No. 1 Jeannette stuffs OLSH in top-5 high school football matchup

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, October 5, 2018 | 10:36 PM

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It is rare to see a Week 6 regular season game, especially one that doesn’t impact the conference standings, get so much attention.

But Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at Jeannette came with all the bells and whistles of a playoff matchup.

Maybe it was buried in small type but another rarity was a key footnote to the matchup: Jeannette doesn’t lose very often to nonconference opponents.

And the trend continued.

The defense framed this one as Marcus Barnes and Jackson Pruitt returned first-half interceptions for touchdowns off OLSH star quarterback Tyler Bradley and the top-ranked Jayhawks stuffed the No. 4 Chargers with a third-quarter goal-line stand on the way to a 28-13 victory on Friday night at McKee Stadium.

Barnes had two interceptions and Drake Petrillo had four sacks in the win, Jeannette’s 13th in a row.

“Our coaches made a game plan, we wanted to play man up and we wanted to send the pressure on him,” Jeannette coach Roy Hall said of pressuring Bradley. “(Bradley) even said after the game, ‘Man, you guys just kept coming after me.’ That was taking him out of his sync. We watched him on film, and he’s accurate. … I am proud of our defense, we did great there.”

Jeannette (7-0) has only lost two nonconference games since 2000 — to Shady Side Academy (2013) and Laurel (2010).

Petrillo and Cam Falbaum got to Bradley early with a sack on the Chargers’ first possession. The defense had six sacks.

Bradley, the WPIAL passing leader, finished 19 of 41 for 291 yards.

“There were a lot of big plays in this game,” OLSH coach Dan Bradley said. “Unfortunately, they made most of them.”

Jayhawks quarterback Seth Howard somehow escaped pressure and turned a broken run play into a 3-yard touchdown to Zack Berginc for the game’s first score.

Howard threw for 198 yards and ran for 70.

Barnes intercepted Bradley for a 58-yard score later in the opening quarter. Jeannette came up empty on extra points and led 12-0.

Bradley found Austin Wrigley for a 30-yard strike to get the Chargers (6-1) within 12-6, still in the first quarter.

It stayed that way until Pruitt stepped in front of a Bradley deep ball and sprinted down the far sideline for 85 yards as the Jayhawks took a 20-6 lead into the break.

The score helped erase a sketchy series by Jeannette that saw penalties produce an unheard of fourth-and-55. The promising looking drive started at the OLSH 20.

Bradley delivered on the Chargers’ first drive of the second half as he found Sig Saftner over the middle for a 27-yard score to cut the deficit to 20-13.

OLSH drove deep into Jeannette territory late in the third but was stonewalled by the Jayhawks, who stopped the Chargers on four straight runs inside the 9.

Hall was disappointed in 17 penalties by Jeannette, but he enjoyed the goal-line stand.

“Our guys stepped up there and came to play,” Hall said. “We bent a little bit but we didn’t break. It was 20-13 there so that was big; we got the ball back and scored.”

Said Dan Bradley: “We had some protection problems. We get within seven and get stopped on the 6-inch line. We kept coming and didn’t give up.”

Howard zipped a pass downfield to Berginc for 42 yards and then dashed left for a 36-yard keeper to up the lead to 28-13.

Shamon Jackson followed the score with an interception and on the next OLSH series, Justin Cramer recovered a fumble after a big gain by Saftner.

Howard quickly got Jeannette back into scoring position early in the fourth with a 78-yard bomb to Melik Gordon, but the Jayhawks could not add to their lead.

Since joining Class A in 2014, Jeannette is 54-7 with six of the losses to Clairton. OLSH joined the WPIAL in 2010.

Bradley, the WPIAL passing leader who began the night with 1,780 yards and 24 touchdowns, threw for 423 yards and seven scores last week against Laurel. He completed passes to seven receivers, including Schnarre, who caught three for 70 yards.

Bill Beckner is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Bill at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.

Tags: Jeannette, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart