Penn-Trafford shuts down opponents at WCCA 7-on-7 tourney

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Thursday, July 17, 2025 | 6:22 PM

Purchase Photo Options

Purchase Photo Options

Purchase Photo Options

Purchase Photo Options

Previous Next

Quarterbacks and wide receivers often get the lion’s share of the limelight in 7-on-7 football tournaments. It is the touchdown passes and highlight catches that get the clicks.

But Penn-Trafford leaned on its lock-down defensive backs to disrupt opponents Thursday and win another county title in repeat and record-setting fashion.

Penn-Trafford allowed only three touchdowns in six games and rolled to a second straight title — its seventh in 14 years — at the Westmoreland County Larry Sellitto Memorial 7-on-7 Championship at Hempfield, a first-time host site.

The Warriors finished 6-0, outscoring teams 166-24 and topping a surprise finalist, Hempfield’s “B” team, 28-6 in the championship on the turf at Spartan Stadium.

Penn-Trafford posted two shutouts and allowed one point in another game. The 28 points and 22-point margin of victory in the final are WCCA records.

The Warriors know running routes in T-shirts and shorts is a far cry from the contact and intensity of Friday nights in the fall, but their performance showed their timing is sharp on both sides of the ball.

“Our defense was lights out,” Warriors coach John Ruane said. “We scored on most of our possessions, and I was happy to get a lot of guys reps. We had 25 here, and 25 played. There were no weak spots.”

Senior Nate Desmond shared snaps at quarterback with sophomore Cody Yacamelli and threw four scoring passes in the title game: to junior Ben Grabowski, senior Reese Radocay, senior Tyler Boss and junior Will Sarsfield.

Sarsfield made a sliding grab over the middle in the end zone for the exclamation point on a dominant afternoon.

Junior Nick Ponko caught two conversion passes in the final and added an interception earlier in the day.

“Ponko was probably the player of the day,” Ruane said.

Said Ponko: “We lost a lot of good guys last year, so we weren’t sure how we’d do. Our guys really stepped it up.”

Hempfield B went 4-1 and won Pool B, playing with mostly backups to starters on the Spartans’ “A” team, which matched that record and finished third in Pool A, scoring the second-most points with 109.

The Spartans made the final via a point-differential tiebreaker after Norwin and Greensburg Central Catholic tied them for the top spot in Pool B at 4-1.

A Hempfield team had not reached the WCCA finals since 2017 when the Spartans won back-to-back titles.

“We set a goal as a team that we wanted to play in the championship since we were playing at home,” Hempfield coach Nick Keefer said. “We have a number of good leaders, and some of them are on our B team. To get to compete with a great P-T team was nice for our guys.”

Junior quarterback Carden Lippmann led the Spartans’ backup squad. He threw a touchdown pass to junior newcomer Xavier Smith in the final. Smith, a transfer from Palmyra, is expected to have a big impact this fall.

“Carden is a cool situation because he took first-team reps last year when we didn’t have (senior starter) Dom Detruf,” Keefer said. “I am proud of him.”

Kiski Area also went 5-0 in Pool A, but Penn-Trafford easily won the tiebreaker with a 68-point difference.

Penn-Trafford started the day with a 31-14 win over Hempfield’s main team, then dumped Mt. Pleasant (23-3), Valley (22-1), Belle Vernon (24-0), and Yough (38-0).

Penn-Trafford has made the finals 11 times since the event began in 2011.

“We worked toward this one,” Desmond said. “I was able to throw the ball to a bunch of guys. A couple of times, I was a little late, but they still made catches.”

Greensburg Central Catholic was primed for a push to the finals after wins over two 5A teams and a 6A team: Latrobe (18-15), Franklin Regional (15-12) and Norwin (21-15).

Sophomore Bobby Smithnosky played quarterback, and seniors Samir Crosby and Jerry Davis were key targets. Crosby is moving from quarterback to wideout.

“We played well and did some good things,” GCC coach John Thompson said. “Our first game hurt us.”

GCC opened with a 14-10 loss to Hempfield B.

“We should have won that one,” Crosby said.

Four new coaches led their teams in the tournament: Colyn Haugh (Kiski Area), Scott Bryer (Belle Vernon), Tom McIntyre (Latrobe) and Dustin Shoaf (Southmoreland).

“I was happy with how we competed,” Haugh said. “We handled some early adversity, made the necessary adjustments and all together had a successful outing. Our goal each game was to line up and communicate and let the rest handle itself. I thought we did that. There’s a lot to learn from today.”

Southmoreland beat Jeannette, 22-8. Shoaf was an assistant at Jeannette last season.

Keefer said the play of his B team should motivate the A personnel.

“We have the same expectations for everybody,” the coach said. “P-T just made more plays than us in the (final game).”

Normally, the tournament is played at Latrobe, but Rossi Field and the baseball and softball venues at Graham-Sobota Field there are getting returfed, so the school could not host this year.

Hempfield used Spartan Stadium and a junior varsity baseball outfield, muddied by heavy overnight rain, for the 41-game event featuring 16 county teams.

Hempfield used its LED scoreboard to post a schedule and updated standings throughout the day.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.