Penn Hills shuts down Plum in Week Zero opener
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Saturday, August 26, 2017 | 10:27 PM
Jon LeDonne came up a winner in his debut as the Penn Hills football coach as the Indians rolled to a 26-0 victory over Plum in the Western Pa. Legends Classic at North Allegheny's Newman Stadium.
Junior quarterback Hollis Mathis passed for 261 yards and two touchdowns on 11 completions Saturday night to pace the Penn Hills attack.
Senior running back Jacquay Sears scored the other Indians touchdowns on runs of 8 yards and 1 yard.
“We're excited to get the win, but we had a lot of mistakes and a lot of assignments to get corrected,” LeDonne said. “It's a Week Zero game so we can build some momentum with the win, but we've still got a lot to correct.”
The Indians were penalized 11 times for 83 yards while its defense allowed Plum just 27 net offensive yards.
Penn Hills maintains a commanding, 24-5 lead in the all-time series between the two schools.
“Bottom line, it's an exhibition game; we did it because we didn't want to do a scrimmage,” Mustangs coach Matt Morgan said. “We want to be able to correct game-type situations and mistakes and move on from it because we've got a big one against Kiski next week, and that's what we're focused on.”
In a key, early play, Penn Hills was faced with a third-and-7 from the Plum 40 six plays into the game.
Mathis sidestepped two Plum tacklers and found Daquan Hardy, who had broken loose from coverage at the Mustangs 8, setting up the first Sears score.
Plum got an early break when James Coyner recovered a Penn Hills fumble on a punt return at the Indians 14.
But the Mustangs couldn't capitalize, and Jackson Gildea missed a 26-yard field goal attempt.
With 6:43 left in the half, Sears scored on a 1-yard plunge.
On Plum's first offensive play following the kickoff, Andy Plowden Jr. intercepted a Dominic Carlisano pass after a tip from teammate Kelvonn Pasch'l.
The Indians scored just three plays later to make it 19-0 on a Mathis pass to junior Richard Martin.
Plum came out in the second half with an entirely different backfield with sophomore Anthony Little replacing Carlisano, and Dakota Sunday and Marcus Thomas replaced Corey Thomas and Hunter Fields in the backfield.
“We wanted to see some other guys' work,” Morgan said. “We rotated some guys around, put a new quarterback in there to see how he'd react to situations, evaluate it and go forth.”
Thomas finished with 36 rushing yards on seven carries.
The Mustangs had possession for 8 minutes, 27 seconds on one second-half drive, but came up empty.
Thomas carried the ball to the Penn Hills 8, but three penalties and a sack forced Plum into a fourth-and-goal at the 33.
One bright spot was Plum's rushing defense, limiting the Indians to a net 19 rushing yards.
“We talk about goals to win the game,” LeDonne said. “One is run the ball, stop the run and special teams. We got two out of three today.”
Penn Hills wide receiver Julian Major, who has committed to Michigan State, was held out of action along with several other starters to avoid injuries, according to LeDonne.
George Guido is a freelance writer.
Tags: Penn Hills, Plum
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