Thomas Jefferson and Belle Vernon renewed their rivalry at the Class 4A level Friday night at the home of the Jaguars, and it was the home fans who left happy after a 42-14 Jaguars victory in Big Six Conference play.
Sophomore running back Tyler Eber continued his monstrous campaign with 175 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 38 carries, and TJ quarterback Luke Kosko continued to show his rapport with Brayden White. Kosko finished 8 of 19 for 158 yards and a score with White tallying five grabs, 101 yards and a touchdown.
“We’ve been a rival now for however many years because their program has been doing well, and we’ve been doing well. Coming into this, I felt like we had to physically control the game, and we were able to do that,” Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak said. “We made some mental errors here and there, but, overall, I was satisfied.”
So, too, was Eber. The sophomore has continued to be the bellcow for a Thomas Jefferson squad that is now 6-0 and 1-0 in conference play.
“I’ve been hitting the hole hard, but I have to give credit to my offensive line, my fullback Trent Miller, those guys,” he said. “I’ll take as many carries as (the coaching staff) will offer me.”
For Belle Vernon (1-3, 0-1), it ended up with the two longest plays of the game on explosive connections from quarterback Curty Wade to Kole Doppelheuer, but it couldn’t muster much else on offense.
“I’m feeling weirdly optimistic after that,” Belle Vernon coach Matt Humbert said. “Forty-two to 14 isn’t really indicative of how we played. You can’t give those guys two turnovers in red-zone territory and not expect them to convert. Fourteen of those 42 points were kind of self inflicted.
“I thought our kids played physical. I really did. I thought we had access to what we wanted offensively. We just didn’t make plays. But Kole and a couple of kids did, so that’s encouraging.”
Wade and Doppelheuer connected for touchdown passes of 45 and 92 yards, leaving Doppelheuer with two receptions for 137 yards and two scores and Wade with 188 yards and two touchdown passes on seven completions.
Apart from that, the Leopards were unable to establish the run. With some key injuries to difference-makers such as Alonzo Wade and Deaubre Lightfoot, the defense wasn’t able to slow down the powerful ground game of Thomas Jefferson.
After three straight three-and-outs — two from Belle Vernon and one from Thomas Jefferson — an unlikely mishap sparked the first big play of the night for the Leopards.
TJ’s Preston Rathway was busy punting the ball during the game, and he did extremely well dictating field position for his squad. One of his shorter punts caught White in between letting it bounce and committing to fair-catch it, and after getting under it, he muffed it away as Belle Vernon’s Jace Gedekoh recovered.
Up to that point, Belle Vernon had fewer than 10 yards of offense on two drives. However, on the Leopards’ first play after the recovery, Wade connected with a wide-open Doppelheuer for a 45-yard touchdown. All of a sudden, with 6:31 left in the first quarter, the Leopards were up 7-0.
From there, the rest of the first half belonged to the Jaguars.
Thomas Jefferson was unable to score in the first quarter, but it started its first scoring drive with 1:47 left in the opening stanza as it was a heavy dose of Eber that led the victors to the end zone.
Eventually, he capped a 66-yard, 4:10 scoring drive with a 17-yard rushing score to tie it up at 7-7.
TJ added two more touchdowns before halftime. With 5:17 left in the first half, Kosko connected with White for a 35-yard touchdown to give the Jaguars their first lead of the game. After that, TJ scored again after a fumble recovery by Matthew Martinis gave them the ball on the Belle Vernon 29.
Eber again punched it into the end zone with a 2-yard run as 57 seconds remained in the second quarter, bringing the halftime score to 21-7.
Out of the halftime break, Belle Vernon got the stop that it needed on defense, forcing TJ to punt after getting the ball to restart play. Unfortunately for the Leopards, another turnover ruined their momentum as they fumbled possession away on their first offensive play. Luccas Patterson got the ball back for TJ, and, despite a penalty that gave the Jaguars a third-and-20, the home squad scored again as Kosko went in from a yard to make it 28-7.
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In the fourth quarter, Eber added another 1-yard touchdown run to make it 35-7. He took 38 of 39 carries, with Kosko’s touchdown being the only run from another player, until he left the game with 8:40 to play after he was slow to get up following a 6-yard gain. Eber later said that he wanted to return to the game, but Cherpak opted to let him rest the remainder of the game as Emmett Forte got eight carries.
Forte eventually scored the last TJ touchdown of the contest, but only after Belle Vernon’s second one-play touchdown drive from Wade to Doppelheuer.
On the first play after Eber’s final score, Wade found Doppelheuer about 30 yards downfield before the shifty senior showed his prowess in the open field, twisting and weaving his way 92 yards for an arcade-like touchdown. Unfortunately for the Leopards, that capped their scoring, and Forte was yet to score his 13-yard touchdown with 5:06 left to end the action at 42-14.
The Jaguars will battle with Trinity in another home conference game next week, and Belle Vernon will host Chartiers Valley in a Big Six Conference clash.
“We just want to keep doing what we’re doing,” Cherpak said. “Trinity is a tough team and one of the best in our conference, so we need to be focused next week and ready to play. We’ll get back to work on Monday and get ready for that.”
Said Humbert: “We just have to be able to move forward. We need to get this out of our memory and build upon the physical play that we had tonight. We have to get healthy and start executing.”