Determined Penn Hills overcomes adversity in WPIAL playoffs

By: Josh Rizzo
Sunday, November 14, 2021 | 11:01 AM

Weathering early adversity isn’t something Julian Dugger allows to linger in his mind during football games.

The Penn Hills sophomore quarterback knows the Indians have the tools to make adjustments in-game. Three early turnovers against Franklin Regional in the Indians’ 38-6 WPIAL Class 5A first-round win Nov. 5 at Yuhas-McGinley Stadium didn’t sink the Indians.

“We look at the tablets and see what their defense is doing and change what we were doing on offense to beat what they are doing,” Dugger said.

Being able to continue to find new ways to attack opponents will be vital as Penn Hills tries to advance in the playoffs. The Indians had their hands full in their quarterfinal matchup against rival Gateway. The results of that game were too late for this edition.

The Gators have been a major thorn in Penn Hills’ side the past two seasons.

Gateway, which beat the Indians, 41-13, in the regular season, also knocked Penn Hills out of the playoffs in the past two seasons. The Gators beat Penn Hills, 14-0, in the quarterfinals last season.

Indians coach Jon LeDonne said both teams are different from when they met earlier in the season. What Penn Hills needed to focus on was protecting the ball.

“There were a couple turnovers in the first half (against Franklin Regional) that hurt us a little bit,” LeDonne said. “

Dugger, who passed for 185 yards and four touchdowns against Franklin Regional, says the Indians learned a valuable lesson in the first round.

“It shows us nothing is going to be easy,” Dugger said. “All of them are going to be a dogfight if we want to go further. We learned how to fight.”

Amir Key helped turn around the Penn Hills offense late in the first half. Key, who had lost a fumble early in the game, broke free for a 69-yard run on third-and-3 that set the Indians up at the Franklin Regional 20.

Dugger then found his brother Jaden for a 20-yard touchdown pass that allowed the Indians to take a 14-0 lead into halftime.

Penn Hills, which started the drive at its own 4-yard line, was trying initially to run out the clock for the first half.

“We wanted one first down at first,” Dugger said. “Amir Key is a special kid, and he broke out to put us in position to score before half.”

While Penn Hills never trailed against Franklin Regional because of its excellent defense, the Indians knew they would need a more energized performance to keep moving on.

What the Indians know is they have the mentality to keep pushing forward under duress.

“We never got down on ourselves,” Julian Dugger said. “We went in at half, watched some film and saw what we had to do better. We executed better in the second half.”

Tags: Penn Hills