
The Cougars capped off a 64-yard drive with big chunks of offense. Plays measuring 14, 15 and 15, helped lead to Pellegrini’s 17-yard run to make it 14-6.
Clutter answered back with a 39-yard run, the second of his four touchdowns on the night. He finished with a pair of touchdown catches and two rushing scores to go along with 145 yards on the ground. McKinley Whipkey’s two-point conversion was good to tie things at 14-14.
“Christian is Christian,” McGuffey coach Ed Dalton said. “I’m not sure they really had any answers to our offense, but a few mistakes here and there and that was it.
“Our biggest problem was you can’t go out there and give up 50-yard plays.”
Pellegrini and Davis hooked up again from 4 yards out to push the score to 20-14 heading into halftime.
Fresh out of the break, Charleroi drove deep into McGuffey territory again. The Highlanders forced a fourth-and-19 from their own 24.
Pellegrini dropped back and hit Romantino around the 13-yard line, well short of the first down. The senior receiver was able to escape a tackle, spin off another and get outside to find the end zone. Joey Caruso’s PAT made it 27-14.
“He’s a playmaker, man,” Getsy said with a smile on his face. “That was a huge play. We have a lot of guys like that we can run out there. It was probably the biggest play of the game.”
Marshall Whipkey answered with an 8-yard run for the Highlanders before Pellegrini found Davis for a 20-yard scoring strike making it 32-21 at the end of the third quarter.
The Highlanders made it 32-27 one play into the fourth quarter on a 1-yard Clutter run.
The McGuffey defense got the big play they were looking for when Jake Garrety stepped in front of a Pellegrini pass at the McGuffey 31.
With McGuffey having the opportunity to take the lead with another score, the Cougars’ defense made their big play as Hunter Perry stripped McKinley Whipkey and recovered the fumble at the Cougars’ 28.
“It was just overcoming adversity,” Getsy said. “Our defense in the second half was more of a bend but don’t break thing. But we faced the adversity knowing they could take the lead and our defense made the play it needed to.”
After the fumble recovery, Brayden Mihalcin — who finished with 150 yards on 15 carries — scored on a 5-yard run to make it 39-27.
Mihalcin later added a 1-yard TD after McGuffey failed on a fourth-down play to make it 46-27.
Clutter scored on a 16-yard touchdown pass with 2 seconds remaining for the final score.
“You know, these are the games I play football for,” Pellegrini said. “Every Friday, I sit in school all day, knowing it’s game day. We’re right where we want to be in the championship hunt. We have Brownsville next week, and we’re going to go in there and treat it like a playoff game.”
Getsy said his team did OK against the McGuffey option offense.
“Their offense is a lot for the kids to take in,” Getsy said. “I was confident the way we read the keys and held their assignments.
“They already told me they want a harder practice next week, though. That’s the type of team we have. It’s a great bunch.”
The Cougars travel to Brownsville next week, while the Highlanders host Avonworth in a nonconference matchup.
Jeremy Sellew is a Mon Valley Independent staff writer.
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