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Big plays prove costly to Peters Twp.

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McMURRAY – Friday night’s WPIAL Class AAAA nonconference showdown between Peters Township and Penn Hills, both Week 1 winners, featured two teams that liked to run the football.

Or at least try to, because there was quite a battle in the trenches on both sides but not a great deal of movement in between the tackles. The difference was Penn Hills had a little bit more speed, and when its players were able to break containment, that spelled trouble for Peters Township.

But ironically, it was a botched punt that turned into a touchdown that provided Penn Hills a spark, and its quickness and big-play ability vaulted Penn Hills to a 33-15 victory over Peters Township Friday night.

Midway through the second quarter with the score 7-7, Penn Hills (2-0) faced a fourth-and-22 situation. Isaiah Jones dropped back to punt, but the snap was low, so Jones decided to run with the ball and, 80 yards later, Penn Hills led 13-7.

“We called that,” said Penn Hills coach John Peterman with a chuckle. “Low snap and he made a play.”

It was Penn Hills’ first punt attempt from a traditional formation. Quarterback Bill Kisner pooch-punted each previous time.

Penn Hills hadn’t been moving the ball well up to that point, having accumulated only two first downs. Its first touchdown came off a turnover deep in Peters Township territory. But the long run was a taste of things to come, as Penn Hills broke off three more runs of at least 30 yards after that.

One of those was a 56-yard touchdown run by Kisner just two minutes after Jones’ score.

“Nobody knows about our speed, and we love it,” Peterman said.

Peters Township, on the other hand, could not get any penetration when it had the ball. Peters Township had negative-21 yards rushing at halftime. The one scoring drive Peters Township strung together in the first half was helped when Cory Owen found tight end Max Augenstein for a couple of first down connections and then Marcus Ubinger for a 9-yard touchdown.

Rich Piccinini and the Peters Township coaching staff made some adjustments at halftime and started moving the ball significantly better in the second half, but a mistake here or there derailed potential game-changing drives.

Peters Township clawed back to within 26-15 when Ubinger scored his second touchdown of the game but could not get closer.

One of the mistakes Peters Township made was particularly costly, as Ubinger scored on a 50-yard touchdown reception with just over four minutes remaining in the game, but it was called back on a penalty, Peters Township’s only infraction of the game.

“We can’t keep being a second-half team every game,” said Piccinini. “We make good halftime adjustments, but we can’t keep doing that. You can’t win like that.”

The Peters Township defense also stepped up and began stopping Penn Hills drives, but the Penn Hills defense had the last laugh. In the final minute and Peters Township in Penn Hills territory, Shawn Featherstone picked off Owen and returned it 75 yards for the game’s final score.

“Penn Hills is an athletic team,” said Piccinini. “They beat you with the big play.”

Kisner finished with 196 yards rushing and Jones had 191. Penn Hills accumulated 433 yards on the ground.

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