No beach vacation
Belle Vernon beats Laurel Highlands by 21 in ‘unacceptable’ performance
Laurel Highlands took a trip to “The Beach” for the second year in arow. That’s what Belle Vernon affectionately calls its golden turf fieldat James Weir Stadium.
This Beach experience was certainly better than a year ago for Laurel Highlands, but Belle Vernon still ended up kicking sand in theMustangs’ face.
In a penalty-filled game that took almost 3½ hours to finish, Belle Vernon overcame a slew of mistakes and beat Laurel
Highlands, 41-20, Friday night in a big WPIAL non-conference game. For Laurel Highlands, a team trying to prove it can be competitive with top-notch teams this year, it was certainly better than a year ago, when the Mustangs got waxed by 42 points. But it was still a threetouchdownloss.
For Belle Vernon (1-0), there wasn’t much celebrating afterward. When you’re the No. 1 -ranked team in WPIAL Class 3A, when you have a WPIAL title on your mind, a 21-point win doesn’t always feel so good — when you commit 14 penalties. Belle Vernon coach Matt Humbert chided his teamon the field after the game.
“Wehave to do better as a coaching staff, apparently,” Humbert said later in a media interview. “The personal fouls are unacceptable. The offsides, the procedure penalties … No offense to Laurel Highlands, but we probably left 21 points out there. Every time we’d have a positive play and get a firstand-10, we would set ourselves back to second-and-20. We have to dosome self evaluation.”
Belle Vernon played parts of the gamewithout a handful of starters, either because of injuries or cramps.
Penn State coach James Franklin and assistant coach Terry Smith came to the game by way of helicopter. They were there to see
Belle Vernon star junior running back-defensive back Quinton Martin. Although Martin scored three touchdowns, Franklin and Smith left at halftime. They didn’t miss much of Martin because he missed most of the second half with leg cramps.
“We’re definitely happy with the result, but there were a lot of mistakes. It was pretty sloppy,” said Martin, who had 63 yards on 10 carries. He scored all of Belle Vernon’s three first-half touchdowns on runs of23, 9 and 8 yards.
BesidesMartin, the game featured Laurel Highlands receiver-quarterback-defensive back Rodney Gallagher, a West Virginia University recruit and considered the No. 1 senior in the WPIAL. Gallagher started the game at receiver, but after the Mustangs didn’t pick up a first down on its first two possessions, Gallagher played quarterback for most of thegame.
Laurel Highlands certainly enjoyed more offensive success with Gallagher at quarterback, as he made plays with scrambles and had a great connection going with senior receiver Keondre DeShields. Gallagher and DeShields hooked up seven times in the second half, including threefor touchdowns on plays of 13, 1 and29 yards.
DeShields finished with 10 receptions for 187 yards while Gallagher completed 9 of 23 for 191 yards and also rushed for 29 yards on 18 attempts.
“Wewere hoping he wouldn’t play nearly as much at quarterback,” Humbert said with a little chuckle. “Butwe knew deep down, that would probably be the answer they would go to. We would’ve been quite contentwith him playing at receiver.”
After leading by 21-0 at halftime, Belle Vernon took a 28-0 lead on Tannery Moody’s 3-yard run with 9:56 left in the third quarter. It looked like thegame might be headed to a mercy rule.But Laurel Highlands (1-1) hung in and closed to within two touchdownstwice.
BelleVernon quarterback Braden Laux scored the Leopards’ final two touchdowns on runs of 1 and 44 yards.