Nov 5, 2021 6 min read

A snap from center that went over the head of quarterback John Green turned out to be the key play in the fourth quarter that gave Peters Township a 33-28 victory over North Hills in a WPIAL Class 5A playoff game Friday night.

North Hills (7-4) had just scored on a 23-yard run by Liam Tracy and Robert Dickerson caught the two-point conversion pass.

North Hills intercepted a pass at the one, moved it tot he three, were forced to punt and the high snap provided a safety.

Ethan Kirch scored on runs of 33 and nine yards and Andrew Massucci hit a 36-yard field goal to put PT up 31-20.

Peters Township advances to the quarterfinals, where it meets Pine Richland.

North Hill finishes at 7-4.

North Hills got on the board first when Robert Dickerson pulled in a 70-yard touchdown pass from John Green with 7:15 left in the first quarter.

But Peters Township answered in the second quarter when quarterback Sam Miller pushed the football over from the 4-yard line.

North Hills took a 14-7 lead on an 11-yard run by Chase Foskey with 8:59 left in the half.

Peters Township showed anything North Hills can do, when Miller hit Jacob Macosko with a 70-yard touchdown of its own. That tied the game 14-14 with 8:45 to play in the second quarter.

Late in the half, Peters Township drove inside the North Hills 5 when Miller fumbled the ball away to North Hills.

In the final minute, Miller hit Macosko with a 45-yard pass play to the four but time ran out after two more tries.

North Allegheny 49, Canon-McMillan 26

Logan Kushner passed for three scores and Kolin Dinkens returned an interception 98 yards for a touchdown with 42 seconds left in the first half, leading North Allegheny to a 49-26 victory over visiting Canon-McMillan in a Class 6A first-round game.

Fourth-seeded North Allegheny (7-4) raced to a 42-6 lead by halftime over the fifth-seeded Big Macs (4-7).

Kushner completed eight of 13 passes for 260 yards and added a one-yard TD plunge in the second quarter.

Kushner threw a touchdown pass of 80 yards to Khiryn Boyd only 19 seconds into the game, added another of 17 yards to Daniel Sellers in the first quarter and connected with Connor Casten on a 66-yard TD in the second quarter.

J.R. Burton had a pair of scoring runs for the Tigers.

Canon-McMillan’s Anthony Finney returned the second half kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown, and Ryan Angott had a pair of second-half TD runs, covering eight and nine yards. Angott ran for 79 yards on 10 carries. Owen Carter added 74 on 15 attempts.

Mike Evans threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Austyn Winkleblech for C-M’s only points in the first half. Evans was 12-for-30 for 216 yards.

Laurel 41, McGuffey 2

Luke McCoy and Kobe DeRosa each scored three touchdowns to help Laurel rout McGuffey 41-2 in the first round of the WPIAL Class AA playoffs.

McCoy returned an interception for a score and ran it in from 13 and 25 yards. DeRosa had TD runs of 33, 13 and eight yards.

McGuffey (5-6) scored in the first quarter when a bad snap from center went into the end zone and Laurel fell on it for a safety. The Spartans (11-0) scored the next 41 points.

McCoy helped Laurel to a 27-2 halftime lead after McGuffey scored on a safety when the snap went into the end zone and recovered by Laurel.

McCoy went 13 yards on the next Laurel possession for a score that gave the Spartans an 8-2 lead as Kobe DeRosa ran for the two-point conversion.

McCoy intercepted a Phillip McCuen pass and returned is for a touchdown to give Laurel a 15-2 lead as Zane Boughter hit the extra point.

A few possessions later, McCoy broke off a 25-yard touchdown run with 6:05 left in the half.

DeRosa finished the scoring with a 33-yard run with 4:23 left before halftime.

Shenango 31, Carmichaels 13

C.J. Miller ran for three touchdowns and Shenango reeled off 19 unanswered points to stun Tri-County South Conference runnerup Carmichaels 31-13 in a Class A first-round game.

Shenango (4-6) forged an early 12-0 lead before Carmichaels (8-3) scored on a 24-yard pass from Trenton Carter to Michael Stewart, cutting the gap to 12-7 with 5:13 left in the first half.

Shenango, however, then took control of the game, opening a 31-7 lead as Miller scored on a pair of runs, covering two and 16 yards, and Dalton Peters caught a nine-yard scoring pass Sam Patton.

Peters and Patton hooked up on a 21-yard TD strike to open the scoring and Miller tallied his first touchdown on a 20-yard jaunt that made it 12-0 with 8:26 left before halftime.

Carter capped the scoring for Carmichaels on a five-yard scamper with 1:05 remaining.

Carmichaels had its winning streak end at four games.

Rochester 35, Mapletown 0

Sal Laure had 156 of Rochester’s 344 rushing yards and the Rams defeated Mapletown 35-0 in a Class A first-round playoff game at Freedom High School.

Rochester (8-2) scored two touchdowns in each of the first two quarters to forge a 29-0 halftime lead.

Laure opened the scoring with a 57-yard TD burst and J.D. Azulay added a 56-yard scamper before the first quarter ended.

Azulay tacked on his second TD, a one-yard plunge, midway through the second quarter and a three-yard Denny Robinson run with 29 seconds left in the first half gave the Rams a 29-0 lead.

The only scoring in the second half was a 33-yard run by Laure midway through the third quarter.

Landan Stevenson rushed for 146 yards on only 12 carries for Mapletown (6-5). Quarterback Max Vanata completed five of 11 passes for 32 yards and was intercepted twice.

In other games

Top-seeded Steel Valley scored 49 first-half points and cruised to a 49-14 victory over Beth-Center in a Class 2A first-round game. In Class A, second-seeded Cornell shut out Monessen 33-0 and Leechburg pulled away late to defeat visiting California 28-7. No game details were made available by press time.