North Allegheny preaches consistency, mental toughness after semifinal loss

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, November 15, 2018 | 9:21 PM

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North Allegheny senior linebacker Dante Caputo knew Seneca Valley’s football team wasn’t going to be a pushover. In the first meeting between the teams, the Tigers squeaked past the Raiders with a four-point win.

“I knew what they were capable of,” Caputo said. “Coming into the playoffs, I looked back to two years ago when they upset us in the semifinals. I was a little nervous, I’m not going to lie, something felt off. We had an off-week with the bye, we hadn’t played football in two weeks. We didn’t have our normal focus.”

The motivated Raiders found their offensive stride and buried top-seeded North Allegheny with a 31-14 win in the WPIAL Class 6A semifinals Nov. 9. Losing put an end to what had been a strong season for the Tigers.

North Allegheny (10-1) finished undefeated in the regular season for the first time since winning the PIAA Class AAA championship in 2012. Tigers coach Art Walker felt North Allegheny had turned in a strong performance in its season finale against Pine-Richland.

Using 20 fourth-quarter points, North Allegheny wrapped up the Class 6A conference crown with a 27-7 win.

“We played our best game the two weeks before that,” Walker said about the playoff game against Seneca Valley. “For us, it was frustrating we weren’t able to put our best foot forward and make it more of a battle. That’s why you play.”

When it came to defense, this Tigers’ squad made every opponent sweat. North Allegheny ranked second in Class 6A in scoring defense — behind Seneca Valley — by limiting its opponents to 14.1 points per contest.

A ferocious pass rush produced 36.5 sacks, led by eight from linebacker Amosis Porter. Tyler Mangone (5.5), Cade Hoke (five), Ethan Augustine (five) and Liam Alker-Connelly (five) also produced five or more.

Finding success was all about being in the right mindset. Caputo said the expectations were high with what North Allegheny had returning.

“We knew what we were capable of doing,” said Caputo, who finished with two sacks and 43 tackles. “We knew what we needed to do, stop the run game and stop the passing game. We went out and played to our full potential.”

The Tigers were able to find key contributors on offense, as well. Senior Ben Maenza stepped into the starting running back role and racked up 1,073 yards and scored 17 touchdowns. Ben Petschke started at quarterback as a junior, passed for 664 yards and will carry that experience forward.

North Allegheny would like to learn from this season and find a way back to the WPIAL finals next year.

“We have to get better,” Walker said. “Not only do we have to get better, if we want to turn the corner it has to be a consistent improvement and a consistent mindset every week. You can’t take a week off, there are so many things you have to do to get to a championship. Every week and practice are important. There has to be a mentality each and every week. It has to be renewed. You can’t look past anybody. There has to be an unbelievable amount of mental toughness.”

Josh Rizzo is a freelance writer.

Tags: North Allegheny