No. 1 Gateway clobbers Franklin Regional in 1st-place showdown

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, October 5, 2018 | 11:03 PM

Previous Next

Previous Next

Brendan Majocha waited patiently for his shot to direct the Gateway football team.

Playing behind Brady Walker for the past three years, Majocha saw limited in mop-up roles during the season. He was a starter on defense.

Majocha put on quite a show Friday in leading WPIAL 5A No. 1 Gateway (7-0, 4-0) to a 66-3 rout of Franklin Regional in a Big East Conference first-place showdown. It surpasses the Panthers’ worst loss in the past 15 years — a 55-7 setback to Bethel Park in 2003.

Majocha rushed for 110 yards and three touchdowns on runs of 22, 17 and 16 yards. He also completed 9 of 13 passes for 246 yards and three scores.

He hit Courtney Jackson on touchdown passes of 73 and 26 yards. He also tossed an 18-yard scoring strike to Ethan Frenchik as Gateway built a 56-3 lead at halftime.

“Sometimes, you get on a roll,” Gateway coach Don Holl said. “We have some pretty good players, and we made a bunch of plays.”

But it was the 73-yard touchdown pass to Jackson that broke the game open.

Gateway was leading 14-3 and the Gators defense had just forced Franklin Regional (5-1, 3-1) to settle for a 33-yard field goal by Anthony DiFalco.

Facing a third-and-3 from the Gators 27, Majocha hit Jackson on a wide receiver screen and the senior made a couple of defenders miss and raced for the score.

“Their kids made some plays and took away some throws, but that was a shot to take against that kind of look,” Holl said. “It was a gamebreaker.”

Franklin Regional’s offense, other than the field-goal drive, couldn’t get started against the speed of the Gators.

“I didn’t see this coming,” Franklin Regional coach Greg Botta said. “They have tremendous athletes, and we didn’t match up well against them. Their speed was too much for us.

“We couldn’t move the ball, they had a great defensive gameplan and we kept shooting ourselves in the foot by getting sacked or penalties. We couldn’t control the ball.”

Gateway played like a team that is making reservation to be in Hershey again in December. The returning WPIAL champions lost in the state finals last season.

And Majocha is a big reason why they may return. The multi-talented quarterback, who also had an interception, was touch to stop.

“We definitely made a statement,” Majocha said. “We knew their defense was good, and our defense was good. We came out and did our job on all cylinders. I learned a lot from Brady, and the guys make it very easy to run this offense.”

Holl said Majocha makes things go because he’s a smart quarterback.

“He’s getting better and better,” Holl said. “He’s really smart and very athletic. No matter what you do, if you have a smart, athletic quarterback you have a chance. He’s figured out what we’ve trying to do. He might be a step ahead of us in play calling.”

Gateway outgained Franklin Regional, 559-167

Botta said he couldn’t duplicate Gateway’s speed in practice.

“I thought we’d give them a test,” Botta said, “and it was embarrassing.”

Paul Schofield is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paul at pschofield@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Schofield_Trib.

Tags: Franklin Regional, Gateway