New-look offensive line helps pave way for Penn Hills

By: Josh Rizzo
Sunday, October 10, 2021 | 11:01 AM

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Khalil Barley-Morrow didn’t dream of being the starting center for the Penn Hills football team.

Throughout much of this preseason, the 6-foot-1, 260-pound senior thought he would be playing guard.

But the Indians have a roster full of versatile players, and Barley-Morrow wanted to help his team any way he could.

The Indians, who were 2-3 and 0-1 in Northern Conference play entering their conference matchup with North Hills last Friday, feel like they are settling in after a slow start.

“It wasn’t hard picking things up,” Barley-Morrow said about playing center. “When you are making the audibles, you are doing it for the quarterback. I just want to help the team. Being a senior, I had a captain’s perspective.”

Penn Hills coach Jon LeDonne is pleased with Barley-Morrow’s progress, and the Indians’ offensive line has jelled quickly.

Fellow senior Luke Pugliese was the most experienced lineman returning. Barley-Morrow finding a home at center helped solidify the line.

“He’s in charge of the offensive line, and he’s doing a great job with it,” LeDonne said. “He’s making all of the protection checks.”

Having players able to adjust on the fly is an important asset for Penn Hills. After a 21-14 loss to Pine-Richland in its conference opener, LeDonne brought out the boxing gloves in practice.

Penn Hills fumbled five times — losing four of them — against the Rams. Before taking on North Hills, the result of which was too late for this edition, LeDonne wanted to make sure ball security was a top priority.

In practice, the coaching staff used the gloves to try and pop the ball free from the players.

“It was well-needed,” Barley-Morrow said. “At first, we saw the gloves and thought we were fighting, so we got hyped. But it was different. It was a good exercise we did at practice.”

Other than turnovers, LeDonne was pleased with the progress Penn Hills made entering the final stretch of the season. A lot of the mental mistakes that plagued their early-season progress had started to slide away.

“We got better,” LeDonne said. “We eliminated a lot of mental mistakes. We have to take care of the football. We didn’t have mental breakdowns, but we put the ball on the turf five times.”

The Indians have seen progress since the season started, and more time together figures to make Penn Hills more formidable.

“The more we work together, the more we are starting to get on the same page,” Barley-Morrow said. “We put the extra practice time in and the extra hours in the film room. It all came together. I feel it took us a couple weeks to get that chemistry.”

Tags: Penn Hills