West Allegheny too much for Fox Chapel

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, September 2, 2017 | 12:24 AM

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Heading into Friday's game, West Allegheny coach Bob Palko said his team was young, inexperienced and he wasn't sure how his players would perform.

But it only took the first half before his Indians looked like the West Allegheny of old.

The defending WPIAL Class 5A champion Indians jumped to a 27-7 first-half lead as No. 2-ranked West Allegheny downed Fox Chapel, 41-20, in an Allegheny 9 Conference matchup at Fox Chapel.

“We made some plays and did some good things, but then again, I think what Fox Chapel showed was that they were a veteran team and they didn't quit,” Palko said. “I think we thought, ‘Well, you know (we have a big lead),' and I think that's the inexperience. That's being young and not knowing adversity and not knowing how to handle things when things are going well.”

Fox Chapel (0-2, 0-1) had a first half to forget, falling behind 27-7. The Foxes regrouped and started the third quarter looking to make a big play defensively. Senior linebacker Luke Brown did just that, stepping in front of a Jamie Devine pass for an interception.

The turnover set up the Foxes on the West Allegheny 38-yard line, but six plays later, Fox Chapel failed to convert a fourth-and-10 and gave the ball right back.

“We talked to our kids at halftime, and we wanted to make sure we came out and were representative in the second half,” Fox Chapel coach Tom Loughran said. “I thought we did, by and large, play a little bit more grounded but still didn't play well enough to finish drives in the third quarter.”

The Foxes put up the only points in the third quarter when quarterback Nick Gizzo found junior Cole Waxter for a 37-yard touchdown pass to bring the score to 34-14 with a little over five minutes remaining.

West Allegheny junior Dante Flati scored the second of his two rushing touchdowns when he took the handoff, ran straight through the heart of the Fox Chapel defense before cutting outside for a 37-yard touchdown to widen the lead to 41-14 early in the fourth quarter. Flati finished with 75 yards rushing on 13 carries.

Gizzo tacked on a 7-yard run late in the fourth quarter to cut West Allegheny's lead to 41-20. He had 66 yards rushing and 69 yards passing.

Flati opened the scoring on West Allegheny's first possession with a 10-yard touchdown run. The Indians jumped ahead 13-0 when Noah Ledford intercepted a Gizzo pass and returned it 27 yards for a touchdown.

“You can't give a good team that many opportunities the way we did in the first half,” Loughran said. “We're giving them opportunities for them to score that we don't need to do.”

Brent Mangold pulled in an 8-yard touchdown pass from Will Weber to give West Allegheny a 20-0 lead midway through the second quarter. Gizzo broke the shutout with a 7-yard touchdown to make the score 20-7.

Weber connected with tight end Mateo Vandamia for a 20-yard touchdown pass with 17 seconds remaining in the first half to extend West Allegheny's lead to 27-7.

“Our kids kept competing,” Loughran said. “They competed in the second half, not as well as we would want them to at some points, but they competed.”

William Whalen is a freelance writer.

Tags: Fox Chapel, West Allegheny