With Senior Recognition Night against Shaler passing Friday, October 18th at Martorelli Stadium, North Hills is preparing to part ways with their 12th graders. 

This leaves many wondering about the state of the football team over the next year. Three year varsity starter and Captain Tommy McDonough says that “the seniors this year brought a ton of size to the team, so with a lot of guys graduating, it’ll leave a lot of them to work extra hard in the weight room. But they have more heart than I’ve seen in a long time, so I’m sure it won’t affect them much at all. Definitely leaving the team in good hands.” The team is 5-3 in a tougher section, and McDonough is confident they’ll match the record or improve upon it next season. 

Seniors Damon Thompson and Luke Hulbert agreed, saying that they are content with the fact that the senior class is smaller and the underclassmen and juniors have already proven themselves as competent players. “Guys like Chase and Curtis Foskey play like animals already, despite them being younger guys. Curtis produces on a nightly basis and is a solid starter, and Chase is a prominent up-and-coming guy,” says Thompson. Hulbert adds, “With David (Lukac) and Ronnie (Novosedliak) on the line, we’ll lose some size.  Guys like Nate Brackmann will step up for sure, or at least I’m hoping.” 

As for the senior night game, the Titans came in as a sub-.500 team with a 3-5 win/loss record, so the Indians were more than happy to throw up another tick in the loss column. A scrappy, tooth-and-nail matchup ended up with a W for North Hills, as they finished 19-12 at the wire. Senior All-Conference center David Lukac mentioned how he’s glad they stayed strong for the important game. “Shaler came with a fire underneath them, so we just made sure we burned hotter. It was intense and physical, but we were ready for the fight.” 

Emotionally, this game meant so much more for the players, as they’ve already made playoffs. Damon Thompson remarked, “We were playing for pride at that point. If went in there and lost, we’d go dragging into the postseason. But with that win, now we’ll charge in headfirst ready. We wanted to make sure that since that was potentially our last time playing at Martorelli, we were leaving it all out there.” That they did. As Penn Hills rolls around, another win for the Red and White means they finish the season section champs. With the final credits rolling into many of these young men’s football careers, it seems they are confident as to where the North Hills Varsity Football team is heading. 

Check back in soon to find out who and where the Indians are playing in the playoffs.