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Long TD runs put Trinity in playoffs
DORMONT - It was supposed to be John Fuhrer's big night at Dormont Memorial Stadium. The Keystone Oaks High School senior running back was to celebrate surpassing the 4,000-yard career mark.
Fuhrer reached his milestone, but it was Trinity that had the dominating rushing attack that put Hillers into the WPIAL playoffs.
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"We have three goals coming into the year," Trinity coach Ed Dalton said. "The first is to beat Canon-Mac and we didn't do that. The second is to win the section and we didn't do that. Our third is to make the playoffs and we did that."
Trinity (3-2 in the Big Seven Conference, 5-3 overall) used its senior-laden offensive line to bowl through the Keystone Oaks (2-3, 3-5) defense. Brandon Weaver rushed for a game-high 177 yards and three touchdowns and Mike Yancich continued his impressive season with 150 yards and two touchdowns - both more than 50 yards.
There were two reasons Trinity was able to break off such big runs against the Golden Eagles. The first was the offensive line - tackles Ian Killen and Nate Lojek, guards Taylor Deep and Eric Stultz and center Frank Dobbin - was opening holes. The second was that because Keystone Oaks was playing nine men in the box for most of the game, once a Trinity runner broke through the line, there was no deep safety.
Yancich scored the Hillers' first touchdown on a 54-yard run in the first quarter to cut Keystone Oaks' lead to 8-6. He also broke off a 55-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter to make it 43-14.
"Everything about our offense is our line," Yancich said. "Without it, we wouldn't go anywhere."
The offensive line continuously allowed Trinity runners to break off long runs. Weaver had four runs of at least 27 yards, including a 76-yard scamper in the second quarter in which he ran a simple sweep to the left and sprinted down the sideline for a touchdown. Because of the big runs, Trinity held the ball for only 16:10, compared to 31:50 for Keystone Oaks.
Even little-used fullback Zach Waters, who had only four carries coming into the game, took an inside handoff and ran 64 yards straight up the middle for a touchdown.
"We have a pretty good stable (of running backs)," Dalton said. "The key is that we have to get them all in the package. Right now, (Andrew) Sweat is a little dinged up, but if we can get him healthy then, hopefully, we can get all of them going sooner or later."
Defensively, Trinity made Fuhrer earn every yard. Fuhrer, who scored both Keystone Oaks touchdowns, needed 94 yards coming into the game to become the 36th player in WPIAL history to rush for 4,000 yards. He finished with 128. However, it took Fuhrer 36 carries to get those yards and the punishment took its toll as he was injured on his last carry and did not return to the game.
Keystone Oaks coach Nick Kamberis was happy for Fuhrer, but said Trinity's offensive line was too much for his young squad, which started three sophomores on both sides of the line.
"We knew they were going to run the ball," Kamberis said. "We brought as many guys as we could up into the box. (Trinity) just did a great job."
