NA falls to Upper St. Clair, 21-14
North Allegheny hosted the Upper St. Clair Panthers on Friday night at Newman Stadium in a non-conference contest. It was a defensive struggle for most of the game until three touchdowns were scored in the fourth quarter, but the Tigers ultimately fell by a score of 21-14.
Upper St. Clair got the ball first and immediately drove 71 yards in 14 plays, converting four third downs. John Banbury finished the drive from one yard out and the Panthers led 7-0. With 5:43 left in the second quarter, Upper St. Clair had all the momentum. The game completely flipped when Gavin Ust picked off a Panther pass and returned it to the USC 44-yard line, giving NA a boost. The offense cashed in the turnover when Brady Brinkley completed a pass to Ben Kern who went 25 yards for the touchdown. Josh Gidas converted the extra point as the teams headed into the locker room tied 7-7 at halftime.
Both teams traded punts in the third quarter. It looked like North Allegheny had the advantage when they pinned Upper St. Clair inside the 10-yard line with 4:04 left in the third. The Panthers got into a Power-I and drove 94 yards in 12 plays capped off by a 2-yard completion from Josh Snyder to Nevin Shegan-Siniawsk to give USC a 14-7 lead. After an NA punt, Upper St. Clair got right back to the ground game and took up six minutes of clock. Snyder finished the drive off with a QB sneak into the end zone and with 3:19 left in the game, the Panthers led 21-7.
The Tigers responded quickly, going 69 yards in just under two minutes. Kern caught another touchdown pass from Brinkley, this time from 12 yards out, and the score was 21-14. North Allegheny couldn’t get the onside kick and Upper St. Clair was able to run the clock out, leaving Newman Stadium with a 21-14 win.
Brinkley finished 17-for-26 with 118 yards and two touchdown to go along with 53 rushing yards. Anthony Sisinni added 30 rushing yards. Kern had five catches for 55 yards and two touchdowns. For his efforts, Kern was named the Wright Automotive Player of the Game.
Mason Brown led the defense with 12 tackles. Tydes Alualu had 10 tackles while Max DeHainaut and Kellan Frank each had eight tackles.
North Allegheny falls to 0-2 overall. The Tigers return to action next Friday when they host Woodland Hills for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
Football Summary vs. Upper St. Clair, 9-4-26
| GAME SUMMARY | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCORE BY QUARTERS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | FINAL |
| Upper St. Clair | 7 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 21 |
| North Allegheny | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 14 |
