Playing in front of its home crowd for the first time this season, South Allegheny thumped Carlynton in a battle of unbeatens Friday.
“It’s an exciting start,” second-year coach Brian Hanson said. “It’s kind of what I expected from our offseason work and how we’ve looked at practice. But at the same time, it’s new territory for these guys, so it’s a little bit of an unknown.”
But what is known is this: South Allegheny’s 3-0 start is the program’s first in 47 years.
Not bad for a team that went 1-9 each of the past two seasons.
It’s been quite the start for South Allegheny, the only 3-0 team and one of only three unbeaten teams in WPIAL Class 2A.
The last time South Allegheny raced to such a start — 1977 — Tony Dungy was a rookie defensive back for the Steelers and “Rocky” won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since then, the Gladiators have finished below .500 most seasons with only a few playoff appearances, their most recent postseason win coming way back in 1986.
Needless to say, these aren’t your father’s Gladiators.
“Everybody loves winning. That’s natural,” senior Cameron Epps said. “When a team that doesn’t know how to win wins, it’s a shocking feeling. It’s just new.”
Epps is one of the top playmakers for South Allegheny, which has one of the best collections of skill position talent in Class 2A. That’s allowed the Gladiators offense to average a class-best 38.3 points a game, up from 16.3 a season ago.
Some of those skill players rank among the WPIAL’s best in several statistical categories. Senior quarterback Ryan Cortes has completed 69% of his passes for 685 yards and 7 touchdowns; Epps, a senior running back, has rushed for 418 yards — he’s averaging 10 yards per carry — and 4 touchdowns; and junior wide receiver Drew Cook has already collected 24 receptions for 407 yards and 2 touchdowns. Another key player has been senior fullback Camden Lewis, who has shown off his versatility with 141 yards rushing, 168 yards receiving and 3 touchdowns.
“It’s a good group of kids who are skilled and athletic, and all of them kind of have their own niche,” Hanson said. “Cortes has been like our point guard. He’s been making big throws. We’ve told him, ‘We’ve got playmakers. Just get the ball in their hands so they can make an athletic play.’ Lewis is a bruiser with really good hands. Epps is like an Energizer Bunny. Drew Cook has been really good out in space. And we have some other guys. [Senior] Tyreeke Chatman has made some catches. So there have been a lot of guys.”
Cameron is the latest Epps to make his mark athletically at South Allegheny. Both of his older brothers did the same. Antonio, who now plays at Duquesne, is the school’s all-time leading rusher, while Bryce is the school’s all-time leading scorer in basketball. Cook has great bloodlines, as well. His father, Bilal, was a standout at old Duquesne High School in the late 1990s who later played at Kansas. He is the defensive backs coach at South Allegheny.
Hanson has done an excellent job in reviving the program. He came to South Allegheny from West Greene, where he went 24-16 in three seasons, guiding the Pioneers to a pair of conference titles and to the WPIAL Class 1A semifinals in 2019.
“He loves it here. He loves to win, and he really cares about us,” said Epps, who could break his brother’s rushing record this season.
Hanson gives South Allegheny some much-needed stability. When he arrived last season, he was the team’s third coach in as many seasons. And after going 1-9 in his first year, Hanson has engineered a giant turnaround in his second.
“I knew the first year would be challenging,” Hanson said. “These kids have been through a lot, having gone through so many different head coaches over a short amount of time. I thought the talent was there. We had to get it harnessed and get our guys to focus on the little things.”
Play of the year?
Woodland Hills dropped to 1-2 following a 54-14 loss to Central Catholic, but one of the two touchdowns the Wolverines produced is the early favorite for play of the year.
Wild. Wacky. Zany. The play was all of that and more. With just under five minutes left in the third quarter and with his team facing a 3rd-and-5 from its own 25, Woodland Hills quarterback Cam Walter dropped back to pass and was sacked by Domenic Petruzzi at the 15. Central Catholic’s Roman Thompson scooped up the ball and ran toward the end zone for a surefire touchdown, but Thompson dropped the ball just before he reached the goal line. Woodland Hills’ DJ Dutrieuille then made a heads-up play, picking up the ball and running toward the other end zone. And, 99 yards later, Dutrieuille, a sophomore, scored his first varsity touchdown. Wolverines’ star Scoop Smith provided the key final block at the 10-yard line for what was the longest touchdown in program history.
“Getting the ball was my first instinct,” Dutrieuille said, “and after I got the ball I was just trying to make a move and see where I could go.”
Matt Farago had the call on the television broadcast on KDKA+ and called the score “one of the most bizarre plays you’ll ever see.”
Dutrieuille, who plays running back and linebacker, was excited to see video of the play go viral on Twitter. What’s interesting is that it wasn’t the first time Dutrieuille has had a viral moment. While playing for a youth team several years ago, he said that one of his touchdown runs made “SportsCenter” as the No. 1 play of the day.
“[Friday’s] video went crazy,” he said. “I had a play get on ESPN when I was younger, but this was different. This was about just having an IQ for the game, and getting recognized for doing something that might not be about being a great athlete.”
PUP Bites
• In what’s beginning to sound like a broken record, North Allegheny’s Peter Notaro broke the school record for longest field goal when he connected on a 53-yard attempt in the first quarter of an 18-14 win at Penn Hills. Later in the game, Notaro, a senior and Alabama recruit, made one from 52 yards and another from 30 yards. A week earlier, Notaro converted a 51-yard attempt against Gateway, which broke the school record of 47 yards he set a season ago.
• There were no No. 1 vs. 2 matchups in the WPIAL in Week 2, but there was one nationally. In a battle of the nation’s top two teams in the MaxPreps rankings, No. 1 Mater Dei, Calif., defeated No. 2 Bishop Gorman, Nev., 31-15. According to MaxPreps, the teams have a total of 57 players — yes, 57! — with at least one FBS offer. The game was televised nationally, and the Las Vegas Sun reported that the game attracted a crowd of 8,000.
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.