Sweet win: South Fayette defense holds Blackhawk to a doughnut
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
South Fayette’s Joe Mowod (25), Nolan Lutz (22) and Ryan Kokoski (2) tackle Blackhawk running back Kenneth Gawley Friday night.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
South Fayette’s Charley Rossi (1), Rayquin Glover (11) and Ryan McQuire (18) congratulate Mike Trimbur, center, after he caught a touchdown pass Friday night against Blackhawk.
South Fayette's Eamon Horowitz sacks Blackhawk quarterback Chance Liptak Friday night.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
South Fayette’s Mike Trimbur (4) and Ben Wright (55) combine to tackle Blackhawk’s Kenneth Gawley Friday night.
South Fayette's Mike Trimbur caught a 47-yard touchdown pass Friday night against Blackhawk.
South Fayette’s Mike Trimbur leads the Lions in receptions (41), receiving yards (809) and touchdown receptions (14).
McDONALD – For the third time this season, the South Fayette defense will be rewarded with doughnuts provided by defensive coach Bill Yoest.
Yoest promises the defense each week that if they post a shutout, he will buy doughnuts for them. As the Lions overcame the potent Blackhawk defense in the second half, the South Fayette defense held strong and limited the Cougars to only 203 yards of offense and, more importantly, no points en route to a 21-0 victory in a key Northwest Eight Conference game Friday night.
“Coach buys doughnuts, that’s it,” South Fayette head coach Joe Rossi said. “We’re all eating because that was well-earned against a very good football team that’s going to go deep in the playoffs.”
For South Fayette quarterback Jamie Diven, the game was a tale of two halves. The senior came into the game leading all of Class 4A in passing yards (1,204) and touchdowns (17) but was limited to just 38 yards on 2-of-9 passing with an interception in the first half.
Neither Blackhawk (4-1, 5-1) nor South Fayette (3-0, 5-1) cracked the opposing red zone in the first two quarters, leading to a 0-0 tie going into halftime.
The lack of scoring didn’t faze Rossi and the Lions because he knew they just had to make a few minor changes to the game plan to eventually find success.
“That’s a solid football team and we knew all week they (had) grit and determination,” Rossi said. “They were solid. We made a couple little adjustments when the kids came out in the second half and cleaned up some mistakes and it was good.”
The Lions wasted no time. With 5:24 to go in the third quarter after a short punt gave them solid field position on the Cougars’ 47-yard line, Diven found senior Mike Trimbur for a 47-yard touchdown to make it 7-0.
That play helped jumpstart Diven’s big second half. Diven ended up throwing for 201 yards and two scores over the final two quarters. He finished the night completing eight-of-19 passes for 239 yards.
From that point on, Blackhawk struggled to keep drives going, turning the ball over four times in the second half, including two fumbles, an interception and a turnover-on-downs.
“Any time you play a team like South Fayette, you have to play perfect,” said Blackhawk head coach Zack Hayward. “That’s not what we did tonight. We were far from perfect – penalties, fumbles and interceptions, just things like that. When you want to play in the playoffs, or play and beat a team like South Fayette, you have to control the ball to limit your mistakes. In the second half, we weren’t able to do that.”
Diven found Trimbur again with 4:13 left in the fourth quarter, this time from 36-yards out, to extend the lead to 14-0.
Andrew Franklin added a four-yard rushing score with 1:33 to go in the fourth quarter to pad the advantage to 21-0 before Cougar quarterback Chance Liptak was intercepted by Eli Snider to seal the game.
As the Lions’ doughnut streak extended to two-straight games, Rossi is ecstatic about the effort his team put in against the Cougars.
“We bent a little, but we didn’t break…” he said. “This group likes to have fun, and nights like tonight are what high school football is all about.”