Football News

by: Jonathan Spina

It was a rainy Friday night, but that didn’t stop the North Allegheny offense as they continued to put up big scores defeating the Penn-Trafford Warriors, 48-14, at Warriors Stadium in Harrison City on Friday night.

It was an inauspicious start for North Allegheny as they were forced to punt on their opening drive. That punt was blocked and Penn-Trafford’s offense cashed in on the good field position when Ben Grabowski had a 2-yard touchdown run and the Warriors had a 7-0 lead with 5:42 to go in the first quarter. North Allegheny would respond quickly with a 6-play 48-yard drive that only took a minute and Daniel Sellers scored on a tight end jet sweep from one yard out. North Allegheny’s two-point conversion attempt failed and the score was 7-6 with 4:35 left in the first quarter. The Tigers pinned Penn-Trafford back on the kickoff and ended up forcing them to punt. This gave North Allegheny great field position and they only had to go 31 yards to get the lead and it was Tyree Alualu who scored from nine yards out to give North Allegheny a 13-7 lead.

Penn-Trafford would start to put together a good drive dominating the line of scrimmage and running the ball well. However, on the first play of the second quarter, Evan Lyon was able to force a fumble and recover it himself to stop the Warriors push and give North Allegheny the ball right at midfield. Two plays later, Alualu took the ball 50 yards to the house for his second rushing touchdown of the game and the Tigers led, 20-7, a score they took into the locker room at halftime.

North Allegheny’s offensive line took over in the second half as on their first drive they went 11 plays, 58 yards and Logan Kushner finished off the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run to make the score 27-7 with 4:07 left in the third quarter. Kushner scored another rushing touchdown on the next drive, this time from 14 yards out, and after three quarters of play North Allegheny led, 34-7.

Penn-Trafford got another drive going at the beginning of the fourth quarter but inside the North Allegheny’s 30-yard line, Alualu got involved on the defensive end with an 84-yard pick six and the rout was on as the Tigers led 41-7.

Brady Meyer added an interception on the next drive and Jackson Failla tacked on one more touchdown for good measure. Penn-Trafford got on the board one more time in the waning minutes to bring the score to 48-14, Tigers.

For his efforts, Alualu was named the Wright Automotive Player of the Game running for 182 yards and two touchdowns, to go along with a 84-yard pick six.

Dylan Langdon led the defense with seven tackles while Lincoln Hoke had six tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss.

North Allegheny improves to 8-1 overall with the win. Penn-Trafford falls to 4-5 overall. Up next for the Tigers will be a trip to Seneca Valley to take on the Raiders next Friday at 7 p.m. in the regular season finale. That game will be broadcast live on the North Allegheny Sports Network.

Football Summary vs. Penn-Trafford, 10-20-23

GAME SUMMARY
SCORE BY QUARTERS	1	2	3	4	FINAL
North Allegheny	13	7	14	14	48
Penn-Trafford	7	0	0	7	14