Nov 22, 2023 By Rob Burchianti 3 min read

There is only one area high school football team left alive in the postseason and only one player with a realistic chance to overtake California’s Jake Layhue in the Herald-Standard Touchdown Club.

Belle Vernon’s Quinton Martin scored two touchdowns and a 2-point conversion to help the Leopards roll past East Allegheny, 49-8, in the WPIAL Class AAA semifinals last week to reach Friday’s championship game.

Martin increased his scoring total for the season to 156, leaving him 14 points behind Layhue who finished his year with 170 points and still sits atop the standings, four points ahead of teammate Spencer Petrucci who ended up with 166 points.

Martin’s TDs came on a 4-yard run and a 22-yard pass from Braden Laux.

The Leopards also got touchdown runs of 16 and 13 yards from Kole Doppelheuer, who upped his season total to 84 points to put him in a three-way tie for 13th place along with Jefferson-Morgan’s Collin Besceglia and Houston Guesman.

Elizabeth Forward’s Charlie Nigut, who missed the fourth quarter due to an ankle injury in the Warriors’ 21-10 loss to Avonworth in the other Class AAA semifinal, failed to score and ended his season with 140 points and in fourth place.

Rounding out the top 10 are Southmoreland’s Da’sjon Craggette with 114, the Rockets’ Deakyn Dehoet with 104, West Greene’s Billy Whitlatch with 98, the Pioneers’ Colin Brady and Waynesburg Central’s Breydon Woods each with 96 and the Trojans’ Lee Qualk with 92.

Tied for 11th place are West Greene’s Johnny Lampe and Beth-Center’s Ethan Varesko with 86 points.

Belle Vernon, who will face Avonworth in a rematch of last year’s district final with a 5 p.m. kickoff at Acrisure Stadium, also got touchdowns from Laux, Jake Gedekoh and Deaubre Lightfoot along with five extra points from Preston Rathway.

The Warriors’ 10 points came on a 2-yard touchdown pass by Ryan Messina to Isaiah Turner and a 34-yard field goal and an extra point by Will Sinay.

Turner moved up into a tie with Yough’s Raidon Kuroda for 22nd place with 54 points.

Sinay finished as the top scorer among local kickers with 47 points, one point ahead of Southmoreland’s Jake Kaylor who had 46. Sinay was No. 1 in field goals with eight along with 23 extra points. Kaylor had six field goals and 28 extra points.

Mount Pleasant kicker Garrett Garn also scored 47 points but only 41 came off his foot with six field goals, 23 extra points and one touchdown.