Jeannette scores 21 unanswered to pull away from Bentworth

Tagged under: District 7, Game Photos-Videos, Gameday Hub, Playoffs

Brent Ellsworth | November 1, 2025

Ellsworth, PA – It has been a long time since Bentworth High School hosted a WPIAL playoff football game. The last time was a loss against South Side in 1998.  The result in both games would be the same, as the Jeannette Jayhawks marched in and left with a 38-24 victory.  

An impressive first drive by the Bentworth Bearcats stalled out and they settled for a junior Caden Hackinson 27-yard field goal. Bentworth pushed the ball to the Jayhawk 2 yard line, but the Jayhawk defense toughened and forced the Bearcats into a couple negative plays. That would be all of the scoring for the first quarter.

The second quarter was all Jayhawks. Junior Maji Sanders bullied in from one yard out to put the Jayhawks ahead 6-3. Both defenses were stingy in the first half, but with less than two minutes left in the half, senior Kymon’e Brown led the Jayhawks 78 yards to set up a 34 yard field goal by junior McAllister Steele. Jeannette went into the half time break with a 9-3 lead. 

In the third quarter, the Bearcats marched down the field an ultimately resulted in a two yard touchdown run by senior Ben Hays, the first of three touchdowns for him. The Jayhawks responded with an 11 yard pass from Brown to junior Jayce Powell. Then it was Hays again finding the endzone again, after setting himself up after returning the Jayhawk kick to the 9. At the end of three quarters of play, the game was knotted at 17. 

Kymon’e Brown interception and Jeannette can end it. 1:04 left. Jeannette 38 Bentworth 24 pic.twitter.com/YziNb2WXb8

— Brent E (@BrentWestPa) November 1, 2025

The fireworks were just beginning. The Jayhawks put another touchdown on the board after a nifty 11 yard run by Brown which again put the Jayhawks back in the lead at 24-17. However, the ensuing kickoff, one of the Bearcats up men on the kickoff team fielded the ball and apparently fumbled and recovered by the Jayhawks. After a meeting with the officials, it was determined an inadvertent whistle occurred and they replayed the kick. That seemed to have sparked the Jayhawks defense, as they sacked the Bearcat quarterback junior Ty Watson for a big loss. Then the Jayhawks blocked the punt.  Senior Noah Sunder scooped up the block and scampered into the endzone giving the Jayhawks a lead that they would not relinquish, 31-17. The Jayhawks defense again held and kept the Bearcats off of the scoreboard. The Jayhawks looked to put the final touches on an impressive all around performance when senior Nicholas Mendoza went around the end for 40 yards to push the Jayhawks lead to 38-17, punctuating a stretch of 21 unanswered points. However, the sliver of hope for the Bearcats remained intact when Hays took a pass in the flat and danced through the Jayhawks defense for 60 yards, to cut the lead to 38-24. Bentworth then recovered the onside kick, but were not able to get anything going. Brown put an exclamation point on the win picking off a Watson pass. The Jayhawks were able to assume the victory formation and move onto the next round after a well played and hard hitting contest.

Here at Bentworth, Ben Hays is not done, takes the swing pass 60 yards.
Jeannette 38 Bentworth 24. 5:20 to play@PaFootballNews pic.twitter.com/UgFYiAs25x

— Brent E (@BrentWestPa) November 1, 2025

On the game, Jeannette forced three Bentworth turnovers. Jeannette’s Kymon’e Brown had a big performance, rushing for 132 yards and a touchdown, and completing 8 of 16 passes for 138 yards and another touchdown. He also recorded an interception. Bentworth’s Ben Hays, the WPIAL’s leading rusher, had 3 touchdowns (two rushing and a receiving). He rushed for 73 yards on 16 carries and caught 2 passes for 57 yards.

Bentworth finishes the season 8-3, while Jeannette 8-3 moves on for a rematch against #2 seed Clairton Bears.

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