Sep 29, 2017 4 min read

CANONSBURG – Damien Patragas is 1-0.

Patragas, filling in for Canon-McMillan football coach Mike Evans – sidelined by a school-imposed, one-game disciplinary suspension – rallied the Big Macs to a come-from-behind, 27-23 victory over visiting Altoona Friday night.

“I’ve been at this for 18 years now, but I’ve never been a head coach,” Patragas said. “You can see why, can’t you?”

Not really. His team just ended a three-game losing streak.

“We just tried to treat the situation like business as usual,” said Patragas, who has served two stints for a total of eight years as defensive coordinator at Canon-McMillan. In between, he spent 10 seasons as an assistant at Upper St. Clair.

Naturally, Patragas called the defensive plays, as he primarily does throughout the season, and offensive coordinator Tim Sohyda called the offensive plays in place of Evans.

“The kids responded very well to the situation and the coaches made some good adjustments at halftime,” Patragas said.”

Canon-McMillan had just enough left to hold off Altoona after blowing a 20-point second-quarter lead.

Elijah Turner rushed for 123 yards and two touchdowns, including a 40-yarder in the third quarter that gave Canon-McMillan (3-3, 2-2) the WPIAL Class 6A Southeastern Conference victory that extended Altoona’s losing streak to five.

“We battled back to make a game of it, but we never make these trips to get moral victories,” Altoona coach Nick Felus said.

Turner scored on a 14-yard run, Trejahn Lewis threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Dillon O’Donoghue and David Cooper scored on a 3-yard run to give Canon-McMillan a 20-0 lead before Altoona rallied to tie it at 20-20 at halftime.

Altoona quarterback Braeden Burchfield, who passed for 412 yards, found Tyler Petucci on scoring passes of 56 and 22 yards and scored on a 1-yard keeper during a second-quarter scoring spree for the Mountain Lions (1-5, 0-4).

Petucci’s fumble recovery after his first touchdown catch led to his second.

Altoona took a 23-20 lead in the third quarter on a 34-yard field goal by Andrew Eisel before Turner’s second touchdown run for Canon-McMillan put the Big Macs back in the lead for good.

A fast start and a big early lead for Canon-McMillan quickly turned into a battle with Altoona, which was coming off a 63-14 home loss to No. 3 Mt. Lebanon in the previous week.

The Mountain Lions benefitted by the return of a pair of a pair of injured starters who nearly helped them pull off a road victory.

The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Petucci (knee) and Mitchell Lawhead (wrist) both missed the team’s previous two games.

Petucci, a running back/linebacker, caught seven passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns, while Lawhead, a running back/defensive back, logged an interception in the second quarter for Altoona deep in its territory to snuff a Canon-McMillan drive.

“We really need to stop making so many mistakes and turnovers,” Patragas said. “We had four of them tonight.”

Canon-McMillan survived an Altoona passing attack that saw Burchfield complete 25 of 51 passes, including eight for more than 20 yards. His first completion was for 66 yards to Petucci that nearly gave Altoona a touchdown. But the Mountain Lions’ drive stalled.

It was the same situation with the clock winding down in the fourth quarter. Altoona had one last-gasp play with 1 second remaining, and Burchfield took his shot, firing the ball into the end zone off the hands of several players fighting for the ball.

Burchfield started slowly, struggling to control his passes in a steady rain that eased before halftime.

“He made some nice throws tonight, but we had a lot of dropped passes,” Felus said. “I’m still extremely happy with the way the kids responded after last week’s game. We’re getting closer. We’re trying to get this thing going.”

Turner carried 25 times for Canon-McMillan, but perhaps none was bigger than the 40-yard run for the Big Macs’ final touchdown with 6:19 left in the third quarter.

Neither team was able to punch it in after that.