Archbishop Wood can’t counter big plays, speed from Penn Hills in PIAA 5A semifinals

CHAMBERSBURG >> It was a situation Archbishop Wood has not found itself in very often.

The Vikings watched a lot of tape going into Friday’s state semifinal matchup with Penn Hills and they knew the Indians had a lot of speed and a lot of athletes. But sometimes, even that kind of appearance can be deceiving. Penn Hills hit the big plays it needed to and its speed gave Wood fits all night.

Wood got a last chance, but couldn’t convert and saw its season end in a 20-13 loss as undefeated Penn Hills assured there will be a new PIAA 5A football champion next week.

“They were a lot faster,” Wood senior quarterback Jack Colyar said. “They have a lot of athletic guys in the secondary that we didn’t really match up great with.”

Typically, Wood running backs get that first block and turn it into something, even if it’s a four or five-yard gain. Friday night, the reshuffled offensive line created a good share of those blocks, but the runners found themselves bottled up quickly by a hard-closing Penn Hills defender.

Vikings workhorse back Tom Santiago picked up an injury that kept him out for most of the second and third quarters, which certainly didn’t help, but none of Wood’s backs could really get much going on the ground. Senior Chris Blackstone ran hard, but he just seemed to run into more and more white-and-red jerseys filling holes with each carry.

“We just didn’t execute,” Blackstone said. “They were faster than we saw on film. We knew they’d be fast but that did surprise us. We tried to get creases, get up field on them and pound them all game but they were really good.”

Wood was also down it best player before the game even started. Senior left tackle/defensive lineman Connor Bishop injured his ankle in last week’s quarterfinal win and was not able to play on Friday.

Vikings coach Kyle Adkins said every team has its own key injuries at this time of year and he’s said earlier he has faith in his linemen to handle any position up front.

“It hurt, but I’m still 100 percent confident in the guys even without Connor but,” Adkins said. “I’m not going to lie, not having Connor does not help our cause. In my opinion, he’s the best two-way lineman in the state.”

Still not having Bishop’s presence was noticeable, especially on the offensive side.

“We knew it would be tough even going in with him and with him gone, it was even tougher,” Colyar said.

Wood had its chances, but didn’t make the most of them in the first half. Penn Hills struggled mightily to get a clean snap off for punting in the first half, gifting Wood superb field position on two drives.

All the Vikings were able to muster off those two drives were a pair of Bobby Hennessey field goals. While it was good to put points up, they needed more than just three each time.

“They gave us chances and we had to settle for field goals and we’re not going to win big games settling for field goals,” Adkins said. “They run a lot of stuff down from the backside, we felt like we blocked well at the point of attack and they had those athletes backside who were just chasing us down.”

Wood took a 3-0 lead on Hennessey’s 25-yard first quarter field goal, but Penn Hills scored two plays later when tailback Terry “Tank” Smith ripped off a 75-yard run on an inside cut. The Indians went for two and got it, which put them up 8-3.

Penn Hills would keep the lead, but at a slimmer margin after Hennessey hit a 39-yarder with four minutes left in the second quarter. The senior kicker was about a yard short on a 47-yard try near the end of the half, which kept Wood playing from behind.

The big play would again prove fatal to Wood in the second half.

“We had our chances,” Adkins said. “We had a couple miscues, especially early, we were getting the ball on their 35 and we’d only get one first down and couldn’t sustain a drive. That’s going to come back to bite you.”

Wood had a good drive to start the third quarter, but it stalled inside the Indians’ 30 and came to a close when a fake punt pass by Bill Cook went incomplete. It didn’t hurt right away, but two drives later Penn Hills wideout Daequan Hardy took an end around 62 yards to extend the lead to 14-8.

Hardy had a nice game for Penn Hills, rushing for 64 yards, catching two passes for 22 yards and intercepting Colyar twice, the second coming on a diving snare of a tipped pass.

After Wood punted, Penn Hills went all-in and cashed in. The Indians used a double reverse to set up a gadget play that ended with receiver Dante Cephas tossing a 37-yard touchdown to wide-open Richard Martin for the 20-6 edge.

“What they got on our defense were big plays,” Adkins said. “We talked about it a lot, we couldn’t let up the big one and twice they caught us on big plays. You have to give credit to them, it’s a good coaching staff and very good athletes.”

The Vikings got back in the game when Colyar hit Cardel Pigford for a 28-yard touchdown with 8:56 left in the game. After the trick play, Penn Hills tried an onsides kick which Wood recovered and finally took advantage of the short field on.

Wood forced another punt, then got the first of its three possessions in the final seven minutes of the game. Hardy ended that one with his diving pick but the Indians did not manage the clock well down the stretch, twice punting the ball back to Wood.

Even though Penn Hills kept giving Wood chances, the Indians also got stops when they had to.

“They’re 15-0 right now and they’re 15-0 for a reason,” Adkins said. “That’s a very good football team.”

The loss ends a special run for Wood’s senior class. Guys like Colyar, Bishop and Luke Stengel featured as underclassmen while others bided their time and came on strong as seniors like Dylan Urbanowski, Brett Gross and Blackstone.

“It was a great experience, there’s two state championships that can’t ever be taken away from us,” Colyar said. “I’m proud of all my teammates and we had a great run.”