Freeport, East Allegheny battle for upper hand in Allegheny 6

By: George Guido
Wednesday, October 5, 2022 | 7:20 PM

Purchase Photo Options

Veteran East Allegheny coach Dom Pecora is happy about his team’s 5-1 start.

And he feels his team might be ahead of schedule.

“The surprising thing is, we might be a year early,” Pecora said. “We’re a junior-heavy team. We’ve definitely exceeded expectations so far.”

The Wildcats will get a big test Friday when they visit Freeport (5-1) in a game that could decide the Allegheny 6 Conference champion.

“It’s a great start, but there’s a long way to go,” Pecora added. “This conference is really good, really deep.”

Both teams won their conference openers last week: Freeport over Shady Side Academy and East Allegheny over Valley. The only losses for both teams have been to top-notch contenders: Freeport fell to Class 4A Armstrong, and East Allegheny was defeated by Elizabeth Forward, the No. 1 team in this week’s TribHSSN Class 3A rankings.

Freeport is ranked fourth in Class 3A, East Allegheny fifth.

“We’re really pleased with our start,” Yellowjackets coach John Gaillot said. “We’re getting some of our injured players back. We’re starting to jell pretty well. We have a big task for the final four games of our schedule. It’s going to be extremely difficult starting this week.”

Bolstering Freeport’s chances for its 15th conference title in school history and the first since 2015 is the play of Gavin Croney, who has played multiple positions, including quarterback.

“We’re moving the ball well, and we’re starting to figure out what we need to put it all together,” Croney said. “I split out wide when Ben Lane is in the wildcat (formation). It’s easy to play different positions because in my junior and sophomore years, I got to look at what our offense was like.”

Croney scored on a 30-yard interception return last week to provide the difference in Freeport’s 12-7 win over the Bulldogs.

Brady Stivenson usually lines up as a receiver but threw an 89-yard option pass to Brady Sullivan to get the Yellowjackets on the scoreboard.

Junior Colton Otterman is coming back from a strained ACL. Senior linebacker Jacksen Reiser, thought to be out for the season with a knee injury, returned last week against Shady Side and made eight tackles.

East Allegheny, seeking its first conference title since 2000, is also missing key players. Kam Marshall has been out with an injury and has an outside chance of returning late in the year. Steve Robbins, however, suffered a torn ACL over the summer and appears to be out for the season.

Pecora is happy with the play of junior quarterback Mike Cahill, who was an all-conference receiver last season. The Wildcats are benefiting from the move of senior Tre Jeter from tight end to running back.

Croney has 504 passing yards and 210 rushing yards. Lane has 383 rushing yards and 14 receptions for 101 yards.

Gaillot has an 85-56 record (.603) with the Yellowjackets, and Pecora is 53-43 (.552) with East Allegheny.

Series history

East Allegheny has a slight 6-5-1 lead over Freeport in the all-time series that dates to 1988. Here is how the last five games have gone:

2021: Freeport 17, East Allegheny 7

2013: East Allegheny 38, Freeport 14

2012: Freeport 36, East Allegheny 20

1996: Freeport 21, East Allegheny 7*

1995: East Allegheny 12, Freeport 0

*playoff game

Tags: East Allegheny, Freeport