Penn Hills football coach Charles Morris approached senior running back/linebacker Naytel Mitchell before the season with a request to play a physical brand of football on both sides of the ball. Mitchell accepted and was hard on conditioning to be ready for the rigors of a long season and handle situations like Friday night’s WPIAL Class 5A first-round playoff game at Yuhas-McGinley Stadium.
Mitchell ran for 250 yards and scored three times, in addition to leading the Indians in tackles, during seventh-seeded Penn Hills’ 30-27 win over No. 10 Moon.
“Coach Chuck, man, he is a dog in the weight room,” Mitchell said. “Every morning, we were on this track, running 400s, 200s, 300s and gassers every morning. We were in the weight room right after. We had to build up.”
Morris said Mitchell’s teammates followed in his lead. Penn Hills’ numbers steadily grew for 5 a.m. practices at Fralic Center.
“They all followed his lead,” Morris said. “I said if you really want to work, give me five players. When I came to the field at 5 in the morning, there were 30 kids here. Then there were more the next day.”
They needed Mitchell’s leadership after Moon went ahead 27-23 with 8 minutes, 44 seconds remaining on a 1-yard run on fourth-and-goal by Andrew Cross. On the next drive, the Indians gave the ball to Mitchell twice.
The first carry went 11 yards. Mitchell’s second carry ended up with him racing 69 yards for the winning touchdown run just 40 seconds after the Tigers had regained the lead.
“(Mitchell) screamed at me all week, ‘Coach, give me the football,’ ” Morris said. “ ‘I am going to help us to win.’ He sure enough did that.”
The Indians will play second-seeded Upper St. Clair in the quarterfinals next Friday.
Getting by Moon (5-5) wasn’t easy for Penn Hills. The Tigers scored on their first play from scrimmage. Braeden Stuart’s 80-yard touchdown run was part of a first quarter in which Moon scored 20 points, including the first 13 of the game.
Ryan Culligan set up the Tigers’ second touchdown by intercepting Penn Hills quarterback Jay’mere Ellis and returning the ball to the Indians 4-yard line.
Nicolas Prozzoly scored two plays later to stretch the lead to 13-0.
“We started great,” Moon coach Ryan Linn said. “We finished OK. We initially came out flying. It’s hard to sustain that momentum off the jump.”
Mitchell got Penn Hills on the board following Prozzoly’s score. He ripped off a 55-yard touchdown run to the deficit to six points.
However, the Tigers came back on the next drive.
Jayden Revis set Moon up at the Penn Hills’ 33-yard line with a 67-yard kick return. Kyden Kulvanish, who finished with 100 yards rushing, put the Tigers back ahead by two scores with a 19-yard touchdown run.
Penn Hills bounced back by scoring in the final minute of the first half. Carter Bonner caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from Ellis.
The Indians got the ball after halftime and took their first lead, 21-20, on a 2-yard touchdown run by Mitchell.
Moon had a chance to steal the game late. However, the Tigers drive was snuffed out by Darrell Banks’ interception.
Banks, who was in on the early morning practices as well, said the Indians benefited from those mornings together.
“It builds chemistry,” Banks said. “We are all here together, and it’s going to pay off in the long run.”