Barons drop tough one to Penn Hills in 5A title game @CoachHahnMCFB

Tagged under: District 3, Gameday Hub, News

Billy Splain | December 9, 2018

Before tonight’s PIAA class 5A State Championship game I asked Daequan Hardy what he could do to top the performance he had in the semi-final game against Archbishop Wood. A game in which he had 2 interceptions, recovered a fumble and had a 64 yard td run. He totaled a whopping 340 all purpose yards. “I’m going to show you” was his answer.

When the game ended, he had four tds. He ran 84 yards for a touchdown on a kickoff return, hauled in three interceptions (one for a 100 yard td), caught a 74 yard td pass and a 27 yard td pass. His performance helped Penn Hills defeat the Barons 36-31, but it wasn’t an easy win for the Indians.

Hardy’s 100 yard int return for a score highlighted a great performance photo credit Sykotyk

Manheim Central opened the game by driving to the Penn Hills 5 yard line, but on fourth down Jake Harbach was stuffed and the Indians took over. It wasn’t long until they got the ball back, just three plays later when Isaac Perron picked off Hollis Mathis at the 16.

Manheim Central started the scoring when Tyler Flick when in from 5 yard out on the Barons second drive of the night. Niko Gavala kicked the point after making it 7-0 with 6:01 left in the first. The Indians answered right back with a 10 play, 60 yard drive capped by a Hollis Mathis to Corey Thomas Jr. 5 yard td play. The two point play would be a thorn in the side of Head Coach Jon LeDonne all night long, and this one failed just as the following 5 attempts would. “We’ll be working on that a lot in the off season”.

Another theme for the night then developed as the Barons reached to Penn Hills 10 only to have Daequan Hardy intercept a pass at the goal line and return it to the 6. After holding the Indians and forcing a punt, once again the Barons came up empty inside the Penn Hills 20 when Anthony Grimes picked off Evan Simon at the 17 and he returned it to the 32. Two false starts pushed the ball back, but Mathis stood cool and tossed a 74 yard td strike to Hardy making it 12-7. Again Manheim drove deep into Penn Hills territory, but with 30 seconds left in the first half Simon was intercepted again, and Hardy went the distance, 100 yards, to make it an 18-7 game at halftime.

“Armchair quarterbacks are going to question, but we didn’t expect the ball to me intercepted” said Barons head coach Dave Hahn. “We run the ball on third down there, we don’t make it and we still have one more play. We thought if we didn’t complete the pass we still would have had time for the field goal.”
Penn Hills got the ball to start the second half, and Mathis led them straight to the endzone with his second td pass, a 27 yard td play to Hardy. They got the ball right back three plays later when Hardy got his second interception and returned it 34 yards to the Baron 35. On the next play Terry “Tank” Smith went right up the gut to make it 30-7 with 17 seconds left in the third quarter.

The next few minutes were a flurry of action. Manheim battled back, driving just 46 yards after receiving a short kickoff. Tyler Flick, who had 96 yards on 21 carries, carried the ball over the goal line to make it a 30-14 game. Hardy didn’t let the joy last long. He took the ensuing kick 84 yards to the house making it 36-14. On the very next play Simon found Colby Wagner streaking down the sideline and hit him in stride for a 64 yard td play putting the score at 36-20 with 5:32 left in the third quarter.

Heading into the fourth quarter and trailing by 16, the Barons got the the Penn Hills 11 where Gavala hit a 29 yard field goal to make it 36-23, then the Barons closed out the scoring when Simon found Isaac Perron from 18 out with just three seconds on the clock.

During the ensuing kickoff, Manheims Clyde Bedy took a hard hit and was carted off the field after being tended to for nearly 30 minutes. The remaining three seconds were erased and Penn Hills got the win. UPDATE: As of 11am Saturday, Clay’s discharge papers were signed & is waiting to be released. The neck brace was taken off 3/4 a.m. & sat him up, he struggled w/nausea & is still under observation, although brain scan was clear. Follow up w/doctor next week. 🙏’s for Clay and family.

Photo Gallery Credit: Jason Syk