Serra’s last-minute TD pass stuns McGuffey
Highlander Kyle Brookman rips a run through the Serra Catholic defense and advances past midfield in the third quarter of the WPIAL playoff game at McGufffey Friday night.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
McGuffey’s Kyle Brookman gets his team better field position with a first quarter run from the 16 that advanced to the 40 and set up the drive for a touchdown and an 8-0 lead for the Highlanders in the WPIAL playoff game against Serra Catholic Friday night.
Jared Johnson scores a two-point conversion after the Highlander touchdown and puts McGuffey up 8-0 over Serra Catholic in the first quarter of the WPIAL playoff game at McGuffey Friday night.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Serra Catholic’s Ryan Brooks forces McGuffey’s Rocco Falosk into an incomplete pass, foiling the two-point conversion attempt that left the Highlanders ahead 14-7 early in the fourth quarter of a WPIAL playoff game Friday night at McGuffey.
McGuffey's Grant Brookman makes a shoestring tackle that stops Serra Catholic's Max Rocco and stalls the Eagles' drive in the fourth quarter of the WPIAL playoff game Friday night at McGuffey.
McGuffey kicker Nate Witkowski watches as his field goal attempt hooks left and hits the upright, keeping the score tied at 14 in the final minutes of the WPIAL playoff game Friday night at McGuffey.
McGuffey's Kyle Brookman caries the ball to the Serra Catholic 20 yard line, setting up a field goal attempt to break a 14-14 tie in the final minutes of the fourth quarter of the WPIAL playoff game Friday night at McGuffey.
CLAYSVILLE – In playoff football, it can all end in an instant.
For McGuffey, that became reality Friday night.
The seventh-seeded Serra Catholic Eagles upended the second-seeded Highlanders 21-14 before an enthusiastic but chilled crowd at Highlander Stadium.
Serra Catholic will advance in the Class 2A playoffs while McGuffey will take solace in winning the Century Conference and defeating neighborhood rival Washington as the highlights of their 2020 season.
How the season ended, however, will be difficult for the Highlanders to forget.
Serra quarterback Max Rocco broke the Highlanders’ hearts when he connected with Jayvon Holt for a 68-yard touchdown pass that provided the winning margin with 28 seconds remaining in the game.
“We had a very good year,” Dalton said following the game. “We won our conference and are now respected. But as you get older as I have; I really wanted to win the whole thing.”
Serra Catholic (5-0) had two weeks off at end the regular season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Eagles’ high-powered offense rolled into town averaging 52.3 points per game, good for most in Class 2A in the WPIAL while the McGuffey defense entered allowing 9.6 points per game, leading all Class 2A teams in points allowed per contest.
For the balance of the evening, McGuffey did a solid job keeping the Eagles in check by possessing the football on offense and pressuring Rocco consistently.
Rocco finished with 17 completions in 32 attempts for 276 yards and three scores. Holt finished with six catches for 100 yards. Terrell Booth snagged 11 receptions for 143 yards to lead all receivers.
“We just took it one play at a time all year and all night tonight,” Serra Catholic coach Jose Regus noted. “Our kids never gave in and played all 48 minutes.”
Holt’s scoring reception came two plays after Nate Witkowsky’s 31-yard field goal attempt with less than a minute remaining hit the left upright, leaving the contest knotted at 14-14.
Although it appeared McGuffey was simply setting up the field goal by sending Rocco Falosk on a keeper to the middle of the field, McGuffey head coach Ed Dalton noted that was not the case.
“We tried to get the first down there. They (Serra Catholic) did a nice job of botching the play up,” Dalton explained.
The potential game-winning drive was set up for McGuffey when Holt fumbled a punt near midfield that was recovered by Ethan Dietrich. McGuffey lurched down to the 14-yard line before the game turned against them for good.
McKinley Whipkey gave the Highlanders a 14-7 lead early in the fourth quarter when he plunged in from the 3. The 85-yard drive was kept alive by a 21-yard fake punt and run by Jeremiah Johnson late in the third. McGuffey was also aided by four Serra Catholic offsides penalties that helped the Highlanders convert third-and-shorts into first downs.
“We did a good job drawing them offsides with the hard-count,” Dalton said.
Serra Catholic responded by way of the pass when Rocco connected on a five-yard scoring toss to Paul Pearson with 5:57 left in the contest. The score was set up by a 38-yard Rocco-to-Booth connection on third-and-17 from the Highlanders’ 39.
McGuffey dented the scoreboard first in a most unusual way with less than five minutes remaining in the opening frame. Kyle Brookman hauled in a Falosk pass on the Eagle 15 and turned toward the end zone. He was stripped of the ball by Serra Catholic defensive back DaiQuan Chatfield at the five. The ball tumbled into the end zone where Brookman recovered it for a score. The Highlanders then went for two as Jared Johnson took an outside pitch, followed his blockers and earned the conversion for the hosts, making it 8-0 in favor of McGuffey.
The Highlanders repelled one Serra Catholic scoring threat early in the second when Jared Johnson broke up a third-down pass into the end zone intended for Chatfield. Johnson then blocked a Joe Folino 32-yard field goal.
But Serra Catholic’s offense would not be held down for much longer. Marching 91 yards in seven plays, the Eagles scored when Max Rocco fired a 29-yard pass to Terrell Booth, slicing the Highlander lead to 8-7 late in the half.
The Highlanders were held to 185 yards of offense on the evening.
“They were in our backfield a good bit of the evening,” Dalton said.