South Side wins 1st Big 7 Conference title since 1999

By: James Dotson
Friday, October 20, 2023 | 11:38 PM

South Side coach Luke Travelpiece was unsure what the correct strategy would be against Union to start the game. Do the Rams kickoff and put their stellar defense up against the high-powered offense of the defending WPIAL champions? Or do they put their offense on the field and set the tone trying to score first?

The answer: both.

South Side recovered not one, but two pooch kicks to start the game, converting both into short touchdown drives. The Rams never looked back en route to a 49-15 road win at Socs Roussos Stadium.

The win clinches a Big 7 Conference championship for South Side (9-0, 5-0), its first since 1999.

“Feels awesome!” South Side coach Luke Travelpiece said. “We haven’t done this, won any championship, since ’99. These boys weren’t even born yet.“

Things could not have started any better for the visiting Rams. A pooch kick on the opening kickoff nearly stuck at the Scotties 30-yard line on the South Side sideline. A Union up-man slipped as he tried to recover the kick, and Nik McKindley gained possession for South Side.

After Ryan Navarra scored an 11-yard run, his first of five on the night, deja vu struck. Another short kick was recovered by McKindley, and Brody Almashy ran one in from 20 yards on a quarterback keeper.

South Side led 14-0 before the Union offense touched the football.

“You can’t write a book better than that,” Travelpiece said. “We just didn’t want to give the ball to (Braylon Thomas) and (Mike Gunn). Those guys are awesome backs and athletes. If you give them the ball in space, bad things happen. We were just trying to avoid them, and for us to end up with the ball on that twice, and then once again in the fourth quarter, it just flipped the script.”

When Union (7-2, 4-1) finally got the offense on the field, it marched down the field and scored on a 14 yard touchdown pass from Thomas to Grayson Blakley to cut the lead to 14-7.

But South Side’s wing-T offense had the response. A seven-play scoring drive capped off by an Almashy QB sneak pushed the lead back to 21-7.

Union drove down the field on the edge of the red zone, but Almashy intercepted a Thomas pass to end the threat. His 80-yard return for a touchdown was negated by a penalty, but he led his Rams on a nine-play scoring drive and Navarra’s second touchdown run to take a 28-7 lead to the locker room.

Navarra finished with 105 yards.

“He’s a tough, physical kid,” Travelpiece said of Navarra. “He kid of helps to set the tone along with the offensive line. That’s the style we want to play, and we thought that if we were able to come out and establish that, it would bode well for us for the game.”

Union would not go quietly into the night. It forced a South Side three-and-out to start the third quarter, then went 11 plays down the field before Thomas scored on a 16-yard touchdown run. The extra-point snap was wild, but holder Blakley found Andrew Cartwright in the end zone to complete the conversion.

Thomas broke the school record for passing yards in a season on the drive.

“This being his second year, I think (Thomas) has developed his game as a runner and a passer,” Union coach Kim Niedbala said. “I think he’s done a great job on that aspect.”

Union got another three-and-out on defense, but a long punt pinned the Scotties deep in their own end. As the rain began to downpour again, South Side partially blocked a punt and again converted on a short field with a Navarra 8-yard run.

“You can’t turn the ball over,” Niedbala said. “You have to put some points on the board. It’s 28-15, we had the ball, you stick one in (the end zone) and you never know what happens. It just wasn’t our night.”

South Side got two more touchdown runs from Navarra, from 7 yards and 1 yard, both on drives starting in Union territory. South Side began five of its 11 drives on the Scotties’ side of the field and converted them all into touchdowns. Three of those five drives were the result of special teams turnovers.

“We were very fortunate,” Travelpiece said, “to get into a situation where all of the intangible things flipped towards us early, and we were able to take advantage. Union is a very good football team, and you flip that script those first two minutes, we could be looking at the score the other way.”

AC Corfield had nine carries for 72 yards for South Side, and Almashy had 36 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns for the Rams’ diverse ground game.

Thomas finished with 194 yards passing and a touchdown both rushing and passing for Union. Andrew Gettings led with a career-high six catches for 127 yards. The Union ground game was held to 21 yards.

South Side will try to finish with a perfect regular season with a home game against Rochester next week. Union is scheduled to close out the season against Summit Academy on Thursday at 12:30.

Tags: South Side, Union