#4 Gateway (PA) Outlasts McKeesport to Complete Undefeated Regular Season

By Jeff Fisher
The High School Football Huddle

For the first time since 1986 Gateway (#4 USA Today Super 25) finished the regular season undefeated. Thursday night, the Gators (9-0) scored the first 28-points of the game and then held-on for a 31-27 win against McKeesport (7-2), which gave them the Foothills Conference championship.

Gateway will now receive the top seed for the WPIAL Class AAAA playoffs, which begin next week. There's a good chance that these two will meet again in five weeks for the right to go to Hershey for the state title game.

Click here for a game recap story.

#4 Gateway Faces McKeesport in Western PA Showdown Thursday

By Jeff Fisher
The High School Football Huddle

The Gateway Gators haven't really been challenged this year on the way to an 8-0 start. That should all change Friday night when the Gators (8-1) face McKeesport (7-1) in the WPIAL regular season finale.

Gateway (#4 USA Today Super 25) has won its game by an average of over 38 points, and has scored over 50 points twice, while topping the 40 point mark in seven of its eight games. It's closest game came two weeks ago when it beat Erie McDowell 30-18. McKeesport lost its season opener 14-7 in overtime to Colerain (OH), which had been nationally-ranked until it lost its first game two weeks ago.

Click here for a game preview.

#15 Pittsburgh Central Catholic Beats Gateway in Battle of National Powers

No matter what happens around the country over the next month, Friday night's WPIAL AAAA Championship game may go down as the best finish to a championship high school football games this year.

With less than 90 seconds to play, and Pittsburgh Central Catholic leading Gateway 21-13 PCC defensive back Emmanuele Matthews picked off a pass and returned it 85-yards for a Viking touchdown and a 28-13 lead with 62 seconds to play. But 62 seconds was all Gateway needed to send the game to overtime.

First the Gators scored on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Rob Kalkstein to close the gap to 28-20 with 31 seconds left. Then the Gators recovered an on-side kick. The comeback was completed when Gateway dug into its bag of tricks using a Kalkstein pass to Jonanthan Pryor to the 12 and just before Pryor was tackled he lateraled the ball to Cam Sadler who ran into the end zone with just one second left. The two point conversion sent the game into overtime.

Gateway scored first in OT, but missed the extra point and that was all Pittsburgh Central Catholic needed to win its third WPIAL title in five years. PCC won 35-34 on a made extra point.

Pittsburgh Central Catholic, which is ranked #15 by USA Today, is now 13-0 and advances to the Pennsylvania state quarterfinals. Gateway began the season ranked by USA Today, but lost its opener to another nationally-ranked team, Cardinal Mooney, in the Ohio vs. USA Challenge.

To read more about the game, click here.

To watch video of the exciting finish, click here.