On a breezy Thursday at Cumberland Valley High School’s Chapman Field, Clairton fulfilled their coach’s promise, beating defending state champion Bishop Guilfoyle, 35-3, in the PIAA Class 1A state championship.
It was Clairton’s first state title since 2012, when the Bears won four-straight (2009-12), and fifth overall.
The Bears (15-1) ended their season on a 15-game winning streak, and were absolutely dominant. They outgained Guilfoyle by almost 300 yards, 355 to 77, and outrushed the Marauders, 171 to minus-1. The Bears averaged 7.24 yards a play to Guilfoyle’s 1.64.
Clairton’s Deon Lovelace-Pompey was impressive, scoring three touchdowns, rushing for two scores and scoring on a third-quarter pick-six that cemented the victory. Bears’ quarterback Jeff Thompson completed 13 of 15 for 184 yards and two touchdowns, and senior defensive end Tahvaz Armstrong had a team-high nine tackles, four tackles for losses and a fumble recovery.
This state championship was coming for Clairton. It was just a matter of time.
“It hit me we would win this last year when we walked off the field against Fort Cherry,” Wade said. “We were only losing three players from last year’s team and we felt we could replace two of them. We lost by a point to Fort Cherry at Acrisure. In the locker room, down at Acrisure Stadium, we told the team that this was not what we wanted, and we told them then that if they dedicated themselves, they would be state champions.
“We knew then. We said that at Acrisure a year ago. We only graduate 40, 50 kids per class each year. It has to happen this way for us, we can’t get banged up, we can’t have any injuries. We can’t lose kids during the season. But sometimes that happens for us. This year, it didn’t and we’re here winning the state championship.”
Guilfoyle (12-3) could do nothing against the Clairton defense, which posted 10 shutouts this season and held its last three opponent during this state championship run to nine points.
“They are an incredibly gifted team,” Guilfoyle coach Justin Wheeler said of Clairton. “I don’t know many single-A teams that have three 300 pounders on the offensive line, and a Division I wide receiver/tight end (Armstrong), and they are pretty loaded. They pose problems for everybody. For the most part of the first half, I thought we pretty stayed with them toe-to-toe, and we made some mistakes.
“We started the third quarter and got behind in a couple of things, and you start chasing stuff. We played to win. We didn’t hold anything back. A loss is a loss, but we are happy that we are here.”
Clairton took a 14-3 lead into halftime, thanks to Thompson’s 14-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Murphy on a fourth-and-10 with 1:55 left in the opening quarter. The Bears converted an earlier fourth down to keep the drive alive, when Thompson hit Murphy on a fourth-and-six from the Guilfoyle 34.
Early in the second quarter, Clairton went up 14-0 on a Lovelace-Pompey 29-yard run with 11:01 left in the half. The score came courtesy of a fumble recovered by Armstrong at the Guilfoyle 35.
The Bears needed just two plays to make it 14-0.
Guilfoyle’s only chance to score came on a 16-play, 77-yard drive that resulted on a Carter Boland 28-yard field goal with 2:23 left in the half.
The Marauders hurt themselves on the drive with a fumble on a first-and-goal at the Clairton three. Guilfoyle quarterback Justin Wheeler tried running up the middle against Clairton’s large front, when the ball popped free. Fortunately for the Marauders, Jake Kissell was there to fall on it at the Clairton eight, but it stymied any momentum Guilfoyle had.
The eye test bore out what the stats shouted over the first 24 minutes—Clairton domination.
The Bears outgained Guilfoyle 182 to 68, averaging 7.28 yards a play to the Marauders’ 3.2. Both teams turned the ball over once, with Guilfoyle paying the steeper price with the Lovelace-Pompey touchdown run. Lovelace-Pompey had 77 yards rushing in the first half, averaging 8.6 yards a carry.
A big key was Clairton holding Guilfoyle to 0 yards rushing in the first half.
What sealed it was Lovelace-Pompey’s 24-yard touchdown interception return with 11:08 left in the third quarter—putting the Bears up by a commanding 22-3.
Clairton tacked on more when Lovelace-Pompey scored his third touchdown, taking a handoff by reaching the corner of the end zone with 3:48 left in the third quarter.
“The interception was huge,” Wade said. “We talk about it all the time, if the team can’t score, we can’t lose. That’s our mindset. We felt if we could come out and make a stop (in the third quarter) and separate, we could put the game behind us. The adjustments we made at halftime was set to do that.”
The route was on, with Clairton holding a 28-3 lead.
Guilfoyle never crossed midfield in the third quarter, outgained 98 yards to minus-12 yards for Guilfoyle. Clairton did this against a Guilfoyle team that only trailed once this season, against Bishop McCort, in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championship.
“In the WPIAL semifinals against Bishop Canevin, that’s when I thought we could win the state championship, that’s when it really sunk it,” Thompson said. “After the game, celebrating, I started to think about it, we could make history.
“I was born in 2008 and I know the history. I’ve been following Clairton since I was four, five years old. We felt we owed thew city one. We got them back with this.”
Scoring Summary
(District 7) Clairton (15-1) 6 8 21 0-35
(District 6) Bishop Guilfoyle Academy (12-3) 0 3 0 0-3
1st Quarter
Cl – Brandon Murphy 14 pass from Jeff Thompson (pass failed), 1:55
2nd Quarter
Cl – Deon Lovelace-Pompey 29 run (Donte Wright run), 11:01
BGA – Carter Boland 28 FG, 2:23
3rd Quarter
Cl – Lovelace-Pompey 24 INT return (Thompson run), 11:08
Cl – Lovelace-Pompey 7 run (kick failed), 3:48
Cl – Taris Wooding 20 run (Rheyjon Williams kick), 1:16
FULL GAME STATS
C/BGA
First Downs 15/8
Rushing Attempts 33/25
Rushing Yards 171/-1
Rushing Avg 5.2/0.0
Receiving Yards 184/78
Receiving Avg 14.2/5.2
Passing Yards 184/78
Pass13-16-0/15-22-2
Plays-Yards 49-355/47-77
Yards/Play 7.24/1.64
Fumbles-Lost 2-1/3-1
Penalties 16-128/5-40
Possession 23:37/24:23
3rd Down 1-7/3-12
4th Down 3-6/0-4
Joseph Santoliquito is a hall of fame, award-winning sportswriter who has been covering high school football since 1992 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter @JSantoliquito [twitter.com]. Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball [twitter.com].