Aug 21, 2025 By Jerin Steele 5 min read

When Canon-McMillan football coach Brian DeLallo watched the tape from last year’s meeting against Peters Township he could pinpoint the moment when things went wrong.

The Big Macs were ahead 17-0, but one mistake turned into two and then into three and so on until the final score read Peters Township 42, Canon-McMillan 17.

DeLallo has stressed to his team about finishing games and with everyone a year older, he believes they can.

The Big Macs will get a chance to see the progress they’ve made when they travel to Peters Township for a Week Zero game, 7 p.m. tonight.

“We started strong last year, but Peters is a very good, experienced team that is well coached,” DeLallo said. “They finished that game the right way. We’ve talked about not letting things snowball. Once things started turning south, they couldn’t get it turned back around. When they make plays, we have to respond. If you watch that film from last year … it was 17-0, there was a turnover, a kick return and the next thing you know it just snowballed on them.”

DeLallo is filling in as head coach while Mike Evans is on a medical sabbatical. Evans is battling liver cancer.

Peters Township has aspirations of returning to Acrisure Stadium for the WPIAL Class 5A championship, but make no mistake, the Indians respect the Big Macs.

After falling behind 17-0 to them last season, they understand they have a difficult opponent to open their schedule.

“It is a rivalry,” Indians coach TJ Plack said. “Mike (Evans), I know he’s on medical sabbatical this year, but he’s a Peters Township alum and he always gets up for this game and gets his kids up for the game. I know Brian DeLallo is over there now and I know him very well. I’m close with him. I know their kids are going to be prepared and ready to go. I think they have a bad taste in their mouths after going up 17-0 last year and us scoring 42 unanswered. They probably feel like they let that game slip away and they will be motivated.

“I told our kids that their coaching staff is telling them the same thing I am. That it’s going to be a physical game and that we need to be focused. I’m happy I’m in front of my kids, because we’re experienced and have played a lot of big games the last couple years.”

Both coaches agreed that there’s pros and cons to playing a strong opponent right out of the gate.

They get a good gauge on where they are as a team but also might need to load up on the ice packs for after the game.

“They are hands down the most physical team we play year in and year out,” Plack said. “In the 2023 year, until we met Imhotep (Charter) in the state final, (Canon-McMillan) was the most physical team we played that season.”

Peters Township has some bruisers of its own on the defensive side. And they’re both Division I recruits. Reston Lehman is headed to Pitt and Lucas Shanafelt is a Stanford recruit.

“The two edge guys (Lehman and Shanafelt) really pop on defense,” DeLallo said. “They’re really good. I know that, because I’ve coached against them at Canon-Mac and Bethel Park the last four years. They graduated Mickey Vaccarello but still have two huge guys on defense that make plays. They are a pain to prepare for.”

Nolan DiLucia, a Villanova recruit, is back at quarterback for the Indians and part of a strong senior class with Lehman and Shanafelt.

Plack is looking toward the seniors to guide the younger players as they try to build a championship-caliber team.

“We have a great senior class, but you can’t win it with one grade at this level,” Plack said. “They won in seventh grade and eighth grade and did well with two other classes ahead of them in high school. I’ve stressed to them that they have to lead the way. They are an integral component to this team, but they have to make everyone else better. You’re not going to win in this league with nine kids. You have to be 30 to 35 strong.”

TJ Sabatucci, a tight end/defensive lineman for Canon-McMillan, is a Buffalo commit. Ty Jansma is back for his second season as the starting quarterback.

This will be the first game since 2015 that Evans isn’t on the sideline as the head coach. Evans’ battle with cancer is an inspiration for the Big Macs and they want to make their coach proud, starting Friday night.

“The community’s excited to see the team take the next step,” DeLallo said. “Mike deserves a lot of credit for that. People forget what it was like before he got here. This was a program that won like three games in five years and he has steadily built this thing to the point where we’re competitive. Now we want to be more than competitive. We want to do bigger things. It’s a shame that Mike can’t be here to experience the success we hopefully have this year.”

Extra points

Prior to the game Peters Township will honor the 50th anniversary of its 1975 team that had an unbeaten regular season.