Duquesne City football coach John Mahone gathered his team together after a 30-0 victory on September 4 over South Park, and gleaned with optimism.

“You can’t make me any prouder,” Mahone said. “That’s how you play Duquesne football.”

It was a picture perfect debut to the 2024 season for the Dukes, who stymied South Park with stout, physical defense and a diverse, efficient offense.

“We made a big improvement from last week’s scrimmage. We made some adjustments and they worked out for us,” said Mahone. “We played well on both sides of the ball, but we still have some work to do.”

Ra’zohn Pitts proved to be a mismatch at wide receiver, catching three touchdowns on the day. The Dukes took a 12-0 lead into halftime and only widened that lead in the 2nd half, executing well on both sides of the ball.

“Our passing game is looking really good. It looked prolific,” said Mahone. “If we can get the run game down, we’re going to be a problem.”

South Park never seriously threatened Duquesne’s lead in the game, in large part due to a Dukes defense that repeatedly found its way into the Eagles’ backfield, making it tough for South Park to gain any sort of offensive rhythm.

“We came to play today. The defense stepped up big time,” said Mahone. “We called some blitzes and got in the backfield and broke some stuff up.”

The Dukes will take on Trinity next week. The goal this year — as it has been the past two seasons — is to go undefeated. Wednesday’s effort represented an excellent start to reaching that goal.

“That’s our goal,” said Mahone. “We lost some key guys, but we also have some key guys back and some younger guys stepping up. They’re playing well.”