Quest fulfilled: Belle Vernon repeats as PIAA champion in resounding fashion
MECHANICSBURG – The quest has been fulfilled.
There wasn’t much the 2023 Belle Vernon football team could do to top the Leopards’ run to WPIAL and PIAA championships a year ago.
The goal was to match those lofty accomplishments.
The Leopards did that in resounding fashion on Saturday afternoon.
Given an early boost from two spectacular touchdowns by Anthony Crews, Belle Vernon rolled past Northwestern Lehigh, 38-7, in the PIAA Class AAA final at Cumberland Valley High School’s Chapman Field to complete their quest of repeating as district and state champions.
“It’s definitely not easy,” said Belle Vernon senior and Penn State recruit Quinton Martin. “Not many teams do it. But I feel we had the mentality don’t take any team lightly. Just go out there, do your job and we’re going to get the outcome we expected. That’s what happened today.
“We got everybody’s A game and we expected that. We’re the defending state champion. We just had to go harder.”
Crews took the opening kickoff back 78 yards for a touchdown and the Leopards never looked back.
“You can’t script it better than that,” Belle Vernon coach Matt Humbert said of the first-play score.
Martin rushed for 133 yards, including a 92-yard touchdown run, as the Leopards rolled up 334 yards on the ground.
Dalton Klymer ran for 110 yards for the Tigers and Shane Leh completed 15-of-22 passes for 112 yards with one touchdown, but Northwestern (15-1) could not match Belle Vernon’s big-play capability.
Crews turned a near disaster into another long touchdown and a 14-0 lead later in the first quarter after he tipped and bobbled a short pitch from quarterback Braden Laux. Crews finally gathered in the ball, then abruptly reversed field and sped 62 yards down the left sideline, taking advantage of a key block by Laux.
“We don’t have speed like that,” Tigers coach Josh Snyder said. “They had a couple more play-makers.
“They’re a good football team, back-to-back state champs for a reason. Kudos to them. There are not a lot of holes in their football program.”
Northwestern wouldn’t get closer than 14 the rest of the way.
Humbert pointed to the Leopards’ experience of being in the spotlight as one of the reasons his squad was able to pull off the back-to-back feat.
“One of the key things is they’ve been in big games,” Humbert said. “We’ve been in our district championship game four times over the past five years. They know what it’s like to be in big games and it doesn’t really affect us. That composure and that moxie is built in, it’s in their DNA.”
While the Leopards’ running game was on display, so was their hard-hitting defense, which forced five punts, two turnovers and two turnovers on downs in Northwestern’s 10 possessions.
The biggest defensive stop came early in the second quarter after Landen Matson recovered a Belle Vernon fumble at the Leopards’ 37. Clymer’s 13-yard run set up a first and goal from the BV 7 and three more runs by Clymer led to a fourth-and-goal play at the 1.
The Tigers were denied, though, when Jake Gedekoh sliced through the line and knocked Clymer back for a 1-yard loss to end the threat.
“For us to make that stand down there and not let them get six points, that was key,” Humbert said.
“We get down to the one-foot line, never been stopped this year from that point,” Snyder said.
It wasn’t anything new for the Leopards, as Crews pointed out.
“We won a state championship off of a goal-line stop last year,” said Crews, alluding to Belle Vernon’s stand and forced fumble that preserved the 9-8 win over Neumann Goretti in the 2022 PIAA final. “That’s what we’re known for.”
From there, Belle Vernon put together a nine-play, 98-yard touchdown drive that featured a bruising, 49-yard run by Gedekoh to the NL 5 and was capped by Laux’s 2-yard run two plays later to put the Leopards up 21-0.
Despite the crushing turn of events, the Tigers weren’t about to go quietly.
Northwestern Lehigh, which was set to receive the second-half kickoff, went to the air to try to get on the board before halftime. Leh was 4-for-5 on a brisk 78-yard drive that ended with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Matson in the left side of the end zone with just 35 seconds left in the half. Seth Kern’s extra point made it 21-7 at halftime.
“We gave ourselves a chance,” Snyder said.
The Tigers began the second half with a drive that produced three first downs and reached the BV 38. The Leopards’ defense came up with consecutive key plays at that point to thwart the push. LaCarte sniffed out a swing pass to Clymer and dropped him for a 5-yard loss and Aiden Johnson sacked Leh for a 9-yard loss, forcing a punt.
Clymer’s boot pinned Belle Vernon back at its own 8.
Martin then delivered a gut punch to the Tigers, bolting around left end and down the sideline on the next play for a 92-yard TD.
“We felt like we were able to get the perimeter with Quinton and it was just a matter of time,” Humbert said.
“That one explosive play sort of took the last hope out of us,” Snyder admitted.
Lori C. PadillaBelle Vernon’s Quinton Martin (left) and Curtis Wade celebrate a big play during Saturday’s PIAA Class AAA championship game at Cumberland Valley High School’s Chapman Field.
Belle Vernon tacked on two more scores in the fourth quarter. Preston Rathway, who was 5-for-5 on extra points, hit a career-long 44 field goal and Gedekoh capped off a 71-yard rushing day with a 1-yard touchdown plunge.
The final TD was indicative of the Leopards’ unselfishness, according to Humbert.
“We’re driving down here to put the nail in the coffin and we rotate Quinton and Gedekoh in our wildcat formation,” Humbert explained. “Quinton’s number was up to run it and he said ‘Coach, I don’t want it, I want him to get a touchdown.’ That’s just the unselfish nature of these kids and I think that’s a key core component to the success we’ve had.”
Humbert commended his offensive line and defense.
“A lot of this win tonight is because of the line and the way that they played,” said Humbert. “That defense was good, that defense was stingy. They had a lot of success all year. It was gratifying to see.”
Humbert also was pleased at how his defense handled Northwestern Lehigh’s offensive line.
“They’re probably one of the most athletic line groups we’ve seen,” Humbert said. “It was a stressful week because, the way that those linemen get on backers, we thought it would be a very interesting game in terms of we’ve got smaller inside backers, we’ve got smaller outside backers to some degree. How was that speed going to be able to combat?
“And you saw. Our kids were hitting windows and flying around. Colton Lee, Tanner Moody, Jake Gedekoh, Alonzo Wade … just, wow. What a performance by all of them.”
Humbert also singled on LaCarte, who had an interception and forced fumble that was recovered by Laux.
“From a college standpoint and a recruiting standpoint, that kid doesn’t get enough credit because he’s gritty, he’s athletic and, boy, he can fill, and he proved that today,” Humbert said of LaCarte.
Northwestern Lehigh’s Devon Hildebrand was the game’s leading receiver with eight catches for 60 yards.
Laux was 6-of-8 passing for 33 yards, with five of those completions going to Martin for 25 yards.
LaCarte led the Leopards with 12 tackles and Lee had 11.
Humbert reflected on the journey that led to the program’s third WPIAL title and a second PIAA title with a smile.
“The thing that sticks out the most is just the happiness for everyone associated with it,” Humbert said. “Obviously, it’s extreme joy for me, but I think of all the coaches that put in the energy, the hours, our support staff from the water girls to the trainers to the equipment guys.
“To think of everyone and how they sacrificed. This is what you do it for, to be able to get to this point. All their effort paid off and I think that’s the most gratifying thing.”