Going into a game when the Clairton football team is one of the participants, one can expect the scoreboard is going to show crooked numbers early and often.
As the WPIAL Class A quarterfinal matchup between the No. 2 Bears and No. 11 Jeannette Jayhawks went into halftime, the numbers on the board caught many eyes.
Clairton gave up the most points it had all year, going in with a two-point lead. The reason was two-fold.
First, the Jayhawks did a deep dive into tape and found a weakness on the back end of the Bears defense and executed their game plan. Second, a lot of mistakes and penalties hindered Clairton.
“Everything that went wrong for us went wrong,” Bears coach Wayne Wade said. “That’s not our defense. We’ve shown it all year, we just have to go back and clean some things up.”
Clairton (11-1) did just enough, playing conservatively in the second half, and eked out a 38-33 win over Eastern Conference rival Jeannette (8-4).
“Jeannette plays hard, and we expected them to come out and play us tough,” Wade said. “It’s a testament to my team for fighting, not giving up, showing their grit and moving on to the next round.”
Jayhawks coach Thomas Paulone was proud of how his team executed but was very clear that he takes no solace in putting up the most points against the Bears since Fort Cherry put up 21 in last year’s WPIAL championship game.
“There are no moral victories in our program, and our kids know that,” Paulone said. “An almost win is still a loss. We’re all hurting right now knowing that we came up on the losing end.”
Still, the Jayhawks were step for step with the Bears throughout the first half and had the lead.
After punting on the first drive of the game, the Jayhawks answered a 7-yard touchdown run by Clairton running back Deon Lovelace-Pompey with a long, time-eating drive.
Starting at their own 13-yard line after a chop block on the kickoff, the Jayhawks drove to Clairton’s 27 and were gifted chunks of yards on the way.
Facing a fourth-and-8, Jeannette was punting near midfield when McAlister Steele was roughed on the play, giving the Jayhawks new life.
On the next play, an incomplete pass by Kymon’e Brown, the Bears were called for roughing the passer.
After the drive stalled, Steele nailed a 41-yard field goal that cut through the wind and rain.
“Being one of the leaders on the team, I was trying to keep everyone calm,” Clairton quarterback Jeff Thompson said. “We haven’t had a football game all year where we faced adversity, and I think we did a good job handling it tonight.”
Clairton quickly answered with a 44-yard touchdown run from Lovelace-Pompey on the first play of the Bears’ drive.
Then, Brown found Jayce Powell behind the Clairton safety for a 68-yard touchdown pass.
After Clairton punted on its next drive, Jeannette quickly marched down the field, again going right at the Bears safeties, with Dhestin Sanders hauling in a 35-yard pass. The Jayhawks settled for a 22-yard field goal.
On the ensuing kickoff, Rheyjon Williams returned the ball 70 yards to give the Bears a 22-20 lead, which held until the half.
“We executed our gameplan,” Paulone said. “I’m proud of the way we fought tonight. That’s the No. 1 team in the state, and we went toe-to-toe with them.”
Clairton received the second half kickoff, came out in the T offense and started running the ball right through the heart of the Jeannette defense.
“The style of defense they play, their linebackers play back and they don’t put a ton of guys up front,” Wade said. “It’s a four with a shell. Being bigger than them up front, we would be able to run at will. We’ve practiced that type of football all year because getting into November and December, you need that.”
The Bears received a 2-yard score from Thompson and a 1-yard punch in from Brandon Murphy on their two successful drives in the second half.
Clairton finished the game with 226 yards on the ground. Lovelace-Pompey ran 12 times for 92 yards and a score, and Donte Wright carried nine times for 70 yards.
“Knowing there was going to be bad weather, our gameplan was ground and pound,” Thompson said. “We gained what we could.”
Brown worked his magic on a highlight-reel 63-yard touchdown run to bring the Jayhawks within 30-26. Steele missed the extra point.
After Thompson made it 38-26 with his 2-yard score, Brown found Noah Sunder on a 32-yard pass to pull within 38-33.
“Clairton is a very talented team, and we can only bottle them up for so long,” Paulone said. “We put up points. Our offense is too talented to be shut out by anybody, and we took that personally last time we played.”
The Bears turned the ball over on downs with 3:21 left in the game. With three timeouts left and 75 yards to go, Jeannette was set up to pull off a shocking victory.
After Brown found Xavier Odorisio-Farrow and Powell for 5 yards apiece, he connected with Sunder for a 10-yard gain.
A false start penalty backed up the Jayhawks, and after a sack, an incompletion and a 4-yard pass to Odorisio-Farrow, Jeannette faced fourth-and-13.
Clairton upped the pressure, and scrambling to his left, Brown threw of his back foot and was picked off by Brandon Murphy.
“What more can we ask for but the ball in our hands with a chance to win the game?” Paulone said. “It was a hard-hitting Eastern Conference football game. Proud to be in the quarterfinal with them. I’ll be rooting for them and best wishes to them.”
Brown finished 13 of 29 passing for 232 yards and three touchdowns He also ran 11 times for 116 yards and a score.
Powell caught eight balls for 146 yards and two scores.
The Bears will play No. 3 Bishop Canevin next week in the semifinal round at a site to be determined.
They know they’ll need to sharpen up their defensive play if they are to play at Acrisure the following week.
“We have to work on our defense,” Lovelace-Pompey said. “We have holes in spots. The score should not have been what it was. We’ll have a week of practice, and we’ll come out and be better next week.”