SF off to fast start, routs Burgettstown
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter South Fayette’s Mikey Speca is tackled by Burgettstown’s Bryan Krynak Friday during their WPIAL Class AA playoff game.
McDONALD – For some teams, the postseason is the true measuring stick of talent.
South Fayette is one of those teams.
The Lions began their drive for a third consecutive WPIAL and PIAA titles Friday night. The top-seeded Lions rolled to a 63-6 victory over No. 16 Burgettstown in the first round of the WPIAL Class AA playoffs.
Drew Saxton threw three first-half touchdown passes and Hunter Hayes had a pair of touchdown runs to pace the South Fayette, which extended its consecutive win streak to 42 games.
”When you are rewarded with a No. 1 seed, you know any week you can be done,” said South Fayette head coach Joe Rossi. “We play for real now. We talked a lot about tradition before the game. Kids making plays for the tradition of the program and not for themselves.”
The 10-0 Lions advance to Friday’s quarterfinals, where they will play Beaver, a 45-24 winner over Mt. Pleasant last night.
As good as the South Fayette offense was, the defense was even more impressive.
Burgettstown (5-5) didn’t have very good field position for most of the game, starting drives deep in their own territory. The Lions allowed only one first down in the first half, forcing the Blue Devils to punt on all nine of their first-half possessions.
Burgettstown went into the locker room at halftime with one yard of total offense and finished with only 54 yards for the game.
”Fast. We talked about keeping it simple and wanting to play fast ,” said Rossi. “We have some great athletes. We need to keep playing fast. It’s survive and advance.”
The Lions shook off a pair of early first-quarter turnovers, including a Ryan Lounder interception of Saxton on South Fayette’s first drive of the game.
After that, it was smooth sailing for the Lions.
Hayes got the Lions on the board with a three-yard touchdown run on the second drive of the game before Saxton hit Dan Trimbur with a beautiful fade pass in the corner of the end zone for a seven-yard touchdown to make it 14-0.
Mikey Speca scored on a 26-yard run then Trimbur caught his second touchdown pass of the first quarter, a 27 yarder from Saxton to make it 28-0.
”We rely on our veterans,” Rossi said. “Some of our younger guys haven’t been in this spot the past couple of years, but we have some guys who have been there. We are going to lean on them.”
Hayes got the second quarter off to a good start with a nine-yard touchdown run. One drive later, Saxton hit Nick Ponikvar with a 25-yard touchdown to extend the SF lead to 42-0.
Saxton finished with 12 completions of 16 attempts for 195 yards and the three touchdowns.
In the second half, the Lions’ Johnny Beck, Peyton Tinney and Andrew Ziegler all added rushing touchdowns.
Burgettstown was making its first playoff appearance since 2009.
”I am extremely proud of those kids,” said Blue Devils head coach Mark Druga. “It was tough against a machine like South Fayette. They are a great team. But for us it was an uphill battle all season. Not many people thought we would be playing a meaningful game here in Week 10. Two years ago those seniors didn’t win a game and now we are in the playoffs. We are going to keep getting better. We lost to one of the best teams in the state. We have a lot to be proud of.”