Oct 16, 2009 7 min read

Johnson accumulated four touchdowns on two punt returns, one kickoff and a 26-yard run for the Red Raiders (3-1, 4-3). Arnold Walker had 128 yards on 11 carries, and scored two touchdowns for Uniontown. Yough’s Tyler Mains scored two touchdowns and teammate Matt Gross racked up 54 yards on eight carries as the Cougars fell to 1-4 in conference play and 1-6 overall.

LAUREL HIGHLANDS 24, ALBERT GALLATIN 20

Matt Macar scored on a 23-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Carmen Congelio with 1:59 left in the game to lead Laurel Highlands to a 24-20 win over host Albert-Gallatin.

The Mustangs (3-4, 3-1) set up the score with a blocked punt by Ryan Reed and drove 36 yards in five plays for what proved to be the winning points.

Albert Gallatin moved the ball to the LH 43-yard-line with 51 seconds left but couldn’t convert a fourth-down with 51 seconds remaining.

Dylan Clifford finished with 153 yards rushing and two touchdowns for the Mustangs. Congelio threw for 125 yards on 11-of-18 passing and the touchdown toss to Macar.

Grayling Sanders led the Colonials (3-4, 2-3) with 150 yards rushing and two scoring runs. Quarterback Cody Peebles finished with 143 yards on 11-of-19 passing and one touchdown.

BETH-CENTER 3, CALIFORNIA 0

Three’s the magic number, and in Beth-Center’s case on Friday night against California in Tri-County South football action, three means a “W” in the win column.

Freshmen kicker Kyle Colborn tallied the only points in the game as time expired, as he was able to connect on a 19-yard field goal to give the Bulldogs a 3-0 homecoming victory.

“I was just focus on the kick,” Colborn, who has made 16 PAT’s in 2009, said. “I was thinking about all the work I did in practices and in the off-season. I just kept on kicking the ball, and it really helped me tonight.”

In the battle of Washington County, it was also a battle between the conference’s best defense, Beth-Center (5-2, 4-1), and the Tri County South’s best offense, California (4-3, 3-2).

Something had to give and when push came to shove, Beth-Center’s defense won that battle and was able to hold the Trojans’ offense and senior quarterback D.J. Martinak scoreless in the game.

Going into the game, the Trojans’ offense scored 192 points, which is fourth best in all of Class A, while the Bulldogs’ stingy defense has allowed 53 points on the season, which is also sixth best in Class A.

On the Bulldogs’ game-winning drive, sophomore signal collar Sal Faieta went 2-2, including a crucial 12-yard completion to senior tailback Jordan Kinder fourth-and-three from the 40.

Faieta who was held in check the majority of the game through the air and on the ground, made another key completion on the drive, passing to senior wideout Chuck Bowser for 18 yards to set Beth-Center up at first-and-goal from the 10.

After three rushes for eight yards, the Bulldogs called a timeout and went to the foot of Colborn who made his first high school field goal to win the game.

“My coach came up to me while we were on that drive and told me to put my shoe (kicking shoe) on,” Colborn said. “He told me to get ready to go for either a PAT or a field goal, and I was just ready to go for either. It was my first field goal this year.”

Both teams will be home next week. California welcomes Jefferson-Morgan in a vital game with conference’s implications, and Beth-Center hosts West Greene in its final home game.

HEMPFIELD 41, CONNELLSVILLE 7

The Falcons were within a touchdown at the half, but the visiting Spartans scored 28 unanswered points in the second half for their first Foothill Conference victory of the season.

Trailing 7-0 late in the first quarter, Connellsville recovered a Hempfield fumble at the 19 and quickly moved the ball to the 5-yard line on Matt White’s 14-yard quarterback draw. However, the Spartan defense put forward a strong goal line stand to stop the Connellsville drive.

Nolan Bonham and R.J. Thomas scored first-half touchdowns for Hempfield, while White scored with 47 seconds left in the half. Thomas, Bonham, Kyle Turkall and Ryan Hayden scored for Hempfield in the second half.

Hempfield was troubled with penalties, taking 15 for 110 yards, including three personal fouls. Dante Nania completed 10 passes for 200 yards with Steven Schmitt his favorite target, catching three passes for 118 yards. Thomas rushed for 102 yards on 11 carries.

White completed seven passes for 90 yards, and was the Falcons’ leading rusher with 41 yards on the ground.

MONESSEN 43, JEFFERSON-MORGAN 21

And the Greyhounds turned into Mudders. Monessen erupted for 29 third-quarter points to break open a close Class A Tri-County South contest and defeat visiting Jefferson-Morgan.

After spotting the Greyhounds a 7-0 second-quarter lead, the Rockets took advantage of a pair of Monessen turnovers to grab a short-lived 14-7 lead.

Following a Monessen fumble, J-M’s Brandon Kozich connected with Brent Moskola on a 40-yard touchdown pass at 8:16 of the second period to even the game and, after recovering a second fumble on the Greyhounds’ next possession, the Rockets’ Derek Haiden scored on a six-yard run to give J-M a 14-7 lead. Monessen, however, evened the game with 1:17 remaining in the second quarter.

Then came the deluge – and it had nothing to do with rain. Monessen (5-2, 5-0) scored four third-quarter touchdowns to put the game out of reach.

“I don’t know what happened in the third quarter,” JM (5-2, 3-2) coach Jan Haiden said. “We’ll have to look at film Monday and see what happened. Monessen made some mistakes and we took advantage early, but after that we didn’t do anything right.”

Monessen’s Brett Crenshaw scored on touchdown runs of 40, 18, and 32 yards, and rushed for 172 yards on 11 attempts. Trae Cook added a pair of touchdowns for the ‘Hounds. Derek Haiden led the Rockets with 30 yards rushing on 13 carries.

FORT CHERRY 49, FRAZIER 14

Special teams went from goat to hero and back to goat again for the Commodores in this Black Hills Conference loss to Fort Cherry.

Fort Cherry jumped to a 21-0 lead, thanks in part to a 71-yard punt return by Fort Cherry’s Hurley. Frazier scored just before halftime on a 15-yard pass from Jim Kline to Chase Kirmeyer.

When the Commodores recovered a fumbled kickoff return to open the second half and capitalized with a 30-yard march that was capped by a 7-yard Ron Holp TD run, Frazier was back in the ball game, 21-14.

But on the ensuing kickoff, the Chargers’ Corey Garry rumbled 62 yards to the Frazier 3-yard line. Two plays later, Garry scored to make it 28-14 and put Fort Cherry back in charge.

Later in the third, Hurley returned another punt 61 yards for a touchdown and fort Cherry scored on their last two possessions to win going away.

Fort Cherry improved to 5-2 overall and 3-2 in conference games, while Frazier fell to 3-4, 2-3.

WAYNESBURG 12, EAST ALLEGHENY 8

Senior Waynesburg-Central running back John Sinnott had a very good homecoming.

He had a rushing and a passing touchdown for the Raiders, along with 139 rushing yards, but it was the final 13 of those yards that proved to be the most divisive.

East Allegheny had just scored to cut a late Raider lead to 12-8 and had the home team on the ropes with a fourth down and 12 when Sinnott took a handoff from Alex Teagarden and spun his way for the first down and the win.

Trailing 12-2 the Wildcats made the game a one score affair at the 3:39 mark of the fourth quarter when quarterback Jody Harris rolled to right and ran 12 yards for a touchdown to cut the lead to 12-8.

GREENSBURG CENTRAL 41, BROWNSVILLE 0

David Miller had 119 all-purpose yards and scored four touchdowns to lead Greensburg Central Catholic (5-2, 5-2) to a 41-0 Interstate Conference win over Brownsville (1-6, 1-6).

Miller scored on runs of 22, 10, 4 and 4 yards, while Justin Krempka caught a 40-yard touchdown pass from Trent Hurley, and Andy Biros added a 7-yard touchdown run.

Brownsville turned the ball over five times and had one promising early drive into GCC territory stalled by consecutive penalties totaling 25 yards.

Brownsville will visit East Allegheny on Friday, while GCC will host South Allegheny.