Plum aims to snap lengthy losing skid against rival Gateway

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, September 3, 2025 | 5:22 PM

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The Gateway and Plum football teams have played 13 times over the past 23 years, with the Gators winning each game.

A couple of the matchups have gone down to the wire, including last year when Gateway scored a late touchdown to rally for a 22-15 victory.

The Mustangs, who broke a seven-game losing streak to rival Franklin Regional with a win in Week Zero, hope to do it again Friday when they make the quick jaunt to Monroeville and Gateway’s Antimarino Stadium to face a winless Gators team coming off tough losses to a pair of Class 6A powers.

“It would be nice to end this streak as well,” said Plum coach Matt Morgan, who saw his team fall to Latrobe last week in a wild 42-35 game that needed three overtimes to complete.

“We have to practice well all week. We didn’t have two good days of practice last week, and that was a big factor as to why we didn’t play to our potential against Latrobe. We hope to get a lot of enthusiasm out of them each day and be ready to go Friday.”

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Gateway holds a 28-9-1 lead in the all-time series. The last Plum win over the Gators was a 34-7 triumph in 2001.

Gateway got right in the 2023 game at Plum. After three nonconference losses to start the season, the Gators had a well-rounded effort led by quarterback Brad Birch and running back Jaquon Reynolds in a 49-14 victory.

The year before at Gateway, the Gators held a 28-7 lead at halftime only to see the Mustangs make a furious comeback. Plum had the ball and a chance to take the lead late in the fourth quarter, but an interception sealed Gateway’s 28-26 win.

Both Morgan and Gateway’s Don Holl know what this game means to both teams and the communities.

“We’re neighbors, and that gives it something extra,” Morgan said. “Two of the last three years we had them on the ropes, and we couldn’t finish. That was frustrating for everybody. Hopefully, this year, we are able to finish and play to our potential. We have a solid group that works hard and plays for each other. We have to find a way to bounce back from the adversity from last week.”

Morgan said key contributors on both sides of the ball were not able to play Friday against Latrobe.

“That was not an excuse, but it was what it was,” he said.

He said almost all of those players will be back this week.

Holl said the players for each team go way back in competition.

“They started in midget football, and they’ve seen each other so often in other sports throughout the years,” Holl said. “From that, you get a natural rivalry, a good rivalry. The respect is there.”

Gateway took its lumps the first two weeks, losing to District 6 power State College, 41-14, before falling to North Allegheny, 41-0, last week.

But Holl said his players have refocused well with the mission to get in the win column Friday.

“At the end of day, the best part of it, win or lose the week before, is that you get to do it again,” he said.

“If you have a great game, you don’t get to carry any of those points over, and if you have a rough one, you just turn the page. I think our kids are in the right mind space. We just have to keep working and clean up what led us to the self-inflicted wounds and get better at what we do. We have a good bunch of guys who want to work hard.”

A stout North Allegheny defense limited Gateway to 70 yards of total offense last Friday. Three quarterbacks, including sophomore returning starter Elvis Koutsakis, took snaps. They combined for just 8 yards on 15 attempts.

Holl said Plum has a good plan in place and is executing it well.

“Based on some comments I’ve seen, they have that confidence in what they are doing and how they are doing it,” he said.

Last week against Latrobe, Plum rallied from a 14-7 halftime deficit to lead 21-14 at the end of three quarters.

The Wildcats tied it in the fourth and outscored the Mustangs, 21-14, over the three overtime sessions.

Junior John Nonnenberg completed 17 of 29 passes for 165 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. He has 397 yards and seven touchdowns in his first two games of the season.

“Our kids never gave up,” Morgan said. “They came out exploding in the third quarter, and we played good football. We ended up turning the ball over, and that hurt us. We had to drive the field with a chance to win the game, and we didn’t execute that the way we wanted.

“It was good to see the kids stay strong and play hard to the very end. It was good to see the fight in the guys, especially some of the reserves who were in there. They all played their butts off.”

Morgan said Friday’s game should be a dogfight with the potential to be decided in the final minutes.

“I don’t worry about who they (Gateway) have played because I know they are always going to be talented,” Morgan said. “They are always going to be fast and physical. They do a great job over there. They are battle tested. They have the talent to beat anyone in 5A. They just had a couple bad draws the first couple of games of the season.”

Morgan was impressed with Gateway’s size up front on both sides of the ball. The Gators are led by two-way lineman Kaiyen Mbandi, a Bucknell recruit.

“They have some talented guys in the trenches,” Morgan said. “It’s going to be a great challenge for our offensive and defensive linemen to compete with those guys. We will definitely see what they are made of and if they can handle those kids because they are good.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Gateway, Plum