Gateway, Penn-Trafford choose Sunday night kickoff for football game

By: Chris Harlan
Monday, October 5, 2020 | 12:51 PM

Sunday night football is coming to the WPIAL.

Conference rivals Gateway and Penn-Trafford agreed to move this week’s game to 7 p.m. Sunday to give the Gators time to recover from their covid-19 shutdown. The game is at Gateway’s Antimarino Stadium. The Gators were forced to cancel last week’s game against Latrobe after a positive coronavirus test.

WPIAL teams rarely play on Sundays, but the schools chose that option over a Monday game.

“(Penn-Trafford) had asked not to disrupt their schedule as much as possible, and obviously we respect that,” Gateway athletic director and football coach Don Holl said.

The move gives Gateway two additional days for practice.

“We were hoping to get what would amount to a fairly regular practice week especially after not practicing for two weeks,” Holl said. “If you take Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and extrapolate that into Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, then you’ve got similar work up to the game.”

Both teams are undefeated in the Big East. Gateway (2-0, 1-0) is ranked second in WPIAL Class 5A and Penn-Trafford (3-1, 2-0) is fourth. Penn-Trafford owns a 14-game conference winning streak. The last team to defeat the Warriors was Gateway in Week 2 of the 2018 season.

For now, the attendance policy for Sunday is undecided, Holl said.

Penn-Trafford athletic director Kerry Hetrick said his side was gladly willing to move the game to better accommodate Gateway’s needs following its program shutdown.

“We wanted to keep things as manageable as possible going forward,” Hetrick said. “We knew Gateway had to get practices in.”

In Week 6, Penn-Trafford plays Connellsville on Friday, Oct. 16. Gateway plays Woodland Hills on Oct. 17.

Staff writer Bill Beckner contributed.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Gateway, Penn-Trafford