The 2009 North Hills football team didn't make it to Heinz Field for the WPIAL Class AAAA championship game, as it surely would have liked.

What it did accomplish, however, was something perhaps even more remarkable.

It made people believe it was possible they could.

"Nobody believed," senior receiver Max Creighan said in the locker room after the Indians' 42-20 loss to No. 1-seeded Gateway in a WPIAL semifinal Friday.

He was referring to the Indians' outlook when the postseason began.

"The fans didn't come to the first playoff game, the cheerleaders didn't even want to go," Creighan said.

"The way it turned out, we couldn't ask for more. We ended the season on a good note, even though we lost. We proved a lot of people wrong."

North Hills completed its season with a 6-6 record, which, in the annals of the school's rich football history, won't qualify as one of the better campaigns in Indians history.

But the record tells only part of the story. How they got to 6-6 is what makes this team special to longtime coach Jack McCurry.

McCurry has had many more talented teams during his three-decade tenure at North Hills, and he has had ones that advanced further into the postseason.

But there haven't been many that have made him as proud as this season's team.

"This is very rewarding because we struggled [early in the season], and we had to claw and had to fight every week," McCurry said. "We had to fight for success and we finally had some at the end. It's something where we came up short, but we made it this far, and that's very rewarding for me as a coach to see a group develop like this, especially during this playoff run."

The Indians were 4-5 and lost three of their final four during the regular season. They entered the playoffs as the No. 12 seed but upset No. 5 McKeesport, 19-7, Nov. 6 and No. 4 North Allegheny, 14-10, a week later before giving No. 1 Gateway all it could handle for most of this past Friday's game at Fox Chapel.

North Hills was within 28-20 and had the ball at midfield with about eight minutes to play against a team that had generally steamrolled every team it had played this season.

"I'm very proud of this team," McCurry said. "They came from nowhere. I asked them to do certain things, and they did. They got better. I think that's the test of any group of kids, if you get better as the year goes on ... and they did."

There were 16 seniors listed on the Indians' roster at the beginning of the season, a relatively small class by Class AAAA standards. North Hills was a combined 26-18 over the course of the past four seasons, advancing to the WPIAL quarterfinals last season after going undefeated in Northern Six Conference play.

"I thought they showed some leadership," McCurry said. "They made a game out of it. We're mostly underclassmen, so I think they set the bar where it needed to be set. The underclassmen have the bar set high [for the future]. They know what it takes to get here, and hopefully we'll get back. I was very proud of this senior group."

Included among the seniors are kicker Anthony Chiappetta, running backs Elijah David and Michael Sivak, linebackers Matt Hirt and T.J. McElwaine, receiver Scott Zubik, tight end Brandon Hollenberger and linemen George Reed, Josh Seiler, Matt Linden, Zach King and Michael Dietrich.

Creighan and David combined for 1,086 yards and 11 touchdowns rushing, and Creighan was second on the team with 29 receptions behind Zubik's 32. Sivak rushed for 379 yards and five touchdowns. Hirt led the team with 92 tackles, 44 solo tackles and eight sacks.

Chiappetta was one of the WPIAL's most reliable kickers, converting 25 of his 27 extra-point attempts and nine of 11 field goals, including two against Gateway and all eight of his attempts on the season from between 20 and 40 yards.

"It's going to be hard," Creighan said, summing up the sentiments the seniors have of not being able to play for North Hills anymore. "I've been playing football for about 10 years, and I've known all these seniors this whole time. Not that there's many -- there's only about 15 of them -- but I know them real well and now that we're gone, it's going to be hard knowing I can't play football with them ever again. It's sad."

But if the senior class was to go out, there were much worse ways then via the experiences of the past three weeks.

"They played with a lot of heart. I think that makes me more proud," McCurry said. "I think they developed as young men. They put forth effort ... and they understand what it takes to learn how to win.

"But you're not going to win them all. We came up short, but I was proud of this group. Very proud."

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