Penn-Trafford football team rebounds to beat Plum

By: Michael Love
Friday, October 14, 2022 | 10:25 PM

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The Penn-Trafford football team got that winning feeling back Friday after last week’s tough loss to rival Gateway.

The Warriors churned out 377 yards on the ground, compiled 499 yards of total offense and produced a 35-21 victory over Plum in a Big East Conference Class 5A game at Warrior Stadium.

Penn-Trafford improved to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in conference play and stayed in playoff contention. The Warriors step away from conference play Friday at North Allegheny before finishing with Franklin Regional on Oct. 28.

“We’re playing all the way to the end,” Penn-Trafford coach John Ruane said. “We still have a chance, and right now, that is what we want. We have to do our part and hope for some help. We are treating everything like a playoff game.”

Plum lost for the fourth straight time and saw its playoff chances all but fade away at 3-5 overall and 1-3 in the conference. The Mustangs will try to get back in the win column next week at Hempfield (5-3, 1-2) in their Big East finale.

“I told the boys I will never give up on them,” Plum coach Matt Morgan said. “I know they will never give up on me. We’re going to keep grinding away and try to rattle off two wins and end on a positive note.”

Owen Demeri had his best game of the season by far as he ran, often out of the wildcat, for 190 yards on 25 carries.

The senior finished with two touchdowns, including one from 3 yards in the third quarter as Penn-Trafford took control.

Senior quarterback Conlan Greene all but put the game away for the Warriors with a 2-yard run with 7 minutes, 39 seconds left in the fourth. He had 20 carries for 131 yards and three touchdowns.

“I thought we did a really good job of running the ball tonight,” Ruane said. “We had kind of got away from that and wasn’t as physical as we wanted to be the past couple of weeks. We made it a point of emphasis this week.”

Greene completed 6 of 10 passes for 122 yards.

“I think we kind of got overwhelmed with the size of their players,” Morgan said. “Penn-Trafford did a great job of executing their gameplan. They were more physical than we were.”

Plum capped the game’s scoring with a 7-yard touchdown connection from junior Sean Franzi to senior Kaden Thomas with 2:46 left.

The Mustangs defense scored first as Thomas picked off a Greene screen pass with 9:47 left in the first-quarter and took it 56 yards for the touchdown.

Penn-Trafford took the ensuing kick and drove inside the Plum 5, but the Mustangs defense held strong and forced a turnover on downs.

Plum, however, wasn’t able to do anything with the ball and punted from its 5.

That’s when the Warriors got their first points as Demeri capped a six-play, 50-yard drive with a 14-yard run with 14 seconds to play in the first quarter.

Penn-Trafford took the one-score lead into halftime on a pair of Greene touchdown runs. The first was from 16 yards with 6:16 left in the second quarter, and the second one, with 8 seconds on the clock, was from 17 yards and capped a hurry-up 10-play, 80-yard march.

The Warriors finished the first half with 242 rushing yards on 29 attempts.

“We started slow with the pick 6 and then not getting in after driving to the 1,” Ruane said. “It was a couple of stupid self-inflicted wounds. After that, we relaxed and played to our capabilities and started to roll.”

Plum got on the board a second time with 2:08 until the break as senior Eryck Moore-Watkins went in from 4 yards. The short TD run was set up by a clutch 30-yard pass completion from Franzi to Darian Nelson on fourth and 12.

Moore-Watkins led Plum with 11 carries for 55 yards.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Penn-Trafford, Plum