Photo for the Mirror by Jeremy Boland The Bishop Guilfoyle sideline looks on as Chase Kissell tries to elude a Westinghouse defender Saturday afternoon.

By Andy Stine

astine@altoonamirror.com

FARRELL — The snow, the time of the game and the location was never going to matter for Bishop Guilfoyle Academy in the PIAA Class 1A quarterfinals against Westinghouse.

After a postponement due to Friday’s snow, and not just one, but two site changes, the Marauders had everything rolling in a 56-15 dismantling of the Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon at Farrell High School.

The game originally to be played on Friday night was initially scheduled to be played at Johnstown High School, but that was changed to Highlands High School in Natrona Heights with unfavorable weather forecasts in Cambria County. Travel conditions were too dangerous to make the trip on Friday afternoon to Highlands, which forced PIAA to relocate the game to Farrell on Saturday afternoon.

But when it was finally time to put the ball on the tee for the opening kickoff, the Marauders may have put together their best game of the season.

“This is without a doubt one of the best teams we’ve ever faced,” BG coach Justin Wheeler said. “Our guys just battled the whole game. I said, ‘I need your best effort for 140 plays, not 139, but every single play’ I think we got that.”

The Marauders jumped out to a 28-0 lead in the first 15 minutes of the game. Although the Bulldogs stormed back with two touchdowns on a pair of deep touchdown passes, they were largely held in check by the BG defense the rest of the way.

Westinghouse was sent home from the state playoffs early this season after getting to the PIAA 2A championship game in each of the past two seasons. The Bulldogs lost to Southern Columbia in both seasons.

Play of the game: With Bishop Guilfoyle leading 28-15 late in the first half, Marauder defensive back Hamilton Gates picked off a pass from Westinghouse quarterback Khalil Green in the end zone. If the Bulldogs would have scored before the half, BG still would have led by one possession, but Westinghouse would have had all the momentum going into halftime.

“We thought we controlled most of it except for a couple big plays in the passing game,” Wheeler said. “If someone would have said, ‘I’ll give you a two-score lead going into half,’ I’ll take that.”

Players of the game: Either Kissell brother — Chase or Jake — could be the guy. The two hooked up for a pair of touchdown passes on the day. Chase threw for 281 yards and three touchdowns, while Jake had 130 receiving yards on four receptions.

Unsung hero: Taurean Consiglio didn’t light up the stat sheet, but he was counted on for the tough yards early, which set the tone for the Marauders. He also scored his team’s first two touchdowns in the first quarter to put all the pressure on the Bulldogs.

Most vital statistic: Westinghouse got four large chunk plays through the air of 55, 56, 61, and 53 yards from Green. Two of those plays went for touchdowns. Without those four splash plays, the Bulldogs only had 71 yards of total offense.

Wheeler: “(Westinghouse) is an incredible team. You saw how fast they can score. What our program is is we try to be consistent. We try to never get too high or too low. We wanted to come out and take care of things up front.”

Westinghouse coach Donta Green: “(BG) is a heck of a team. They’re a great football team. Their coaches are great. They prepared their guys well, and they play hard. They gave us some issues early, and we just didn’t execute like we usually do.”

Chase Kissell: “There’s no better feeling in the world. We came out today and just played our best football. We played together. If we play like this, there’s no one that can stop us.”

Gates: “All the hard work and preparation we had all summer, it just came to light here. We played great.”

Notable: At times, the game got chippy as Westinghouse was penalized 15 times for 140 yards. BG was flagged six times for 45 yards. … Westinghouse had two bye weeks in the district playoffs and did not play its first game of the postseason until last week when they beat Windber, 61-6, in a District 5-8 subregional contest. The Bulldogs had a 20-day span from their last game of the regular season until the Windber game. … The Marauders started two drives in the red zone thanks to fumbles on backwards swing passes. BG punched it in for a touchdown on both occasions. … Gates led all receivers with 137 yards on five catches. … Green finished with 256 yards passing, and needed just seven completions to get to that mark. Lloyd Penn had 111 yards on two receptions.

Records: Bishop Guilfoyle (13-1); Westinghouse (9-2).

Next week: The Marauders will play District 4 champion Muncy on Friday night at 7 at Lock Haven University. Muncy beat District 3 champion Delone Catholic, 41-17, in the quarterfinals on Friday night.

“I watched some of their game (Friday) night,” Wheeler said. “They have an incredible running team. They have it clicking. There are no breaks in single-A, whether it’s Clairton or Fort Cherry or (Westinghouse), it’s every single week. We hope we represent our conference really well, and those teams prepare us to do this stuff. We hope we’re prepared for next week.”

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Bishop Guilfoyle 21 7 13 15 — 56

Westinghouse 0 15 0 0 — 15

First Quarter

BG–Consiglio 5 run, (Cacciotti kick), 5:45.

BG–Consiglio 1 run, (Cacciotti kick), :30.

BG–C. Kissell 8 run, (Cacciotti kick), :09.

Second Quarter

BG–Gates 88 pass from C. Kissell, (Cacciotti kick), 9:12.

W–Penn 56 pass from Green, (Penn pass from Green), 8:38.

W–Bailey 61 pass from Green, (Penn kick), 5:44.

Third Quarter

BG–J. Kissell 29 pass from C. Kissell, (Cacciotti kick), 4:18.

BG–C. Kissell 6 run, (pass failed), 3:57.

Fourth Quarter

BG–J. Kissell 67 pass from C. Kissell, (J. Kissell pass from Consiglio), 11:02.

BG–Gates 9 run, (Cacciotti kick), 3:22.

TEAM STATISTICS BG W

First downs 26 7

Total yards 379 296

Rushes-yards 46-98 23-40

Yards passing 281 256

Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 12-17-1 7-21-2

Punts-avg. 3-23.6 3-23.6

Fumbles-lost 1-0 6-3

Penalties-yards 6-45 15-140

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–Bishop Guilfoyle, Gates 10-35, C. Kissell 12-35, Consiglio 17-19, Gioiosa 3-13, Team 4-(-4). Westinghouse, Green 13-26, Mitchell 9-17, Hawkins 1-(-3).

PASSING–Bishop Guilfoyle, C. Kissell 12-17-1-281. Westinghouse, Green 7-21-2-256.

RECEIVING–Bishop Guilfoyle, Gates 5-137, J. Kissell 4-130, Reilly 2-12, McCloskey 1-2. Westinghouse, Penn 2-111, Stanford 4-84, Bailey 1-61.