Penn Hills wins conference title, rivalry trophy to head into playoffs with momentum

By: Josh Rizzo
Sunday, November 5, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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The Penn Hills football team was crowned “King of the Hills’ by beating Woodland Hills to end the regular season. The winner of the game being awarded a trophy caught Indians coach Charles Morris off guard.

It wasn’t the trophy Penn Hills was ultimately after, but the Indians were happy to celebrate another win heading into the playoffs.

“Honestly, I didn’t know,” Morris said. “I knew about the Marines’ rivalry thing, but I wasn’t aware of the King of the Hill thing. It added some spice to the rivalry between two passionate coaches and two similar programs that play hard. It’s kind of like Steelers-Ravens. These are always tough games.”

Penn Hills, the No. 2 seed, was scheduled to open the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs against No. 7 Penn-Trafford on Nov. 3 at home. Results from that game were too late for this edition.

The Indians hope to rely on a well-rounded team to win their first district crown since capturing the WPIAL and PIAA championships during the 2018 season. Penn Hills has Pitt commit Julian Dugger under center. He has passed for more than 1,000 yards this season. Dugger is surrounded on offense by wide receivers Martel Palmer and Cam Thomas, along with running back Amir Key.

Many of those players played key roles in Penn Hills’ run to the WPIAL semifinals during the 2021 season.

“Hopefully, they can bring the composure and experience,” Morris said about Penn Hills’ seniors. “There are a lot of players who haven’t had that playoff experience. For the older kids, we want them to keep the younger guys calm. When you are overly excited, you tend to make mistakes. We want them to lean on their experience and composure to take things one play at a time.”

Penn Hills showed it could handle the back-and-forth swings in the 26-21 win over Woodland Hills.

Much like last season, the rivalry game decided the fate of each team’s season. The Indians won this year’s version, 26-21. Woodland Hills ended up missing out on the playoffs while Penn Hills (8-2, 5-0) finished as Northeast Conference champions.

The Wolverines beat Penn Hills, 7-3, in the season finale last year, keeping the Indians out of the playoffs.

“Our kids were excited because they beat the team that caused them to miss out on the playoffs last year,” Morris said. “But for us coaches, they were just the next team on the schedule, and we’re trying to take things week by week. We wanted to finish the season strong and accomplish one of our goals by being conference champions.”

After picking up rivalry trophies and conference titles, Morris was excited to lead his alma mater into the WPIAL playoffs for the first time as head coach. The goal is for everyone to be cool about returning in the postseason.

“We don’t need anyone to try and be the hero,” Morris said. “We need people to focus on doing their job and executing. Trust what you are being taught is real.”

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