Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
And for Seton LaSalle on Saturday, “Wildcat Will” found a way to help the Rebels use an impressive second-half rally to win its first WPIAL title in 21 years.
Will Martin ran for three touchdowns, including the winner with 30 seconds left, to lead No. 1 Seton LaSalle to a dramatic 21-14 win against No. 3 Steel Valley in the WPIAL Class 2A championship at Acrisure Stadium.
In a game that earned Seton LaSalle (12-1) a sixth WPIAL title, the Rebels stormed from behind to claim the win. After rallying from six points down at the half to beat Washington in the semifinals, the Rebels topped that by coming back from a 14-0 third-quarter deficit to topple Steel Valley (9-4), which was trying to win a seventh title and second in four years.
“It’s a surreal feeling,” Seton LaSalle senior Aaron Loritts said. “When that clock hit zero, I started crying immediately.”
Martin was partially responsible for those tears, all while the Duquesne linebacker recruit broke Steel Valley’s hearts. Martin (6 feet 3, 215 pounds) had just eight carries all season, but on Saturday he surprisingly carried the ball 10 times for 47 yards and three touchdowns while taking direct snaps in the Wildcat formation.
It turns out that the Wildcat wrinkle was put in earlier in the week by Seton LaSalle offensive coordinator Dave Storino. And get this: Martin predicted the new package would lead the Rebels to their first title since 2004 after falling in last year’s championship game.
“The name of the package is ‘Psycho,’” Martin said. “And I told him, ‘That’s going to win us a WPIAL championship.’ And it did.”
Martin had already run for two short touchdowns when Seton LaSalle took possession in a tie game with 2:39 left. Standout running back Kymarr Freeman’s 51 yards helped the Rebels move to the Steel Valley 19 with 1:02 left. It was all Martin after that, and his third consecutive carry saw him run up the middle for an 11-yard touchdown to help give the Rebels a 21-14 lead with 30 seconds remaining.
“I didn’t know that I was going to do that,” Martin said, “but I kind of envisioned in my head that ‘If I go out there and play my best, we can go out and get the win.’”
Steel Valley had one final chance and actually gained 65 yards on four plays, but Tyson Barron’s 30-yard run to the Seton LaSalle 15 came as time expired.
Freeman and quarterback Kia Jones, both sophomores, each had big rushing performances for Seton LaSalle. Freeman, the second-leading rusher in Class 2A, bounced back from an ankle injury suffered in the semifinals by running for 129 yards on 18 carries. Jones completed just 2 of 8 passes in the game but showed off his wheels by rushing for 100 yards on 14 carries.
The Rebels did a good job keeping Steel Valley star running back Da’Ron Barksdale from hitting any big plays. Barksdale, the team’s workhorse back and a Pitt defensive back recruit, finished with 144 yards and a touchdown on 33 carries. Barksdale had come in red hot, rushing for 871 yards and scoring 16 touchdowns across Steel Valley’s previous four games. Barksdale surpassed 2,000 yards on the season, a feat also achieved by brothers DeWayne Murray and Donald Barksdale.
“Hats off to that dude. He’s a great player on both sides of the ball,” said Loritts, a standout defensive lineman who has several Division I offers. “He’s hard to tackle, but our defensive coordinator just told us to swarm him and gang tackle him. We had to get bodies on him. We were confident that if we stopped the run with Barksdale, we’d have a good chance to win.”
Zambelli had the night off at Acrisure Stadium, but that didn’t stop Steel Valley from firing off some fireworks early in the second half after the teams played to a scoreless first half. The Ironmen scored 14 points in the first 44 seconds. Tyrell Breland produced the first big play when he returned the second half kickoff for an 84-yard touchdown. After Jones fumbled on the first play of Seton LaSalle’s next possession, Barksdale scored his 32nd touchdown of the season on a 21-yard run to extend the Ironmen lead to 14-0.
“Starting the second half with the touchdown and then the fumble, it’s 14-0,” Seton LaSalle coach Tim Storino said. “But we weren’t worried about them scoring on us. We thought we could shut them down and make Barksdale run his 40 or 50 carries.”
But Seton LaSalle would counter with two Martin scores of its own. Martin scored on an 8-yard run with 8:04 left in the third quarter that was set up by his interception. And then Martin scored on a 6-yard run with 4:05 left.
Seton LaSalle won despite a tumultuous summer that saw six starters transfer, among them heralded wide receiver Khalil Taylor, who bolted for Pine-Richland. Also leaving was talented quarterback Anthony Smith, who had transferred to Seton LaSalle from Southmoreland before being ruled ineligible due to transfer rules.
“A couple guys left, but especially me and Will, we didn’t get worried,” Loritts said. “We didn’t get discouraged that everybody was saying the big dogs left. They’re great players, but we have dogs all across the roster.”
One of them is Martin, whose Wildcat ways helped Seton LaSalle win a WPIAL title.
“It was pretty cool,” he said. “I just didn’t imagine I was going to score three touchdowns today, but it was all about the line and everyone in that package, the blocking and the coaches having trust in me. But I knew if I could make a difference to change this game, I would change it. Once I scored that third one, I thought we pretty much won this and it felt pretty good.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.