Plenty of respect exists between Class 5A semifinal foes Gateway, West Allegheny

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 | 6:45 PM

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Don Holl was coaching at Tunkhannock High School, northwest of Wilkes-Barre, when he brought his football team to a seven-on-seven camp at Edinboro in the late 1990s. There he met Bob Palko, who at that point was just a few years into his own coaching stint at West Allegheny.

In between competition, the two men talked coaching philosophies and strategies, creating a relationship that continues today — even as they prepare to lead their teams into a WPIAL Class 5A semifinal battle against each other.

Holl’s No. 1 Gateway (12-0), the defending WPIAL Class 5A champion, will take on eight-time WPIAL champ Palko and No. 5 West Allegheny (9-2) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at West Mifflin, with a bid to next week’s WPIAL championship game at Norwin on the line.

“I think everybody’s familiar with West Allegheny for all the right reasons,” Holl said. “They’re really good, they’re really well-coached, talented, tough kids, really good ideas schematically. They’re sound, make good adjustments and good fundamentally … it’s a really good operation, and it’s not by accident. Coach Palko’s one of the very best that has ever done it at our level or any other level, and his kids give you that impression.”

Holl said he takes inspiration from some of Palko’s practices and grabs ideas from watching West Allegheny on film: “When a guy’s done it as well as he’s done it, I think you’d be foolish not to,” he said.

Gateway last fall won its first WPIAL championship since 1986 and has spent the entire season atop the WPIAL rankings as it seeks a repeat.

Long a championship contender, West Allegheny is seeking to send Palko out with a record ninth WPIAL title. The longtime coach will step down after the season, but right now, that’s the furthest thing from his mind.

“I’m a grinder: I just put down my head and work,” Palko said. “I’m not real sentimental or anything like that. I’m an emotional guy, but I’m not sentimental. I don’t think about that. That’s for other people to worry about, not me.”

Friday’s semifinal matches up the two teams that won Class 5A titles since the PIAA went to six classifications in 2016. West Allegheny beat McKeesport, 38-37, in the 2016 championship, while Gateway took down Penn-Trafford, 21-16, last November.

Allegheny Eight Conference co-champion West Allegheny moved on to the semifinals with a 14-13 victory over Woodland Hills in the quarterfinals, scoring the go-ahead touchdown with just over a minute remaining. The Indians have shown an ability to win close games all season, with three one-point victories.

Kam Kruze has passed for 1,067 yards and 11 touchdowns for West Allegheny, while Dante Flati has 842 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns. The Indians posted back-to-back shutouts of Moon and Shaler in their regular-season finale and playoff opener, respectively.

“We’ve been through the paces,” Palko said. “You win, and you move on. You lose, and you turn the equipment in. We’ve been in this situation before, and we’re very humbled and very gracious to be able to be playing, really.

“We’ve had a lot of close games, and I don’t know if they’re ugly wins, but ugly wins are better than pretty losses.”

Gateway features the highest scoring offense (49.4 points per game) and top scoring defense (4.2) in Class 5A, registering its sixth shutout of the season in a 35-0 victory last week over Franklin Regional. Holl called the Gators’ performance in that game “partly cloudy,” strong on defense but somewhat shaky on offense thanks to penalties and missed scoring opportunities.

“Obviously, when you shut someone out, it’s hard to have any major issues with the defensive effort,” Holl said. “Our kids played really hard and kept them off the scoreboard. That is certainly always a good night defensively. We did some good things offensively, but I was disappointed we made some mistakes.”

Senior quarterback Brendan Majocha leads the Gateway offense into Friday, with playmakers like Syracuse recruit Courtney Jackson and sophomore running back Derrick Davis posing potential matchup problems. The Gators will play without another of their top players in senior WR/DB Jeremiah Josephs, who was ejected for targeting in last week’s win.

“No one’s game plan has worked yet on them, so it doesn’t matter, I guess,” Palko said. “They’re just very talented. Shoot, they’re the defending champs, and they haven’t lost since the state championship game. They’ve got it rolling … that stuff tends to feed off each other. They’re going to be very difficult to beat. They’re the No. 1 seed for a reason.”

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Doug at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

Tags: Gateway, West Allegheny