Westmoreland County H.S. football notebook: Penn-Trafford shows flair for dramatic

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Thursday, October 9, 2025 | 11:01 AM

Penn-Trafford is showing a penchant for late-game flair.

Just like they did against Moon earlier in the season, the fifth-ranked Warriors rallied in the second half last week to get past rival Gateway, 33-23, in Class 5A Big East play.

Gateway took a 23-7 lead into halftime before the Warriors scored 26 unanswered points to retain the Victory Bell.

It must have been some halftime speech.

“It was an embarrassing first half, which is entirely my fault,” Warriors coach John Ruane said. “We agreed at the half to play harder, coach better and play to win. We needed a spark, and Ben Grabowski provided it. We blocked better and tackled better after doing nothing well in the first half.”

Grabowski had two touchdowns after halftime, and Jake Miller made a 36-yard field goal before Travis Moorhead recovered a fumble in the end zone to cap the scoring. The Warriors outscored the Gators, 26-0, in the second half.

The Warriors rallied to clip Moon, 25-24, in Week 2. They trailed 24-12 early in the fourth before scoring twice in a six-minute span.

Tough act to follow

Jeannette hopes its homecoming matchup Friday against Brentwood is a win, only without the stress of last year’s matchup against the Spartans.

Sure, it was one of the best comebacks of the year, but the Jayhawks would prefer to take a lead into the final quarter.

Jeannette won 42-41, but it had to rally from a two-touchdown deficit to do it.

The Jayhawks trailed 41-27 in the fourth before coming to life. Kymon’e Brown, who threw for 343 yards and four touchdowns, led the comeback with his legs. He ran for 162 yards and scored two touchdowns and, most importantly, ran in the game-winning 2-point conversion with 8 seconds remaining.

The remarkable victory, coach Tommy Paulone said, jump-started the team’s late-season run. They won five straight before falling to Fort Cherry in the WPIAL semifinals.

Ram tough

Ligonier Valley piled up the points last week in a 67-13 win over Charleroi, which was its first win of the season and brought an end to a nine-game losing skid. It was the most points in a game for the Rams since they beat Carrick, 62-12, in 2021.

They beat Homer-Center, 67-0, to open the 2019 season, their last in District 6 before moving to the WPIAL.

That is a lot of scoring, but not quite the school record. The top mark is 68, set in 2016 against Saltsburg.

Play of the year?

Ligonier Valley junior linebacker Mike Hillen made one of the best defensive plays in the WPIAL last week.

Hillen broke through the Charleroi line, drove into Max Holmes, driving him backward before stripping the ball from his hands.

Holmes made a bold attempt to tackle Hillen, even knocking the ball loose briefly before Hillen maintained his balance and raced to the end zone for a 73-yard touchdown. Hillen dove into the end zone to cap the brow-raising play.

“I’ve seen a lot of high school football, and this is one of the best plays I’ve ever seen,” Rams coach Roger Beitel said.

Play of the year II?

Greensburg Salem quarterback Brody Chismar might have thrown the longest 5-yard touchdown pass in WPIAL history last week at Mt. Pleasant, Just before the half, he faced a goal-to-go play when he took a snap and dropped back — way back — evading defenders before delivering a touchdown strike to Jackson Stevey.

Chismar let the ball go from the 27-yard line and a wide-open Stevey made a leaping grab.

In relief

Franklin Regional and Latrobe played backup quarterbacks last week, and both made plays.

Jake Pucka took over under center for Franklin Regional for injured starter Dom Devola and helped the Panthers to their first win of the season, 21-10 over Fox Chapel.

Pucka passed for 148 yards and a 41-yard touchdown to Tommy Veruggio.

Ty Wisniewski played QB for Latrobe and tossed a scoring pass in a 34-13 loss to Kiski Area.

Wisniewski and Dom Scarton have been sharing snaps in practice, and both could see time in the future.

“It’s still a 1A-1B situation moving forward,” Latrobe coach Tom McIntyre said. “I have a ton of faith in both QBs to be the leaders of our offense as we continue to find some traction and put together four full quarters.”

Detruf on top

Hempfield quarterback Dom Detruf is now the leading passer in Westmoreland County, and his yardage total ranks fourth in the WPIAL.

Detruf, who last week broke program records for career yards and touchdowns, has completed a WPIAL-high 110 of 156 passes for 1,554 yards with 17 touchdowns and eight interceptions in seven games.

Detruf trails Upper St. Clair’s Ehtan Hellman by 247 yards for the top spot in District 7.

In a rush

Burrell’s Antonio Perkins became the first rusher from Westmoreland County to top 1,000 yards for the season.

He has 1,061 yards and 16 touchdowns on 133 carries.

Norwin’s Giovanni Rothrauff is also nearing the 1,000-yard mark. Rothrauff, who has topped 100 yards in every game, has 986 yards and eight scores on 171 carries.

Max Doherty of Derry stands at 794 yards and 10 TDs on 124 attempts.

Kopas on pace

Hempfield senior wide receiver Jack Kopus had 40 receptions last season in 10 games. He has 40 in seven this season, which keeps him on pace for a record.

Kopas said in the summer he wanted to break the single-season mark for receptions. He needs 17 more.

Braden Brose had 57 catches in 2017.

National Hall of Fame

Two more Jeannette players are on the ballot for the 2026 National High School Football Hall of Fame class, set to be announced in early December.

Adam Bostick and Dante Wiley are two of 52 nominees for the hall’s fourth class.

They are joined by numerous former Western Pennsylvania stars, including Dan Marino, Joe Namath, Tony Dorsett and Johnny Unitas.

Steelers greats Terry Bradshaw, Ben Roethlisberger and Jerome Bettis also are nominated, along with dozens of other NFL stars.

Bostick, a member of the Jeannette Class of ’79, may be better known for his exploits in basketball. He played in the Dapper Dan Roundball Classic and earned a basketball scholarship to West Virginia. He was a talented dual-threat quarterback for the Jayhawks, like so many athletes who followed him became.

Wiley (Class of ’84) played quarterback and linebacker and played in the 1981 and ’83 WPIAL championship teams. He was a Parade All-American and made all-state as a senior. After a year at Pitt, he transferred to Nebraska and played linebacker.

Extra points

Four county teams are ranked this week. Norwin is No. 3 and Hempfield No. 4 in 6A, while Penn-Trafford is No. 5 in 5A and Southmoreland is No. 4 in 3A. … Seven for seven: Southmoreland is one of seven teams in the WPIAL with a 7-0 record, joining Peters Township, Imani Christian, Southmoreland, Avonworth, Western Beaver, Fort Cherry and Jefferson-Morgan. … Southmoreland and Seton La Salle transfer Anthony Smith has thrown for 1,230 yards and 15 touchdowns in five games at Fairmont Senior High (W.Va.).

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

Tags: Burrell, Hempfield, Ligonier Valley, Norwin, Penn-Trafford