2018 WCCA Foothills Classic

June 15, 2018

Blue team not feeling blue at WCCA Foothills Classic, beats Red team 65-35

Anyone who watched him play wasn't surprised when Jeannette's Robert Kennedy earned the title of Mr. PA Football with his play during the regular season. After he juked and jived and jumped over defenders, thrilling the crowd at the WCCA Foothills Classic with moves that seem almost magical, Kennedy could add the name Mr. Wizard to his resume too. The recent Jeannette grad and Lackawanna College recruit dazzled his way to 4 first-half touchdowns, leading the Blue team to a 65-35 win over the Red team, all on his way to collecting game MVP honors. Kennedy scored three times on the ground and grabbed one of the five touchdown passes that Norwin's Brock Dieter tossed on the night.

Team Blue opened the scoring with a 59-yard drive of nine plays that ended with a 30-yard Domenic DiFalco field goal at 6:46 of the first quarter. Having broken the ice, Blue went on a scoring spurt that sunk the Red team faster than the Titanic, scoring 3 touchdowns within a 4-minute period to open a 24-0 lead with just under 3 minutes remaining in the first quarter. The damage was done with fumble recoveries by Bryce Lauer and Ian Smith, leading to a pair of Kennedy touchdown runs sandwiched around a nifty touchdown catch from Dieter by recent Jayhawk star Tre' Cunningham. Red finally broke their scoring drought as Hempfield QB grad Justin Sliwoski played pitch-and-catch several times over the top with former Valley receiver Darius Johnson during a 4-play, 60-yard touchdown drive before the first quarter closed.

The Blue squad responded by opening the first minute of the second quarter with a 4-play, 65-yard drive that culminated in Kennedy's third rushing TD and a comfortable 31-7 lead. Blue added 7 more with Penn-Trafford product Anthony Cervone's 43-yard rushing TD, followed by DiFalco's successful PAT kick. GCC grad James Rice found daylight on a pass from former Derry QB Ryan Polinsky to cap a 71-yard Red team drive with 7:21 remaining in the second quarter. However, the Robert Kennedy magic show had another trick to perform, grabbing a 29-yard toss from Dieter on his fingertips and taking it to the house for a 45-14 Blue team lead. Red closed out the first half scoring with under 20 seconds to play as the Sliwoski to Johnson connection hooked up for the second time, ending the half with a 45-21 Blue lead.

Hempfield product Austin Gockel sparked the Red squad hopes as he stretched the ball over the goal line for a touchdown on a fourth-and-one with 7:47 in the third quarter, closing the Red team deficit to 45-28. But Team Blue would have none of that, as Dieter capped a 70-yard drive with a touchdown toss to Kiski School grad Clayton Halmi to end the third quarter scoring.

Dieter added another touchdown pass with 14 seconds elapsed in the final quarter when he hit former Belle Vernon receiver Logan Pfrogner for six. DiFalco's PAT was no good as the Blue team stretched the lead to 58-28. DiFalco made good on his next opportunity, tacking on the PAT following Tre' Cunningham's in-stride grab of Dieter's final TD pass of the game for a 65-28 lead with 9:52 left to play. Former Derry speedster Shawn Broadway broke a few tackle attempts on his way to the game's final trip into the end zone with his rushing TD for the Red squad. GCC grad and kicker extraordinaire Ethan Slike capped his perfect night of PATs with his final boot for the Red team.

WCCA president Larry Sellitto presented the game trophy to the Blue team's head coach, the current PIAA Class A state champion skipper from Jeannette, Roy Hall. In addition to Kennedy receiving the Blue team MVP honors, Hempfield grad Brock Barnhart picked up the Red team MVP plaque for his defensive play.

As the Foothills Classic closes our 2017-2018 high school sports coverage at Western PA Sports, we present the photos in this blog post to you from a unique perspective. This is one of the few times throughout the year that one single event is the main focus on our schedule, and Ken and Barry are both on the field to cover the photo action. This allows up to cover the game with photos from two distinct angles, and when one of our cameras isn't blocked by another player or something in our line, you'll get to see the play as we saw it happen from two different directions. You'll notice several photos in this post where we posted multiple angles on a play. This is also our biggest photo blog post of the season with over 90 pictures posted, but we will have hundreds more photos from this game, including a lot of post-game photos with families and friends, coming up in a game gallery we will post on Sunday.

Ken and Barry would like to thank all the players, coaches, family members, and fans who visited our blog and galleries, followed our social media posts, purchased photos from our galleries, and supported us in any way during our first year of operation. We'll have a few WCCA events to cover for you in July, then we'll be back this fall right where we left off today, on the field with more Westmoreland County amateur sports action photos.

We hope enjoy the photos below from the 2018 Foothills Classic!