The City League football championship scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 27, at Cupples Stadium was postponed because of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill.
The game, featuring Allderdice and Westinghouse, was rescheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m.
“We gave the team off on Saturday and we got together on Sunday and had a meal and had a long conversation about the things that happened and tried to put it in perspective because as adults our coaches have a broader perspective than the kids do,” said Allderdice coach Jerry Haslett. “We had a couple team meals together and we tried to just bring everybody together because it was a serious, serious tragedy.”
The defending City League champion Dragons got off to a slow start and only had a 6-0 halftime lead over the Bulldogs of Westinghouse. Rashawn Harvey’s 34-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Dalen Dugger in the second quarter were the only points in the first half for ‘Dice. “Offensively we really didn’t change too much but defensively we lined up in some different formations and things that they never saw before and I think it confused them,” said Haslett. “Our kids really played hard and by lining up in a different defense than we played all year and it worked.”
Westinghouse took the opening kickoff of the second half and drove the football all the way down to the Allderdice 5, but on fourth-and-3, they were stopped short of the first down.
That seemed to spark the Dragons as they scored the next 12 points to pull away.
First came a methodical 96-yard drive that ended with a Rashaun Caldwell 23-yard touchdown run.
Dugger’s early fourth quarter run put the Dragons up 18-0.
Westinghouse was led by sophomore quarterback Cameron “Super Cam” Jones, who ran for 155 yards on 27 carries. Jones’ 5-yard touchdown run and a Mike Massey 2-point conversion cut the lead to 18-8.
The game ended with the 18-8 score and Allderdice was able to celebrate back-to-back championships.
“This game was very important to us because of the community in Squirrel Hill and hopefully our victory will help in the healing process a little bit,” said Haslett. “However, when I coached at Oliver we won a City League championship and the one thing I figured out as a coach is how important a kicker can be and our kicker got hurt, outside of football, last week. Because we lost our kicker we were 0-for-3 on extra points.”
Westinghouse High School has struggled mightily in City League football for nearly two decades and has not won a championship since 1996.
Bulldogs football player, Khalil Andrews Logan, was shot and killed in September and the football team dedicated the season to him.
“I give a lot of credit to coach Monte Robinson and his staff for guiding the Bulldogs to the championship game,” said Luther Dupree, host of Steel City Sports World. “Allderdice just had too much size and Dalen Dugger, 6-feet-6 and winner of the Jeron Grayson Player of the Game trophy, was too much.”
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