Steel Valley wins 2A Allegheny Conference with strong defensive performance

Tagged under: District 7, Gameday Hub, News, pfn

Andrew Schaffer | October 30, 2021

Coming into the game Steel Valley was only giving up an average of 5.4 points per game and tonight Steel Valley continued their dominant defensive season in their 28-7 victory over Serra. “We prepared for them the best we could” said Coach Braszo.

Steel Valley got the ball to start the game. They got into Serra territory. But penalties stalled the drive and they ended up punting it away. On Serra’s first drive they got out close to midfield but they ultimately ended up punting it away.

Steel Valley’s second drive was looking promising and a lot of the yardage came via penalties which was a major story in the first half. Serra alone had 5 personal fouls. The drive ended up stalling because of some Steel Valley penalties. It was hard for both team to get in a rhythm because of all the penalties. “We can’t make mistakes, we can’t win these big games playing like that” said Coach Braszo.

The following 3 drives were all three and out with 2 of the drives being by Serra and the second one was major because a punt return was returned to the Steel Valley 24 but despite that Steel Valley was able to force Serra to go three and out. Serra had their opportunities to score in this game with a couple drives in Steel Valley territory but they just couldn’t finish drives. “We played some tough defense, we’re pretty strong against the pass, we got some pretty good athletes back there as well” said Coach Braszo.

At the end of the first quarter the game was scoreless. It was basically the same thing in the second quarter. Late in the second quarter Steel Valley got on the board when NiJhay Burt was off to the races for a 73 yard touchdown run. “He just finds a crease and he’s gone, he has great speed and great vision” said Coach Braszo. That made the score 6-0 Steel Valley at the half.

Serra got the ball to start the second half and it was a good looking drive. The got as far as inside the Steel Valley 20 yard line but yet again Steel Valley came up big on defense getting an interception.

After the takeaway Steel Valley started at their own 26 yard line. It was in the second half where Steel Valley took the game over because later in the drive they extended their lead when Cruce Brookins found NyZair Burt for a 45 yard touchdown pass. “We started moving the ball” said Coach Braszo.

The major momentum shift that ultimately ended up deciding the game was a surprise onside kick and Steel Valley recovered. “You gotta be lucky” said Coach Braszo. That drive started at the Serra 43 yard line but despite that it was a long drive but in the end Steel Valley extended their lead on a 5 yard run by Nijhay Burt. That made it 21-0 with 10:30 left in the game. Burt was the player of the game who had 198 yards rushing.

The crazy part of the so called onside kick was it was not intended to be an onside kick, it just happened to be a lucky kick. Steel Valley squib kicked it the whole game and the reason why was because of Serra’s explosive return game. “We didn’t want them to run it back on us” said Coach Braszo.

It was on the next drive where Serra scored their only points of the game. Also worth noting that early in the drive Serra’s starting quarterback Max Rocco got injured, after that Elijah Ward took over and after a couple of completed passes they were deep inside Steel Valley’s territory. The drive was finished off by Machai Duetrieulle on an 11 yard touchdown run. That made the score 21-7 Steel Valley with 7:14 left in the game.

Steel Valley answered right back on the following drive and it ended up being a long drive that finished off by a 15 yard run by Cruce Brookins. That made the final score 28-7.

Next Week Steel Valley will host an opponent to be determined in the first round of the playoffs. Serra’s opponent is also to be determined. Playoff matchups will be released Saturday evening.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews