When Sports Were Played: McGuffey motivated by doubts of others
The 1994 McGuffey football proved them all wrong, including the WPIAL’s top executive, when the Highlanders defeated three-time defending champion Blackhawk for the WPIAL Class AAA title.
PITTSBURGH – We’ll find out.
For almost three weeks, those words have nagged the McGuffey High School football team. They belong to WPIAL executive director Chuck Heberling, who chided reporters for conceding unbeaten McGuffey the top seed in the Class AAA playoffs after the WPIAL seeded the Highlanders second to defending champion Blackhawk.
“I’m not sure you guys are right about that,” he said. “We’ll find out.”
Saturday night here at Three Rivers Stadium, McGuffey made its own case by stuffing three-time champion Blackhawk, 12-6, to win its first WPIAL football title. The Highlanders (13-0) will face Sharon (11-2) in the PIAA semifinals 7 p.m., Friday at Mt. Lebanon.
“We’re a darn good football team,” 16th-year head coach Frank Sworden told his team when it was over. Nobody could argue after the Highlanders prevented Blackhawk (11-1-1) from becoming the second team in WPIAL history to win four straight championships.
While the McGuffey defense bottled up the Cougars’ running attack, the offense came up with two big plays to avenge a 28-0 loss to Blackhawk in this game one year ago. The biggest was senior quarterback Jared Johnson’s 71-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Jason Francis with 4:16 to play.
“The coaches, every day (said), ‘We’ll find out.’ (Sworden) just mentioned it every day, and it stuck in our minds,” Francis said after he and his teammates became the first McGuffey athletes to win a WPIAL title since the 1977 wrestling team.
Senior halfback Robert Wagner broke a scoreless tie with a 40-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter and, after Blackhawk fullback Jeremy Myers tied the game with a two-yard run early in the fourth, the stage was set for the run-oriented Highlanders to take the championship with a pass play.
On third-and-5 from the Highlanders’ 29 – with Wagner, their leading rusher nursing sore ribs on the sideline – Sworden called for a play that twice earlier had almost resulted in touchdowns. Only a great defensive play by senior cornerback Shawn Taylor broke up Johnson’s first pass for Francis, and Francis dropped the second.
“I wanted to dig a hole under the carpet,” Francis said later. Then, with the game on the line, Francis put the Cougars in a hole.
Working against senior cornerback Eric Cannon, Francis came back on an underthrown ball and then sped away for the right corner of the end zone. It was his first catch of the 1994 playoffs and Johnson’s only completion of the game.
“He was a little upset with himself, and he was destined to make a play to rectify it,” Sworden said of Francis.
The Highlanders, however, would have never been in position to deliver such a play without yet another terrific performance from their defense. They held Blackhawk to just 178 total yards, only 111 on the ground, and forced four turnovers.
Jared Johnson, a cornerback, delivered three interceptions and brother Jason Johnson, a senior linebacker, added a fumble recovery as the Highlanders completely stifled Blackhawk’s option game.
“They couldn’t run outside on us. We just shut it down,” Jared Johnson said.
The only thing the Cougars found success with was the flea-flicker.
Quarterback Steve Wetzel threw it 50 yards to Chad Wissner to the McGuffey three in the final minute of the first half only to have the play negated by a penalty. They hit it again late in the fourth quarter, this time for 50 yards to the McGuffey 17, but two plays later the Highlanders threw tailback Taylor for a 10-yard loss on an option run.
“Our kids took offense to the fact that everybody was talking about Blackhawk’s defense and not about McGuffey defense,” Sworden said. “We’ve played pretty good defense all year.”
The Cougars’ last gasp was a fourth-and-seven pass from the McGuffey 14 with 1:24 left, but Jared Johnson caught it.
“They have no reason to hang their heads,” Blackhawk coach Joe Hamilton said of his players. “It’s not like we quit. We were in it till the end.”
The teams combined for only 130 yards of total offense in the first half, with McGuffey rushing for just 15 yards. The Highlanders wound up with 123 yards rushing and 194 total yards, with Wagner gaining 70 yards on 13 carries. Taylor, Blackhawk’s leading rusher, was held to 61 yards on 18 carries.
“We wanted to deliver a message that we are the best Triple-A team in the WPIAL,” Sworden said.
Consider it done.