South Allegheny football team shuts out Apollo-Ridge

By: Jeremy Sellew
Friday, October 10, 2025 | 10:29 PM

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South Allegheny coach Brian Hanson has preached to his team that the work it does from November to August will pay off come the regular season.

He was right, and now the Gladiators control their own destiny in Class 2A’s Allegheny Conference.

The Gladiators used a quick-strike offense, taking advantage of Apollo-Ridge’s missed opportunities, on their way to a 35-0 conference win at Gladiators Stadium on homecoming Friday.

“We tell the kids all the time, the work you do over those nine months is going to put you in that position to control your own destiny,” Hanson said. “Now, here we are. We have ourselves in a good position, but we have two more weeks to go before we can really celebrate anything.

“But this was a big win for our guys.”

Hakim Harrell ran three times for 135 yards and a score, and freshman Tyrone Claytor had five carries for 140 yards and a score as the Gladiators scored fast and quick against the Vikings defense.

“There’s a reason they’re 8-0. They have a great scheme, and they have a lot of talented guys with great speed. They made us pay,” Vikings coach John Skiba said. “We made a lot of mistakes, missed a couple of reads and two really big blocks.”

The game didn’t get started the way Hanson would have liked as the Vikings’ Zach Myers gashed the Gladiators all the way down the field. He ran the ball seven times to the Gladiators’ 2-yard line.

But the defense made its stand.

Jayden McCray was stopped dead in his tracks for no gain to turn the ball over on downs.

Myers looked to have things rolling with seven carries for 39 yards on the opening drive, but he finished the game with 52 yards on 15 carries.

“We made a slight adjustment to our alignment (after the first possession),” Hanson said. “That really allowed our linebackers to see things a lot better and really get downhill on them. Our defense was fantastic.”

The Gladiators (8-0, 5-0) needed only eight plays to go 98 yards. They had a big 27-yard run from Claytor and capped off the drive with quarterback Alijah Cook hitting Kymair Brown on a 30-yard catch and run to open the scoring.

The next two Vikings drives ended with punts before the Gladiators made it 14-0 with two quick plays: a Harrell 40-yard run and Joey Gamret’s 34-yard scamper.

“It’s realistic to think that it should have easily been 14-14 heading into the half,” Skiba said. “That first drive, we missed a couple of blocks. We should have driven that in. We had it on their side again and took a bad sack. Just a lot of mistakes by us tonight.”

The Vikings (5-3, 3-1) missed a 31-yard field goal as Beck Andree’s kick doinked off the crossbar.

The Glads made them pay as Harrell raced around the right side and rolled 80 yards for a score with 20 seconds to go in the half.

“I was surprised because they played a lot of Cover 0 on us, which is the first time we’ve really seen it all year,” Hanson said. “You have to pick your poison on us, and they chose to try to take away the run game. The thing that makes it difficult is we have so many guys and so much speed. We can go east and west and north and south. There were a lot of those big plays tonight.”

The second half started much like the first ended.

Alijah Cook hit brother Drew for a 12-yard touchdown pass on a slant. The 2-point conversion made it 28-0.

After a 13-yard punt gave South Allegheny the ball at the Vikings’ 30, the Cook brothers connected on a 25-yard gain before Claytor powered his way in from 5 yards to invoke the running clock.

“We have to reload and rebound, which we’ll do,” Skiba said. “We have two weeks to go, and I believe we still have a team that can do a lot of good things.”

Alijah Cook finished 9-of-15 for 138 yards with the two touchdown scores. Drew Cook led the receiving corps with five grabs for 72 yards.

But though the Gladiators’ offense did its job, it was the defense that led the way.

“We knew (Alex Clawson) was their best player, so we really focused on our pursuit the last couple of weeks.

Though Clawson went 5-of-10 for 130 yards, he was under duress all night. He was sacked five times for a total of 45 yards lost.

Peyton Aeschmiller and Max Jeffcoat each finished with a pair of sacks for the Gladiators. Markus Hanson and Cash Pistilli combined for another.

“Those guys on that line, they have so much heart. They put in the work, and they’re having a fantastic season,” Hanson said. “Everything is paying off. We know there’s a storm coming at the end of the season, and we’re preparing for it one game at a time.”

The Gladiators will host Sto-Rox next week with Apollo-Ridge traveling to South Park.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, South Allegheny