The coaches made Upper St. Clair vs. West Allegheny a one-of-a-kind game. Never before in the history of the WPIAL, dating to the early 1900s, had a game matched two coaches with 13 WPIAL championships between them. After the game, Upper St. Clair’s Jim Render was shaking his head and it had nothing to do with his five WPIAL titles or the eight that belonged to West Allegheny’s Bob Palko.
“Without a doubt, that’s one of the craziest games I’ve ever been in,” Render said.
This from a guy who has been a head coach for 536 high school frays.
Crazy. Wild. Unlikely. Use all of them to describe the way Upper St. Clair beat West Allegheny, 21-20, in overtime Friday in a big WPIAL Class 5A Allegheny Conference game. The game had a fantastic finish and featured big coaching decisions in overtime. Upper St. Clair won when defensive back Tom Kyle intercepted a pass in overtime on West Allegheny’s try for a 2-point conversion.
Fifteen minutes after the game, Palko and Render were embracing and laughing near the end zone. Two legends chuckled about what had just transpired, an emotional affair that had a hard-to-believe ending.
Upper St. Clair was seemingly cooked. The Panthers’ fate appeared to be sealed after West Allegheny stopped the Panthers on fourth down at the West Allegheny 25 with 1:33 left in the contest. West Allegheny led, 14-7, and Upper St. Clair had only one timeout left. West Allegheny could run out the clock. Even Render acknowledged he thought the game was over. West Allegheny was ready to add another notch to its perfect record. Then came the imperfect exchange from center.
On the first play after West Allegheny took over, Nico Flati, lined up in the “wildcat” formation, had trouble with a snap from center, fumbled and Upper St. Clair’s Phil Elias recovered at the West Allegheny 15. Three plays later, quarterback Jack Hansberry scored on a 1-yard run and Sean Martin kicked the extra point with 35 seconds left to tie the score, 14-14, and send it into overtime.
Jake Slinger, Upper St. Clair’s talented defensive lineman, tried to explain the fumble. “The center oversnapped it a little bit, the quarterback shook it up and dropped it. Elias just [dived] for it before [Flati] could reach it.”
In high school overtimes, each team gets a possession at the 10. If there is still a tie, the process is repeated until a winner emerges. West Allegheny won the coin toss and elected to go on defense. Upper St. Clair went to fourth down before Colin McLinden scored on a 3-yard run and Martin kicked the extra point.
Render thought about kicking a field goal on fourth down and asked his team what it wanted to do. Go for the touchdown, the Panthers said.
“That’s a dumb question on my part because kids are going to give you that answer,” said Render, who won his 396th game in 49 seasons. “But I didn’t really want to kick a field goal, either, because if we kick that’s going to give [West Allegheny] a lot of incentive.”
West Allegheny got its chance from the 10 and Mateo Vandamia scored on a 1-yard run. Palko didn’t hesitate to go for 2 points and the win, like he did earlier this season in a double-overtime victory against North Hills. Like he did in the WPIAL title game a year ago when West Allegheny converted against McKeesport in overtime. This time, West Allegheny came up short. The play call was a run-pass option. Vandamia took the snap in the “wildcat” formation, ran to his right and then tried to throw a short pass that was intercepted by Kyle. Upper St. Clair mobbed Kyle in celebration. The Panthers now are 6-1 overall and 6-0 in the Allegheny Nine Conference of Class 5A. West Allegheny is 5-1 and 4-1.
When asked whether he has a set theory on when to go for 2 points, Palko said, “It’s a feel thing. We felt pretty good. They made a great play. … We’re not going to sit here and blame any officials calls or point fingers. That was a heckuva high school game. We didn’t execute when we needed to execute.”
West Allegheny played without leading rusher Will Weber, the team’s most versatile player who was out with an ankle injury. Dante Flati, the team’s second-leading rusher, also didn’t play because of a broken collarbone sustained last week. Flati is done for the season. His younger brother, Nico, a freshman, finished with 67 yards on 11 carries and scored once. Vandamia led with 69 yards on 12 carries and scored two touchdowns.
Upper St. Clair had only 198 yards of offense, but Hansberry completed some big passes in the second half and finished 10 of 20 for 92 yards.
“Bob Palko is Bob Palko,” Render said. “To come in here and win on their field? You beat the program. Our kids were very confident. It just took us a little longer to get cranked up than I would’ve liked.”
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh.
First Published: October 7, 2017, 2:24 a.m.
Updated: October 7, 2017, 3:32 a.m.
