The music was so loud inside the Gateway locker room after last night's game that coach Terry Smith could barely be heard as he talked to reporters.

When asked if he could step outside the stadium for interviews, Smith said, "Don't you like my music?"

This was rap after a perfect wrap.

Gateway wrapped up the regular season with an undefeated record for the first time since 1986 when it defeated McKeesport, 31-27, in a marvelous showdown of WPIAL Class AAAA powers. The win gave Gateway a 9-0 record, the Foothills Conference championship and almost assuredly the No. 1 seed for the WPIAL playoffs.

The last time you could call Gateway undefeated after the regular season, the team's quarterback was Smith. To finish perfect this time, Gateway used an impressive first half to take a 28-point lead. But the Gators had to hold off a McKeesport team that stormed back to cut the deficit to four, and had the ball at the Gateway 31 with only a few minutes left in the game. But two penalties -- a false start and a personal foul -- pushed McKeesport back and the Tigers eventually turned the ball over on downs when Ty-Meer Brown was sacked on fourth down with 2:15 left.

Gateway then ran out the clock and put an end to a highly anticipated game between the Post-Gazette's top two WPIAL Class AAAA teams. No. 2-ranked McKeesport finished the regular season 7-2.

Although McKeesport finished No. 2 in the Foothills, it most likely will get the No. 2 or 3 seed in the Class AAAA playoff field. Last night, the Tigers got an ear beating from their coaches at halftime.

"Our kids couldn't handle this," McKeesport coach George Smith said of the game that was televised on tape delay by FSN.

"They just lost all concentration. We played a first half like some rag team. We go in, rip them, get them back to normal and get their egos in check. We straightened them out and then played some ball in the second half. ... The first half, we wanted to look pretty."

Gateway scored the first 28 points of the game and led, 28-7, at halftime. Corey Brown caught touchdown passes of 12 and 36 yards from Rob Kalkstein in the first quarter. Kalkstein finished 12 of 24 for 158 yards and Brown, an Ohio State recruit, had five catches for 67 yards.

Also in the first half, Brian Williams scored on a 3-yard run and Josh Vermeulen on a 37-yard double pass when Kalkstein threw to receiver Jeff Parrish, who then threw to a wide open Vermeulen. Williams finished with 98 yards on 19 carries.

McKeesport got on the scoreboard with 1:12 left in the first half on Brown's 3-yard run.

McKeesport and Gateway looked like different teams in the second half. Gateway couldn't handle McKeesport's flexbone, triple-option offense. Brown finished with 117 yards on 18 carries and fullback Nico Price added 68 on 15 attempts. Price scored on a 1-yard run in the third quarter before Gateway's Ryan Lichtenstein kicked a 26-yard field goal with 1:27 left in the third quarter to make it 31-13.

But McKeesport answered with a 13-yard touchdown run by Brown to make it 31-21.

A Gateway fumble gave McKeesport its next scoring chance and the Tigers drove 42 yards in seven plays for a score and Brown capped it with a 10-yard run that made it 31-27 with 7:44 remaining.