South Fayette Steals the Spotlight at Keystone Oaks' Homecoming Game

The South Fayette Lions dismantled the excitement of the Golden Eagles' homecoming Friday night in a critical AA Century Conference game at with a final score of 28-3.

“We put it all together tonight. We played 48 minutes as a team,” South Fayette coach Joe Rossi said. “It was a little rough at the start, but this is the first time we’ve had our offensive line all together. Hopefully we can ride this into our next game.”

With an excruciating 116 penalty yards and four turnovers, Keystone Oaks beat themselves while allowing South Fayette stars Zach Challingsworth and Trevor Fiorentini to shine.

The game remained scoreless until the opening drive of the second quarter when the Golden Eagles had their first and only score of the night, a 27-yard field goal kicked by Dom Canello. From that point out, it was the Lions' show.

After quarterback John Lerda completed a nearly perfect 82-yard pass to Challingsworth, the Lions were on the board, complete with an extra point by Tyler Yee. South Fayette was up 7 to 3 with three and a half minutes left in the second quarter.

Keystone Oaks appeared to be on its way to the end zone during the next drive, despite a recovered fumbled snap for a loss of 3 yards. Junior Mike Fetchet barreled through the Lions' defense for a huge 12-yard gain, followed by a perfectly executed QB sneak compliments of Matt Buckley for the first down.

Then the tune changed. Buckley threw an interception that ended up in the hands of the explosive Challingsworth, setting South Fayette up for 1st and 10 at their own 30-yard line. The drive ended in a Lions touchdown thrown by Lerda to Fetchet.

With 22 seconds left in the half and a score of 14-3, Buckley took a knee and headed to the locker room. 

“We played well between the 20s but we couldn’t finish. We have to learn how to finish,” said Buckley. “This is a team game. We have to all be on the same page and not make so many mistakes. Not so much athletically, but in our communication.”

South Fayette came out in the second half stronger then before, as sophomore Conner Beck gained 52 yards on the return when he was finally stopped by freshman Jimmy Canello. After a handful of hard runs, Fiorentini found his way into the Keystone Oaks end zone, leading to a score of 21-3.

Despite starting a crucial drive with two penalties that set KO up with 1st & 23 at their own 10-yard line, there appeared to be hope.

First, Klobichur pounded through 11 yards of Lions defense, followed by two 19-yard passes each thrown by Buckley. But after a failed screen pass and an incomplete ball knocked down by Fiorentini on 4th down, KO was forced to punt.

South Fayette would score one final time on its next drive after a reverse pass was nearly pulled away by KO’s Cory Sevacko, securing the final score at 28-3.

The fourth quarter was a mess of yellow flags being thrown at both teams. Although the Golden Eagles' Cody Alward recovered a Lion’s fumble, KO was unable to capitalize on the opportunity.

“We’ve got to put this one behind us as fast as we can and go on to the next one,” said coach Nick Kamberis. “We just have to keep getting better. Our kids were ready to play, they were just better then us tonight

Despite his interceptions, KO quarterback Matt Buckley finished the night completing 18 of 27 passes for an impressive 202 yards. Sevacko had 8 catches for 101 yards, while ball carrier Klobichur rushed 22 times for 101 yards as well.

Buckley agrees with Kamberis about moving on.

“I think we’re ready for the playoffs, we just need to come out on Friday nights and make plays. We have good athletes all across the board, we’re a good team, we just have to make the plays,” Buckley said.

Receiver Challingsworth’s eight catches contributed towards 132 of South Fayette’s 451 total yards.