Jeannette overcomes penalties, mistakes to rout rival Greensburg Central Catholic

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, October 12, 2018 | 11:09 PM

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The more Roy Hall preaches, the more frustrated he becomes.

And all the while, his unbeaten Jeannette Jayhawks keep rolling along.

“For every big thing we did tonight, every little thing we did well, I feel like all the penalties we keep getting, all the mistakes we make just takes it all away,” the Jeannette football coach said Friday night following a 40-14 rout of visiting Greensburg Central Catholic in a WPIAL Class 1A Eastern Conference game.

Both teams combined for 38 penalties, Jeannette (8-0, 4-0) racking up a season-high 20 for 210 yards.

Seth Howard passed for 272 yards and a touchdown and rushed for three more scores to lead top-ranked Jeannette. Howard completed 13 of 23 attempts, including six to Marcus Barnes for 141 yards as well as a 23-yard scoring strike to Jackson Pruitt.

Barnes, a 6-foot-4 senior wide receiver being recruited by a number of FCS schools, was ejected in the fourth quarter for unsportsmanlike conduct and will be ineligible to play next Saturday at Riverview.

With Barnes making a number of acrobatic catches, Jeannette moved into a first-place tie with Clairton in the Eastern Conference and will face the second-ranked Bears at home in the regular-season finale Oct. 26.

“We did some things well. Marcus made some spectacular catches, and Seth put some throws right there,” Hall said. “But the penalties, to me, just overshadow it. As the coach of this program, I take it personally.”

Jeannette scored on its first three possessions to take a 21-0 lead and appeared destined to enter halftime with a shutout in hand.

Howard scored on a 5-yard run, then passed 23 yards to Pruitt to make it 14-0 before Jaden Crosby added a 3-yard TD run.

But Greensburg Central Catholic (5-3, 3-3) scored on the final play of the second quarter to slice into the lead.

After Sam Szweda intercepted Howard’s pass at midfield with 57 seconds left, the Centurions marched to the end zone with the help of several penalties against Jeannette.

Max Pisula lofted a 20-yard scoring pass to Bryce Kurpiel as time expired in the first half to pull GCC within 21-7.

“We were still in it at that point,” GCC coach Aaron Smetanka said. “I could see that our guys had the desire to play with them, but Jeannette has so much speed. They were just torching us over the top with their playmakers on offense and we were grabbing too much on defense instead of wrapping them up.”

Howard added a 1-yard scoring run in the third quarter and a 3-yarder in the fourth to give Jeannette a 34-7 advantage and Imani Sanders’ 1-yard run after he intercepted a pass on the previous play and returned it 59 yards to the 1 made it 40-7.

GCC, which was penalized 18 times for 137 yards, added its other touchdown in the final minute on Brando Ciccarelli’s 15-yard pass to Zach Dlugos.

Dave Mackall is a freelance writer.

Tags: Greensburg C.C., Jeannette