Oct 18, 2013 4 min read

McDONALD – For good reasons, a lot of attention gets paid to South Fayette’s high-powered offense. The Lions entered Friday night’s Class AA Century Conference matchup against South Park averaging 51.3 points per game.

But the South Fayette’s defense has been equally as dominant as they showed again by blanking the Eagles, 48-0.

South Park (5-2, 5-3) was riding a five-game winning streak and last week clinched its first playoff berth since the 2005 season, when the Eagles went on to win a state championship. But South Park found things to be a bit tougher against South Fayette.

The Lions (7-0, 8-0) came in allowing only 6.6 points per game and now have allowed fewer than seven points in six of their eight contests, including their third shutout of the season.

Up 14-0 at the end of the first quarter, the Lions thwarted a long Eagles drive that could shifted the momentum.

A 21-yard scramble from South Park quarterback Nick Scholle set up a first-and-goal situation at the five-yard line. But the South Fayette defense held strong when Jason Massey-Sears made a big play on third down, stopping Scholle on a quarterback sweep behind the line of scrimmage, and Scholle’s pass attempt on fourth down fell incomplete.

“When we get the ball at the two or three-yard line, we have to score,” said South Park head coach Tom Loughran. “Give South Fayette credit for stopping us, but we left a lot of opportunities out there. We played better than getting shutout, but when you have mental mistakes and breakdowns, that’s going to happen.”

Not coming away with points proved costly for South Park as a few plays later SF quarterback Brett Brumbaugh hit Justin Watson with a 62-yard scoring strike to make it a 21-0 game and end any hope of a South Park upset.

“That was a big sequence,” said South Fayette head coach Joe Rossi. “They are a team that came in on a streak and we were afraid of them, but our defense has been great all year. We bent a little but we kept them out of the end zone and came right back and hit a big play to give us some breathing room.”

South Park came back on its next drive and drove inside the red zone, but again the South Fayette defense made a big play. This time it was a sack from Hayden Orler, resulting in a 10-yard loss.

Scholle was under intense pressure each time he dropped back as South Fayette recorded six sacks, with Orler and Zach Walker getting two each.

Of course, as the South Fayette defense was busy keeping the Eagles out of the end zone, the Lions’ offense was busy chewing up the South Park defense, scoring touchdowns on their first seven possessions.

“They just ran all over us offensively,” added Loughran. “I thought we did some good things offensively, but defensively they did whatever they wanted to us.”

South Fayette running back Grant Fetchett scored his 13th touchdown of the season on a 17-yard run on the Lions’ first drive, then caught a 28-yard TD pass from Brumbaugh on the Lions’ second possession.

After Brumbaugh hit Watson with the big pass to make it 21-0, J.J. Walker pushed the lead to 28-0 with a two-yard touchdown run late in the first half.

The Lions also scored on their first three possessions of the second half. Fetchet punched it in on a one-yard plunge, Hunter Hayes had a 29-yard TD run and Michael Speca scored on the ground from 46 yards.

Brumbaugh completed 16 of 21 passes for 274 yards. Both Watson (103) and Connor Beck (106) eclipsed 100-yards receiving.

“I have some playmakers, and they just stepped up and made some big plays today,” Brumbaugh said. “We like to be a balanced offense, and I thought we did that tonight, but our defense makes that easy for us. They get us the ball and we just have to go out and execute.”