PITTSBURGH — Westinghouse head football coach Donta Green got a Gatorade shower for the second time in his Bulldog coaching career on Saturday afternoon.
Green won Westinghouse’s first Pittsburgh City League championship in 23 years with a 12-2 win over USO (University Prep/Sci-Tech/Obama Academy).
The first time Green got showered by his players was when he won his first career game with the Bulldogs (Sept. 12 in their 33-30 win against Allderdice). Green is in his first year as the head man at Westinghouse.
“I knew we had a lot of guys coming back (from last year), who were really good — And they were dedicated and bought into our program,” Green said.
Westinghouse was led on defense by Pitt commit, Dayon Hayes, who had 1.5 sacks and helped in holding USO to negative yards on the ground.
Green wasn’t surprised by the way that his defense stepped up against a USO team that scored 33 points on his team back in early September.
“(This performance) was expected,” Green said. “These past six, seven weeks we have been really tightening screws and the guys really prepared well — And it showed (tonight).”
On the offensive end of the ball, the Bulldogs were led by senior quarterback Troy Lanier. Lanier threw for two touchdowns and 109 passing yards.
After no score after nearly 20 minutes gone by in the first half, Troy Lanier connected on a 57-yard pass to Tarik Hamilton for the first score of the game. The touchdown started with a double reverse that then got tossed back to Lanier, who hit Hamilton right in stride.
The only other touchdown of the game was a 15-yard Lanier strike to Cameron Jones with 1:56 remaining in the third quarter.
The Bulldogs could just kill clock for much of the fourth quarter. USO had trouble all night with costly penalties on both sides of the ball, that really ruined any momentum that they could have gained.
“We did not play complementary football — In all three phases,” USO head coach Lou Berry said. “It was like whenever we did something positive, it became negative. When you keep giving your opponent opportunities to capitalize on your mistakes — Then you fall short.”
Westinghouse was the beneficiary of those mistakes by USO.
The Homewood community and this Bulldog team will remember this victory for a long time.
“We haven’t won in a long time,” Hayes said. “We brought (everyone) from Homewood out here — Westinghouse alumni, students — They all believed in us and (we) really appreciate that they were here today.”
“It’s a blessing (to lead Westinghouse to a City League title),” Lanier said. “These boys (and myself) put in so much work — I’m just happy it paid off.”
Both teams will continue their seasons in the PIAA State playoffs, with seedings to be determined.
“The season is still not over,” Lanier said.
