Gateway pulls away late to beat Woodland Hills

Tagged under: District 7, Gameday Hub, News

Andrew Schaffer | September 3, 2022

It was a defensive struggle at Gateway on Friday night but despite that Gateway found a way to pick up a 21-0 win over Woodland Hills. “It isn’t always going to be pretty against a rival” said Coach Holl.

Gateway got the ball to start the game and it was a great way to start a game. The drive took up over half of the first quarter, they started with the ball at their own 17 yard line and after a 28 yard completion and a run they were in Woodland Hills territory. Later on in the drive Brad Birch finished the drive off with a 5 yard run making the score 7-0 with 5:25 in the first quarter. “I was pretty pleased with that first drive we got what we expected and executed for the most part and we punched it in” said Coach Holl.

After that it was just a straight struggle for both teams but especially for Woodland Hills. On their first possession a sack on third down forced a three and out. Gateway did the same on their second possession of the game.

Later in the game Gateway decided to go for it on fourth down and a run fell just short and all of a sudden Woodland Hills had a golden opportunity. They started at the Gateway 38 yard line. On first down a run resulted in a 4 yard loss which set the tone of that drive and in the end they turned the ball over on downs. “When it became pretty obvious that our defense was pretty stout tonight, we knew we didn’t need a lot of points” said Coach Holl.

Gateway started one drive with good field position at the Woodland Hills 45 yard line and they were marching down the field, but later in the drive they went for it again on fourth down and didn’t convert. Woodland Hills got the ball yet again and again went three and out.

Late in the second quarter Gateway started a drive on their own 30 yard line and again it was a promising drive they got inside the 15 yard line and once again went for it on fourth and one and didn’t convert. “We didn’t win any money downs, the third and shorts and fourth and shorts, we just couldn’t get one” said Coach Holl. The score at halftime remained 7-0 in favor of Gateway. Woodland Hills struggled so much on offense that they didn’t pick up one first down in the first half. “I talked to the team at halftime and I said we’re not doing justice to this group we haven’t even given up a first down and we can’t score points, we had like 9 possessions in the first half and we just couldn’t finish anything” said Coach Holl.

The second half was more of the same. Woodland Hills made a change at Quarterback to start the second half. Woodland Hills went three and out to start the second half and punted it away again. The story of the second half was Woodland Hills started to have a little more success on offense but in the end they just couldn’t find the end zone. They finally got a first down with 7:30 in the third quarter.

Gateway made plenty of mistakes in the second half but luckily their defense stood tall. “We made a lot of mistakes  but we’d rather make those mistakes in a win than a loss” said Coach Holl.

It wasn’t until late in the fourth quarter where Gateway ultimately won the game. Brad Birch scored on a second run this one from 8 yards out. Birch was the key player for Gateway in the game. He was 17 of 27 for 136 yards and also had 21 yards rushing.

Gateway ended the game with one last score on a 48 yard pick six by Chris Livsey. That made the final score 21-0 Gateway. Next week Gateway travels to North Hills and Woodland Hills travels to Penn Trafford.

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