Penn Trafford gets statement win over Thomas Jefferson

Tagged under: District 7, Gameday Hub, News, pfn, Playoffs

Andrew Schaffer | November 14, 2026

In the 5A WPIAL Quarterfinals it was Penn Trafford that shutdown Thomas Jefferson’s high powered offense in their dominant 30-0 win.

Penn Trafford got the ball to start the game and the drive started on their own 30 yard line. On the second play a big run by Cody Yacamelli got them to the Thomas Jefferson 12 yard line. Eventually Penn Trafford settled for a 30 yard field goal by Jack Miller. That gave Penn Trafford a 3-o lead with 9:07 in the first quarter.

Penn Trafford on the board first 30 yard field goal by Jack Miller 3-0 Penn Trafford 9:07 1Q @PaFootballNews https://t.co/e2LS2O2316

— WPIAL Football Zone 🏈 (@AJWPIAL) November 14, 2026

Thomas Jefferson started their first drive at their own 20 yard line. On the third play of the drive a big pass was completed down to the Penn Trafford 30 yard line. On third down a ball was intercepted that ended the drive.

Penn Trafford started their second drive on their own 22 yard line and it was another good looking drive that was into Thomas Jefferson territory, eventually they went for it on fourth down and they didn’t convert.

Thomas Jefferson started their second drive on their own 41 yard line and eventually got into Penn Trafford territory. A sack on third down stalled the drive and they had to punt it away.

On the second play of Penn Trafford’s next drive, Ben Grabowski was off to the races and scored on a 76 yard touchdown run making the score 10-o Penn Trafford with 10:15 in the second quarter.

Later in the second quarter, Thomas Jefferson started a drive at midfield. It was a long drive that featured a lot of runs they were inside the 10 yard line and eventually attempted a field goal which bounced off the upright and was no good.

After the missed field goal Penn Trafford struck again with another big play. Cody Yacamelli scored on a 74 yard touchdown run and that made score 17-o Penn Trafford with 1:50 in the second quarter. That was also the score at halftime.

The missed field goal and the big run was a pivotal play in the win for Penn Trafford. “It was huge, I was really happy we held them to a field goal attempt, that kept it at 2 scores and then we broke the big one you know we felt we could play comfortable the rest of the night” said Coach Ruane.

The other story of the first was Thomas Jefferson not being able to finish drives. They had it 3 times in Penn Trafford territory and came away with no points. “Our defense was the story of the night, you know our defensive coordinator is so good, he’s so well prepared, he’s so meticulous, our whole defensive staff is great those guys deserve all the credit for tonight they were phenomenal” said Coach Ruane.

Thomas Jefferson got the ball to start the second half but didn’t even get to midfield and they punted it away. The second half both defenses were pretty dominant especially Penn Trafford. The score at the end of the third quarter was 17-o Penn Trafford.

In the fourth quarter, Thomas Jefferson started a drive at the Penn Trafford 35 yard line but ultimately turned the ball over on downs. After that Cody Yacamelli scored on a 85 yard touchdown run to make it 23-0 Penn Trafford with 10:53 in the fourth quarter.

Grabowski and Yacamelli were the 2 key players for Penn Trafford. Yacamelli had 223 yards rushing on 11 carries and Grabowski had 105 yards on 12 carries. “You know credit TJ, we had to earn every yard but both of them broke some big, big ones and obviously that was our points tonight, was 3 big home runs, that’s what we expect out of those 2 guys, we love the way they play, they’re competitors and they showed that tonight for sure” said Coach Ruane.

Penn Trafford in complete control. 85yd TD run by Cody Yacamelli 23-0 Penn Trafford 10:53 4Q @PaFootballNews https://t.co/Nk6gO41iGy

— WPIAL Football Zone 🏈 (@AJWPIAL) November 14, 2026

On Thomas Jefferson’s next drive the ball was intercepted and was returned for a 24 yard touchdown by Nick Ponko. That made the score 30-0 Penn Trafford.

Next week Penn Trafford will play Upper St. Clair in WPIAL 5A semifinals at a location to be announced.