Southmoreland football romps past South Allegheny

By: Liam Belan
Friday, October 7, 2022 | 11:41 PM

Previous Next

Southmoreland has had a rough go of things lately, but its playoff hopes were boosted in a big 36-6 win at South Allegheny in Class 3A Interstate Conference play Friday night.

“It was a great win, but we’ve got to win one more to make playoffs, and that’s our goal,” Southmoreland coach Tim Bukowski said. “We knew the season was going to be tough with this conference, but this one was big for us.”

The Scotties (3-4, 1-1) ran all over the Gladiators (1-6, 0-2) as South Allegheny struggled to match their opponents up front. What resulted was 217 rushing yards that opened up success for Kadin Keefer and Ty Keffer to connect through the air.

“We’re a depleted unit. We’re missing a lot up front,” South Allegheny coach Darwin Manges said. “We’re so young up front, and they’re fighting, but it’s showing. All we can do is keep working and move from there.”

Tray Whetsel led the way for Southmoreland’s rushing attack despite not finding the end zone as he had 124 yards on 19 carries. He set up Keefer for a nearly perfect outing: 224 yards and four touchdowns on 13 of 17 passing. Keffer was his leading receiver, grabbing 8 passes for 165 yards and three touchdowns.

South Allegheny’s Dashawn Carter finished with 113 rushing yards on 13 carries and put pressure on Keefer defensively. Eric Wehrer, who was relieved by Ryan Cortes in the second half, finished with 30 passing yards and a touchdown to Cam Epps. Epps led the Gladiators with 53 yards and the touchdown on three receptions.

It took Southmoreland just less than four minutes to open the scoring as Whetsel set up Keefer for a 1-yard keeper. Whetsel accounted for every yard on the drive apart from the one from Keefer and 15 that were tacked on because of three South Allegheny encroachment penalties.

“I’m proud of the offensive line because I thought they did a great job,” Bukowski said. “That’s the most we rushed the ball all year, and any time you can get the ground game going, it’ll open up the passing game.”

The Scotties did just that after they stifled a huge South Allegheny opportunity. The Gladiators used a 43-yard run from Carter to work an impressive opening drive to the Scotties’ 1-yard line, and they elected to try for the end zone on fourth-and-goal. Southmoreland stuffed Wehrer on the attempted sneak, and Whetsel was quickly able to get his squad some room before Keefer connected with Keffer for an 89-yard touchdown.

“Keefer to Keffer has been a great connection so far this year, and they did it again tonight,” Bukowski said. “That 89-yard touchdown was a big play, and they’ve been pretty consistent all season, but we had a lot of guys that made plays.”

That left the score at 16-0 with 3 minutes, 18 seconds remaining in the first quarter after Jeffrey Johnson added 2-point conversions on both scores.

But South Allegheny closed the gap at 1:39 left in the opening quarter as Wehrer stood in the pocket and took a big hit after delivering a strike to Epps in the back of the end zone. The Gladiators handed off to Carter for the 2-point try, but it failed and made the score 16-6 with little time remaining in the first.

Those were the only points the Gladiators mustered while the Scotties kept things going in the second with a 14-point quarter.

Keefer connected with Keffer once again for a touchdown, this time a fade to the back of the end zone for the 6-foot-4 basketball star to corral. After a failed 2-point attempt, the score became 22-6 with 10:25 left in the half.

After a few punts, the Scotties added points with 12 seconds remaining in the first half. Keefer connected with Cody Bateman for his only reception of the game, a 6-yard touchdown catch to push his team’s lead to 30-6 going into halftime.

Coming out of the half, South Allegheny struggled offensively with low snaps, hindering their quarterbacks’ abilities to make plays.

“You’re picking it off your ankles and trying to bring it back up and make a play, but the rush is coming,” Manges said. “It was an onslaught of things that happened, and it’s unfortunate.”

This allowed Southmoreland’s defense to limit the Gladiators offensively, and the Scotties continued to run the ball well with Johnson and Cameron Phillips. Johnson finished with 25 yards on four carries, and Phillips had 42 yards on 11 attempts.

Keefer and Keffer combined for one more score, this time a 13-yarder with 20 seconds remaining in the third quarter, to finish the scoring. A failed 2-point try left the score at 36-6.

South Allegheny will try to get back on track next week at Elizabeth Forward in conference play.

“We’ve just got to try and get better every day … hopefully we get some guys back next week,” Manges said. “We’ll come out, strap them up and go play four quarters.”

Southmoreland returns to Interstate Conference action against Greensburg Salem next week.

“We’ve just got to focus on Salem next week,” Bukowski said. “It’s at our place, and it’s a huge game, so we’re excited for the challenge.”

Tags: South Allegheny, Southmoreland