As dominant and as surprising, at least for some opponents, as the Shady Side Academy defense was for most of the year, its performance came as no shock to coach Dave Havern.

Havern knew he was returning a group of defenders that could have a season like this. The Indians' defense limited opponents to an average of fewer than 6.25 points per game.

What did surprise Havern though was the success his team's running attack enjoyed. Shady Side racked up more than 3,000 yards rushing, headlined by Brian Nickel's 1,449 yards and another 1,070 from Roman SanDoval. Brian's older brother, senior quarterback Billy Nickel, also was a big part of the ground game, rushing for more than 400 yards, more yardage than he gained from passing.

The skepticism Havern had about his running game before the season had less to do with the experienced backfield but more with a newly rebuilt offensive line.

"I felt that the defense would be something we hung our hat on and we certainly did that," Havern said. "We knew we had to rebuild a whole offensive line. We went through the whole year with six offensive linemen and we maintained our health through that time. They worked real hard and I was happy for the kids to win our conference. It was a tough conference and they got challenged a few times and they stood up."

The veteran defense along with the powerful backfield duo of Brian Nickel and SanDoval helped carry the Indians to an 11-1 season and a trip to the WPIAL semifinals for the first time in 10 years. The Shady Side Academy season ended Friday night with after a 27-14 loss to Aliquippa at Seneca Valley. While Shady Side was appearing in only the third WPIAL semifinal since the school joined the WPIAL in 1994, Aliquippa was vying for its 19th trip to the WPIAL title game in program history.

The Indians' defense this year was led by senior linebackers SanDoval, Robert Ruffner and David Brown, with both Nickel brothers starting in the secondary.

Havern hopes a season like this can help vault Shady Side Academy into the upper echelon of Class AA teams with schools such as Aliquippa. That seemed like a long shot when Havern first took over at the struggling program five years ago. The numbers not only were lacking in the win column for Shady Side, but on the roster. The coaching staff had 18 players the first year and only 23 the second year. The team struggled through campaigns of 2-7 and 3-6. By the third year, players started to come out and the roster grew to 30 kids with 38 playing by last year.

Havern said this season's strong showing gives his program credibility.

"These guys have changed the face, athletically, of Shady Side Academy," he said. "I think through their efforts the program has grown. They have showed that you can be a student-athlete and go to these good schools and play ball."

Havern also is proud of the accomplishments of former players. Twenty of the 28 seniors that have come through the program since he took over are playing college football for teams from Penn State to Slippery Rock to Amherst.

The seniors on the team leave the school as one of the most successful senior classes in school history.

"Something we have now that we didn't have a few years ago -- we can look in the pipeline and there are quality football players," Havern said. "We are not going to be scrambling next year. We have some kids that can play and we are developing them.

"If we work hard, we can accomplish some things ... our younger kids, they saw the work that it took to get there and now that sets the bar for them. We win a lot of games in the weight room and that is a good thing ... these younger kids have had some really good role models. They see that this hard work pays off."