West Allegheny dominant in win over Chartiers Valley

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, September 1, 2018 | 12:54 AM

West Allegheny defeated Chartiers Valley for the seventh straight time Friday night, taking down their Allegheny 8 Conference rival, 41-7.

The Indians have outscored the Colts, 312-57, in that span.

West Allegheny, which didn’t play a Week Zero game last week, got off to a relatively slow start, scoring three first-quarter points on a 24-yard field goal by John McArdle.

But, the Indians tallied four straight touchdowns in the second quarter to take a commanding 31-7 lead into halftime. Just a little over a minute into the quarter, starting quarterback Kam Kruze scored on a leaping 5-yard touchdown run to give the Indians a 10-0 lead.

West Allegheny’s Nick Faulk recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff at the Colts’ 24, and, one play later, Danti Flati scored the first of his two rushing touchdowns on a 24-yard run to give the Indians two touchdowns in a 15-second span and extend their lead to 17-0. Flati finished with 97 yards on 13 carries.

Indians’ freshman quarterback Gavin Miller then got into the act by throwing his first TD pass of his high school career, a 61-yarder to senior Kyle Guilfoil. The pass was intended for tight end Mateo Vandamia, but it slipped through his hands and right into the hands of Guilfoil 15 yards downfield; Guilfoil scampered the remaining 40 yards untouched for the score.

Dante Flati rounded out the Indians’ first-half scoring by running the ball into the end zone from 4 yards out to give West Allegheny a 31-0 lead late in the first half.

Chartiers Valley got on the scoreboard with 7 seconds left in the first half as junior QB Griffin Beattie eluded a couple of tackles in running 22 yards to the end zone. On the play, Beattie was nearly sacked 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and then broke two tackles near the goal line to cut the lead to 31-7. Beattie completed 5 of 13 passes for 44 yards and rushed for 30 yards on 12 carries.

Dante Flati’s younger brother, Nico, got in on the scoring in the third quarter with a 14-yard run.

“It’s been really fun (playing with Nico),” Dante said. “We’ve only been playing with each other for three years. It was fun when we played at the midget level, and it’s even more fun now.”

West Allegheny (1-0, 1-0) will head home next week to take on Bethel Park in another Allegheny 8 Conference game while the Chartiers Valley (1-1, 0-1) will go on the road to take on Armstrong in a nonconference game in Week 2.

Steve Nagler is a freelance writer.

Tags: Chartiers Valley, West Allegheny