Hampton @ North Hills 2019 WPIAL Regular Season Week 3 Recap

Hampton's offense drives down the field in a game against North Hills on Friday, September 13th, 2019.

North Hills entered Friday the 13th as the top team in the WPIAL Class 5A Northern Conference. As Friday the 13th ended, North Hills stayed on top as the best team in their section.

North Hills and Hampton are about a little over 20 minutes away from each other. Throughout the first quarter, this game was known as a defensive game. Hampton fumbled on their first drive of the game.

North Hills running back, Curtis Foskey, scored the first points of the game as he rushed for a 23-yard touchdown late in the first quarter. "Touchdown" Tom McDonough rushed for a 2-yard touchdown in the second quarter to give the North Hills a 14-0 lead at halftime. McDonough dropped a pass in the endzone with 23 seconds left in the first half as he could have had a receiving touchdown in the game. Hampton rushed with the football a lot in the first half as they struggled to get past midfield.

Hampton's marching band seemed to have a little trouble setting up their props before they performed at halftime.

There was no scoring in the third quarter as North Hills still led 14-0 going into the fourth quarter. A lot of the scoring in this game happened in the the fourth quarter. Hampton made the game interesting when their quarterback, Ian Andersson, threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Michael Beraducci to trim North Hills lead down to 14-7. Beraducci's touchdown catch was so nice because he was covered really tight by the North Hills defender covering him.

However, on North Hills next drive, quarterback Dylan Pawling rushed for a 56-yard touchdown as he broke multiple Hampton defenders to score the touchdown. After Hampton turned the football over in the middle of the fourth quarter, Pawling threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Tomasic to give North Hills a 28-7 lead.

Later on, Andersson threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Gage Galuska to trim North Hills lead down to 28-14. However, late in the fourth quarter, Foskey would rush for another touchdown for North Hills to give his team a 35-14 win at home.

After Foskey's second touchdown run, Hampton had the football again and Andersson should have thrown another touchdown; but one of Hampton's receivers dropped the football in the endzone. The game could have ended with North Hills winning of a score by 35-21; but it didn't. In the second half, there were multiple times that Hampton's receivers were wide open; but they did not get the ball.

One of the biggest takeaways in this game is Hampton scored both of their touchdowns by passing the football. Hampton rushed the football a lot in the first half. If Hampton threw the football more in the first half, could have they made the game closer?

However, all I can tell you is that North Hills is legit. A lot of teams in 5A have gotten worse because of the number of seniors that teams lost due to graduation. However, for the North Hills, they have Foskey, Pawling, McDonough, Suto, and Novosedliak, who are all leading the team. Those guys are play makers for North Hills and they are a big reason why the team has started the 2019 season with a 4-0 overall record. Today, North Hills realizes that they have a great shot of winning their section and there are no excuses for them to not win their section. They finished third in their section last season and lost in their first-round playoff game against Penn-Trafford. There is no question, this season, that they are hoping to make the playoffs and play a WPIAL football playoff game in their house, Martorelli Stadium.

North Hills will travel to Peters Township next week in a non-section matchup while Hampton will be back at home next week to take on Shane Susnak and the Fox Chapel Foxes in a section matchup.

BY Hilton: bythebossandgoat@gmail.com and Twitter @BYHilton13