In its backyard brawl against Oliver High School, Perry Traditional Academy whipped the North Side rival Bears, 35-0, last night in the City League football semifinals at George Cupples Stadium.
The Commodores led, 28-0, at halftime and piled up 337 yards in the first half.
The Commodores scored on their first play from scrimmage. Halfback William Graham ran 73 yards for a touchdown 19 seconds into the game.
On the next Commodores possession, it appeared quarterback John Harris fumbled at the Perry 39. But the officials ruled Harris' arm was going forward, making it an incomplete pass. On the next play, Perry's Mike Reid threw a halfback option pass to Eric Wicks for a 54-yard touchdown with 4:58 left in the first quarter. The rout was on.
Kelvin Drewery ran for a 19-yard scoring run to cap an 80-yard drive on the Commodores' next possession. Kareem Fergeson caught an 18-yard pass from Harris for Perry's fourth touchdown with 3:46 left in the first half.
Harris completed 6 of 11 passes for 105 yards in the first half. Backup quarterback Damien Cornish completed 3 of 5 attempts for 107 yards and one touchdown, a 22-yarder to Graham, in the second half.
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Perry's Mike Reid (14) and Oliver's Dimero Dixon battle for a loose ball in a City League semifinal game at Cupples Stadium last night. (Franka Bruns, Post-Gazette) |
"Perry's an explosive club and they showed it tonight," Oliver Coach Joe Zeglowitsch said. "We made too many mistakes against a very good ballclub. You can't win like that."
Oliver (6-4) also was jolted by the loss of its top running back, junior Donald Mathews, who left after the final play of the third quarter because of an injured right knee. Mathews led Oliver with 72 yards on 15 carries. He also was the top back in the City League in rushing with 937 yards. It took paramedics about 10 minutes to get Mathews on a stretcher, and he was taken to a hospital.
Perry finished with 17 first downs and 467 yards in offense, but Coach Gus Catanese was not completely happy with his team's performance.
"I thought offensively, our best game this year was the first game of the season against Brashear," Catanese said. "We played well [last night], but we committed too many penalties."
The Commodores were penalized 12 times for 83 yards, including eight for 63 yards in the first half.
"We can't continue to pile up the penalties like that and expect to keep winning in the playoffs," Catanese said.
Perry (10-0) reached the City League title game for the third time in four years. Perry will oppose Allderdice (8-2) next Saturday at Three Rivers Stadium.
Perry has qualified for the PIAA playoffs and will play the Distrist 10 champion Nov. 17 on the road. With Oliver's loss, Allderdice is the City League Class AAAA qualifier. The Dragons will play host to the District 10 champion Nov. 18 at Cupples Stadium.
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