MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — The Westinghouse Bulldogs controlled the game for the majority of Friday’s 2A PIAA State Championship against the Southern Columbia Tigers. Junior quarterback Khalil Green ran the ball with authority and receivers like Taymir O’Neal, Lloyd Penn and K’shawn Hawkins made highlight reel catches.
Defensively, the Bulldogs controlled the line of scrimmage, stopping Southern Columbia on fourth down after fourth down and racking up stops in the backfield. The Tigers, for their part, dominated the game on three drives: an 83-yard rushing touchdown on the second play from scrimmage, a 68-yard pick-six off a screen pass, and a 99-yard touchdown drive in the final minutes. Those key moments were enough to secure their seventh consecutive state championship in a hard-nosed, defense-oriented contest.
Referees Under the Spotlight
While Bulldogs head coach Donta Green maintained that the Tigers’ effort determined the outcome, the game had its fair share of controversy, nonetheless. Trailing by six points with less than two minutes to play, the Tigers faced fourth-and-18 from their own 45. The Bulldogs’ defense appeared to get the stop, with sophomore defensive lineman Josiah Collins stripping the ball away as he sacked Tigers’ quarterback Blake Wise.
The Tigers got a breath of life instead, as senior defensive back Musa Bangora was flagged for defensive holding to set up fourth-and-8—a call that many spectators didn’t agree with. Wise found receiver Kyle Christman for the first down, setting up the eventual game-winning touchdown.
Green gave a wry laugh when asked if the officials offered an explanation on the pivotal holding call.
“No. Of course not,” Green said. “But at the end of the day, if we’d have taken care of business earlier in the game we wouldn’t have been in that situation. There’s no one play or no call that determined this game, we’ve just gotta play a more solid game.”
Bangora, for his part, was at a loss for words regarding the call. “I don’t even have much to say,” Bangora said.
Champions’ Approach
The Tigers showed once again how used they are to the moment in completing the seven-peat. It didn’t matter if the Bulldogs dominated the pace of play, because the Tigers made plays when it mattered most.
“We told our guys that they’re gonna fight to the last second: that’s what they do,” Green said. “It was pure want-to. That’s it. We had the strategy, we had everything down, it’s just pure want-to. We made some mistakes, we had some false reads, but shoutout to those guys.”
Green and the Bulldogs knew first-hand that the Tigers would fight until the end. They lost to Southern Columbia in last year’s state championship game, but Green said he didn’t change his messaging with a rematch in mind.
“There were a lot of questions asked, ‘do you want to talk about what happened last year?’ It’s not about the opponent, it’s always about us,” Green said. “It was the same as all year, it was all about us. We wanted to make sure that our guys understood and remembered their why, why they play the game of football.”
Westinghouse showed the same type of resolve that the Tigers did, scoring 20 unanswered points and controlling the pace of play after finding themselves down two touchdowns barely three minutes into the game.
Westinghouse Fights Back: QB1 Steps Up
Green described how he guided Westinghouse through the early swoon.
“We knew all 14 points, we gave them. It was mistakes on our end, missed alignment, things that we went over all week,” Green said. “But that’s expected in big games. I didn’t want to burn a timeout too quick—I probably should have—to get our guys readjusted, but at the end of the day it’s a learning experience.”
Bangora said the early deficit didn’t faze him because the Bulldogs are a second half team. O’Neal, who starred on both sides of the ball—catching four passes for 76 yards, a touchdown and a two-point conversion while also making eight total tackles and an interception—praised junior quarterback Khalil Green for his response.
“We’ve been down like that before. So, it wasn’t really [anything]… we were all just saying, ‘we’ve been in this position before,’” O’Neal said. “Our quarterback, he told us ‘we’re bouta go score, we’re bouta go score.’ He kept saying it. So, when the drive kept going [and…] we scored, we knew we [were] back in the game. None of us held our heads down, we all just kept fighting as a team, as a family.”
Green said that he didn’t let the memory of the early pick six weigh on him as he passed for two scores and rushed for another. He accounted for more than 300 yards, 109 of them on the ground, leading his team to 20 consecutive points.
“I just kept my head high and knew it wasn’t over,” Green said. “It was still the first quarter.”
Returning Talent
Donta Green raved about Khalil Green’s performance: he had big shoes to fill after stepping into the starting role for the first time on the heels of 2022’s championship game appearance—to that point the best season in Westinghouse history.
“That kid is dynamite. He’s an amazing kid. We knew that he was ready for the big moment: he’s been in a lot of big moments, even before high school, so we knew we would get his best,” Green said. “The brighter the lights, the better he plays, so shoutout to him. We look forward to getting back to work with him.”
Returning talent was a recurring theme as Green recapped the loss. Unlike last year’s game, where the Bulldogs lost a host of seniors, Westinghouse will have a chance to run it back next year with many of their key playmakers. Green said he treats Bulldogs’ losses—on the rare occasion they happen—the same way he treats wins, by looking at where they can improve moving forward.
“Turn the page. The outcome wasn’t what we wanted, but at the end of the day our kids fought hard and I’m proud of them for the work that they put in from January all the way to now,” Green said. “Heartache is heartache, a loss is a loss. At the end of the day, it’s the same process. We’ve gotta get over ourselves, get over that drowning in our own tears, and just get back to work. I have some more things that we’ve gotta work on this offseason that I’m going to be drilling from day one…our coaches said it, ‘it’s only a loss if we don’t learn from it.’”
Taymir O’Neal Stars Through Injury
Green paid due diligence to the departing seniors like O’Neal too. Ever the professional, Green didn’t want to give out unequal amounts of praise, but he couldn’t help it in describing O’Neal’s impact on Westinghouse as a program.
“I hate to say this, but [O’Neal is] one of my favorite players that I coach. What you guys see him do on the field is probably thirty percent of what he brings to this team,” Green said. “He is the ultimate leader, he’s the guy that if something’s not right…he fixes it. He’s always answered the call. I hate to lose him, but I know he’s going to do great things… he has the heart of a lion, super leader, just refuses to lose and refuses to quit. He’s just an amazing kid. It’s gonna be really hard to replace him.”
The Tigers hurt O’Neal on a late hit out of bounds early in the third quarter, forcing him out of the game briefly. O’Neal responded with gusto, making an explosive tackle in the backfield—resulting in a five-yard loss—to open the next defensive series. When asked about the sequence, O’Neal revealed he’d been playing with a broken bone since the Pittsburgh City League Championship Game on October 28, putting his standout performance in even greater context.
“See most people don’t know, but I’ve got a fractured rib right now. I was playing with a fractured rib, and when he threw me, it just set it off,” O’Neal said. “When I [went] down, all my coaches were just standing over me and they were like ‘it’s your last game, it’s your last game,’ and I just wanted to sacrifice and put it all on the line for my brothers.”
Westinghouse Prepares For A Chippy Game
Beyond the late hit on O’Neal, the Tigers played with an edge throughout the game, called for three facemask penalties in the early going. Green said the Bulldogs saw the Tigers push the envelope when watching film. Westinghouse’s coaching staff told their scout team to follow suit while preparing for the championship game, helping the Bulldogs keep cool heads.
“It’s a testament to the culture. That’s what we talk about all the time. We knew that Southern Columbia played like that, we saw some things on film, so we had our scout team do some pretty dirty things to our guys this week, and they weren’t allowed to respond,” Green said. “We knew that was something that we’d have to work on, keep fresh in the forefront of our minds, but again it’s just the culture that we’ve been able to build, that the kids have been able to build over the last five years.”
