Oct 18, 2018 3 min read

As high school football regular seasons have moved to late October, the meaningfulness of those final two or three games each year for Canon-McMillan has typically been insignificant.

It’s been an opportunity earn victories, but only ones with little impact on the standings. Those games have been a chance to gloss over years when the Big Macs’ record wasn’t anything to boast about and the playoffs were out of reach.

“The difference is usually we are hanging on by a string, needing some help or if we lose one more game, we are out,” said fourth-year coach Mike Evans.

So four days before a must-win game last week against Norwin, Evans brought his team in for a meeting he has only had one other time at Canon-McMillan.

“Sometimes you don’t want to tell your team too much,” Evans said. “But they know how it is with everything out there. I told them, ‘If we don’t beat Norwin, we are playing for moral victories the rest of the way.’ We are tired of doing that.”

Recovering from a loss to defending state champion Pine-Richland the week before and forced to find another tailback to replace their injured starter, the Big Macs thumped Norwin, the team competing with them for the final playoff spot in Class 6A. The Big Macs rolled to a 34-12 victory.

The victory set up games that matter down the stretch for C-M (2-4, 3-4), including tonight’s home contest against Pittsburgh Central Catholic. The Big Macs can clinch a playoff spot with a win and a Norwin loss to Mt. Lebanon.

Kickoff is 7 p.m.

“Right now, we have the upper hand to get in,” Evans said. “If a few things go our way, we have a chance to clinch (tonight). That would be great. It is Senior Night, and (the seniors) have been the catalyst to everything we’ve done. We made a pathway. We talked about where we’ve been, where we’re going and what are goals were. The playoffs started last week. That’s our mentality.”

If the Big Macs can clinch, either this week or next week against Butler, it will be the first time they’ve qualified for the playoffs since 2008. They lost to Shaler, 16-0, in the first round.

“It’s what we’ve been working for,” said senior Drew Engel, who rushed for 292 yards and three touchdowns in an emergency start at running back last week.

“When Coach Evans came in our ninth-grade year, this was his vision. These were his expectations. We haven’t made (the playoffs) in his first three years. But one of our sayings is, ‘On the rise.’ We are finally there and finally playing meaningful football.”

Central Catholic (4-2, 6-2) has won two straight Quad County Conference games – 35-16 over Norwin and 45-10 over Butler. The Vikings’ two losses were to North Allegheny and Pine-Richland.

“Our kids have started to visualize bigger and better things,” Evans said. “God willing, if we get in – and we still have work to do to make that happen – we handle the situation the right way. Everybody decided to commit, and I’ve just been here as it happened. I’m enjoying myself right now more than I ever have because of those kids.”