Shady Side Academy stays unbeaten, beats Summit Academy

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, October 6, 2018 | 10:45 PM

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Since offseason realignment bumped Shady Side Academy down to Class 2A and bumped up Summit Academy, it’s been nothing but up for the Indians and struggles galore for the Knights.

Those trends continued Saturday afternoon in Herman when Shady Side Academy rolled to a 47-6 victory over Summit Academy, keeping the Indians perfect at 6-0 overall and dropping Summit Academy to 0-7.

The Indians struck on the first play from scrimmage. Quarterback Skyy Moore connected with Dino Tomlin on a quick slant over the middle, and the senior wide receiver turned it into a 63-yard touchdown.

“It looked easy,” said Shady Side Academy coach Chuck DiNardo, “but the timing and the release point and where we are catching that ball, it takes a lot of time. It happened here, but that’s a play we presented back in April.”

The next time the Indians had the ball, they drove inside the Knights 5, but penalties slowed them down and a turnover ended their bid to add to their early lead.

“This will certainly be one where we watch the tape pretty closely to see some areas where we can improve. Cleaning up those penalties would be a huge improvement for us,” DiNardo said.

After the first quarter ended with Shady Side Academy up only 7-0, the Indians took control with a dominant 34-point second quarter.

Alex Bellinotti scored twice on touchdown runs of 15 and 3 yards to make it 21-0 Shady Side Academy.

On the next drive, the Indians worked the ball down to the Summit Academy 4 when it looked like the SSA coaches dialed up a trick-play. With Skyy Moore in shotgun formation, the ball was snapped and rolled right behind the center, where motion man Ivor Wood picked it up and ran in stride and carried it into the end zone.

“As much as I would like to take credit for that,” DiNardo said laughing, “that was definitely not the fumblerooskie there. That was a snap that got stuck in the mud and was rolling on the ground. Sometimes these kids make me look like I know what I’m doing.”

On the first play after a Summit Academy whiffed punt gave Shady Side Academy the ball at the Knights 25, Moore lofted a beautiful rainbow pass in the deep right corner of the end zone to an open Billy Frohlich to make it 34-0 Indians.

The best chance to score for Summit Academy before the half came when Terron Rembert turned the corner on a 60-yard run down the left sidelines before Frohlich caught him from behind at the Shady Side Academy 5.

But a couple of losses and a penalty forced a fourth down pass from Knights quarterback Kansan McCray to be picked off in traffic at the goal line by Tomlin.

The Indians drove 99 yards in less than a minute as Moore found an open Tomlin on a pump-and-go for a 65-yard touchdown with 15 seconds left in the half.

After a scoreless third quarter played with the running clock, both teams exchanged rushing touchdowns in the fourth as Mark Appleman scored on a 1-yard run for the Indians and Rembert broke the shutout with a 35-yard run for the Knights.

With the win, Shady Side Academy improved to 4-0 atop the 2A Allegheny Conference and clinched a WPIAL playoff berth for the first time since 2014.

The Indians have a nonconference game at Fort Cherry next week but end the regular season with back-to-back conference games against East Allegheny and Avonworth.

“With the way our conference is situated right now,” DiNardo Said, “we know we are looking down the barrel at a couple of tough tests.”

Summit Academy falls to 0-4 in the conference and have been outscored 270-22.

Don Rebel is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Don at drebel@tribweb.com or via Twitter @TheDonRebel.

Tags: Shady Side Academy, Summit Academy