Football News

North Allegheny traveled to AHN Field at Big Mac Stadium on Friday night for a Quad County Conference battle with Canon-McMillan. The Tigers scored a touchdown on back-to-back punt returns in the second quarter, and the defense pitched another second-half shutout as NA rolled to a 38-6 victory.

North Allegheny started the game with the ball and went three-and-out. The punt was partially tipped, and Canon-McMillan started in great field position. It would take the Big Macs one play to cash in as they scored on a 26-yard touchdown pass. Lincoln Hoke would block the extra point, and Canon-McMillan’s lead was only 6-0. The Tigers offense would gain 72 yards on the next drive, but a fumble stifled the drive, and the Big Macs kept the momentum. After forcing a punt, NA would drive 53 yards in four plays, capped off by a Brady Brinkley 27-yard touchdown run to give North Allegheny the 7-6 lead after a quarter.

The teams traded punts to start the second quarter before Peter Notaro hit a 49-yard field goal with 3:56 left in the half to extend the Tiger lead to 10-6. The NA defense would force Canon-McMillan to punt on the ensuing drive. The Big Macs punted the ball to Nick Humphries, who returned it 65 yards to the house to give NA the 17-6 lead. After another three-and-out, Canon-McMillan tried punting the ball to James Donaldson. That didn’t work either, as Humphries and Donaldson returned punts to the end zone exactly one minute apart, and North Allegheny had all the momentum and a 24-6 lead heading into halftime.

It was all about NA’s defense in the second half, as on the first drive of the second half, Luke Rohan would pick off Big Mac quarterback Ty Jansma to set up the Tigers on CM’s 48-yard line. There was no scoring in the third quarter, so the Tigers took a 24-6 lead into the final frame.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Donaldson would force and recover a fumble to give North Allegheny the ball back. This time, the Tigers took advantage, driving 88 yards, capped off by a Brinkley screen pass to Dylan Brokos that he ran 19 yards into the end zone, giving NA the 31-6 lead. On the next drive, Canon-McMillan would drive 28 yards before a tipped pass was snatched out of the air by Hoke to set up the Tigers on the Big Mac’s 30-yard line. North Allegheny would take advantage again as Jackson Failla ran the ball in from four yards out to put the final dagger in Canon-McMillan and give the Tigers a 38-6 win.

For his efforts on offense, defense, and special teams, Donaldson was named the Wright Automotive Player of the Game. Donaldson finished with six catches for 69 yards, had a forced fumble and fumble recovery, and returned a punt 53 yards for a touchdown.

Brinkley had 197 yards passing and 37 rushing yards.

Hoke had a great defensive game with four tackles, two for loss, a sack, an interception, and a blocked extra point. Dylan Langdon had eight tackles for NA, while Conner Frank had seven. Kyle Langdon added six tackles.

North Allegheny improves to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the conference. Canon-McMillan falls to 2-6 overall and 1-3 in conference play. The Tigers return home next week when they host Pine-Richland at Newman Stadium at 7:30 p.m. This will be Homecoming and Hall of Fame Night, and you can catch all the action on the North Allegheny Sports Network.

Football Summary at Canon-McMillan, 10-11-24

GAME SUMMARY
SCORE BY QUARTERS	1	2	3	4	FINAL
North Allegheny	7	17	0	14	38
Canon-McMillan	6	0	0	0	6