Peters Township gets by South Fayette
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Peters Township cornerback Breylen Carrington (19) makes a shoestring tackle on South Fayette’s Joe Audia.
Vinnie Sirianni
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Peters Township’s Vinnie Sirianni sweeps around a pair of South Fayette defenders.
Peters Township defensive lineman Dante Lahet (52) puts the pressure on South Fayette quarterback Naman Alemada.
Corban Hondru barrells into the end zone for a Peters Township touchdown.
McMURRAY – Peters Township football coach T.J. Plack agrees with Meatloaf. Indeed, two out of three ain’t bad.
Plack’s Indians dominated on special teams and defense when necessary to score an unsightly victory, 17-3, against South Fayette in Allegheny Six Conference action.
“It wasn’t pretty, but I’ll take it,” Plack said.
“In football, there are three facets of the game: defense, offense and special teams and we won two of them,” he added.
Peters Township scored on a 96-yard kickoff return by Donovan McMillon to start the second half. McMillon also blocked a punt that resulted in a touchdown. On the first play of the second quarter, Corban Hondru bulled his way into the end zone.
Of Hondru, who is committed to Miami (Ohio) and McMillon, who is bound for Florida, Plack was pleased.
“We count on those guys to make plays,” he said, “but we have a bunch of fine senior football players and some juniors doing nice things.”
Breylen Carrington is one such senior. He helped set up the initial score. With 6:15 to play in the first quarter, he picked off a pass. It was his fifth interception in two games.
That turnover coupled with a fourth-down conversion run by quarterback Logan Pfeuffer and a facemask penalty by the Lions set up Andrew Massucci’s 28-yard field goal, putting the Indians on the scoreboard, 3-0, with 1:43 to play in the first frame.
“Special teams is a third of the game,” agreed South Fayette head coach Joe Rossi. “You get a blocked punt, an interception, a kickoff return. You are not going to win games playing that way.”
The Lions, however, kept up the fight. They dominated after McMillon’s kickoff burst but only had three points to show for it.
Justin Caputo kicked a 21-yard field goal to put SF on the scoreboard with 9:22 left in third quarter.
A drive late in the quarter fizzled on two incomplete passes in the end zone on third- and fourth-and-10 plays from the 23.
Quarterback Naman Alemada was under intense pressure all game, even when the Lions mounted a fourth-quarter drive. However, the PT defense held when it mattered.
After big receptions by Charley Rossi (45 yards) and Joey Audia (30 yards), the Lions stalled at the PT 20-yard line. The defense, led by two sacks by Hondru, held, pushing the Lions back to the 30 and a fourth-and-21 situation.
For the game, Alemada did nicely. He completed 22 of 37 passes for 262 yards. Rossi had five catches for 111 yards. Audio had seven catches alone in the fourth quarter for 66 yards.
“You have to stop their offense,” Plack said. “Our guys did a great job of taking the one or two things that their offense is good at and put them in a situation where they are thinking what do we do next.”
Having lost two straight after winning their opener, the Lions go back to drawing board says Rossi.
“The thing I love about our kids is there was no quit in them at all and us coaches have to get back to the drawing board and put them in better position to win,” he said. “It’s ultimately on us to do that.”
Peters Township also will focus on its offense. Vinnie Sirianni led the rushing attack with 69 yards on 18 carries. Hondru had 40 yards on nine carries. He even played the role of quarterback, handing off to Pfeuffer as he gained 33 yards on 13 rushes.
“This was our worst game offensively,” Plack said. “We were out of sorts. We have to be able to move the ball but we weren’t able to do that.”
“I don’t know what is is offensively. We lost some good guys but we did on defense too. We stumbled every drive but defense and special teams played a fantastic game. We are counting on that as we get into the groove offensively.
“It was a win. We accomplished that but we made some glaring mistakes and we need to fix some things.”
Rossi, however, felt the Indians are heading in the right direction.
“They are a couple of plays away from being defending 5A champions. They are finding ways to win. That’s what good teams do.”
SF 0 0 3 0
PT 3 7 7 0
First quarter
Andrew Massucci 28-yard field goal 1:43
Second quarter
Corbin Hondru 2-yard touchdown run. Massuccis PAT.
Third quarter
Donovan McMillan 96-yard kick-off return. Massucci PAT
Justin Caputo 21-yard field goal
Fourth quarter
No scoring