Pennsylvania state football finals!

Steel-High won the afternoon game 35-16. It was 8-8 at half, then the entire 27-point third quarter was played inside Clairton's 20 because Steel-High could bang its kickoffs into the end zone with the wind and Clairton couldn't punt into the wind. Rollers started at the Clairton 9 and 22 after two punts. It was rather stunning to see a team make it all the way to Hershey without the ability to strike the ball with its foot.

Thomas Jefferson is dominating Archbishop Wood early in the fourth quarter of the nightcap, 28-7.

 

Hmm, with Steel-High's win, Colin Dunlap is going to be upset there won't be a West sweep. ;D

I hear Bethel Park has lobbied to use the same officiating crew for the AAAA final that called its semifinal game. :

 

Still amazes me that Wilson is in the west yet Steel-High is in the east. Had Wilson won the "west" final, you would've had two schools barely an hour from each other playing in a state final.

 

It's Clairton. That isn't surprising at all. If they can't overwhelm you with their talent, they are toast.

 

In boys hoops we've had two Philly suburban schools in the AAAA final not too long ago. Now, which one was the "West" champion.

It's a big reason why many newspapers around the state have scrapped the terms "Eastern final" and "Western final" and instead refer to them as simply the semifinals. "Eastern semifinal" is now "quarterfinal," and so on.

 

Archbishop Wood, the Class AAA title game victim, has one strange head coach.

Maybe Archbishop Wood didn't know what it was in for last night because the team's players did not watch any film of Thomas Jefferson.

"[Our players] never watch game film. We just don't do that," said Archbishop Wood coach Steve Devlin said. "We don't do it because we don't. We haven't done it all year."

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/08348/935043-365.stm

A team that doesn't watch film? Has anyone heard of such a thing?

 

Wow, what an ending in the AA final.

 

I believe that AA final was the second greatest finish in the 21 years of state championships, behind only Manheim Central-Pine Richland in the blizzard.

Wilmington Area rallies from 21-7 down to tie West Catholic of Philadelphia 21-21 with four minutes left in regulation. West Catholic drives to the Wilmington 3 in the final minutes, gets to the 1 by fourth down. Coach decides not to take the field goal; Catholic gets stuffed on fourth down. Overtime.

First OT, West Catholic scores pretty easily. Wilmington then faces a fourth-and-goal from the 16. QB Shane Wagner rolls left, begins scrambling cross-field, breaks six tackles and squeezes in past the right pylon. 28-28, second overtime.

Second OT, Wilmington scores in two plays. West Catholic then scores even easier in two plays -- and decides to end it right there. QB Curtis Drake, the Penn State recruit, takes a keeper off the left side, gets submarined by Wagner from his free safety spot at the 3. He lands flips into the air, and the arm with the football in it touches down one foot short of the goal line. 35-34 final, Wilmington Area.

Quad-A final in eight minutes. It'll be tough to top that.

 

It was a Flucking awful job of coaching. If West Catholic just kicks the 18-yard field goal at the end of the fourth quarter, it wins. Three points is a lot in high school with 1:30 left.

 

Gotta agree.

Also had to feel pretty bad for that poor West Catholic center who seemed to be playing the last 20 minutes on a broken ankle. They literally had to carry him up to the line of scrimmage.

 

Among Bethlehem Liberty's assistant coaches: 10-year NFL defensive back Bo Orlando and former maligned Penn State quarterback Matt Senneca.

 

AAAA game is going into OT too, tied 21-21.