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Third Times the Charm: Avonworth wins WPIAL title after losing previous two seasons

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

| November 23, 2024

The third time’s the charm as Avonworth defeated Central Valley 17-0 in the 3A WPIAL Championship.

The Antelopes have made the 3A Championship the past two seasons, however lost both against Belle Vernon with a combined score of 40-7. 

Head coach Duke Johncour said this championship is a great feeling; there’s more to it. 

“It’s great,” Johncour said. “I mean winning this. It’s for the kids. It’s not about me, it’s about these guys and their hard work and all their efforts and I’m really happy for them.”

Avonworth received the opening kickoff, and Cooper Scharding took that kick as the way to the Central Valley 42-yard line. From there the Antelopes ran the ball on every play, taking off almost six minutes of game clock and ending in a Nico Neal rushing touchdown. 

Avonworth’s defense not only forced Central Valley to punt, but stopped an attempted fake punt. Avonworth took over at Central Valley’s 43-yard line. 

Calder Mahan kicked a 32-yard field goal to extend the Antelope lead to 10 at the beginning of the second quarter. 

Avonworth’s defense responded a couple times, stopping the Warriors on two fourth and one yard to go situations. Despite the stops though, Avonworth themselves only scored zero points off the stops. 

Avonworth entered the half leading 10-0. 

At halftime, Avonworth only had 30 yards passing, which came on one passing play to Noah Goetz. Nico Neal led the team in rushing with 61 yards and out possessed Central Valley by six and a half minutes and ran seven more plays than the Warriors. 

Coming out of the half, both teams punted back and forth for the entire third quarter. In fact both teams punted every possession over half of the fourth quarter too. 

Avonworth broke the stalemate when Nico Neal got his second rushing touchdown of the day from three yards out. Avonworth extended its lead to 17 with under four and a half minutes to go. 

“I think I just came in ready to go,” Neal said. “We dominated the line of scrimmage; we pounded the line and that makes my job pretty easy.” 

The Avonworth defense remained composed as Achillies Heinold forced a fumble and Nico Neal recovered it. 

Neal had been a part of the teams the past two seasons, he said he was confident in the team’s abilities to make it back here. 

“We knew if we worked hard we’d get back to this place,” Neal said. “We knew we were going to come in, do our job and dominate, so I’m just happy to come out with the dub.” 

The Antelopes ran out the remaining one minute and 38 seconds on the game clock and secured the victory. This is Avonworth’s first shutout this season. 

“To pitch it here is pretty special,” Johncour said. “Our defense played lights out and our offense moved the ball well enough and made plays enough times to put points on the board and that was the recipe.” 

This is Avonworth’s third WPIAL championship victory and first since 2019. Avonworth will play Penn Cambira ion November 29 at 7 P.M at Norwin. 

Johncour said their takeaway from tonight and what they have to apply for next week is being able to face adversity and challenges. 

“Just be resilient,” Johncour said. “We got to be ready to go and we can play with anybody. Scheme up and play together, and listen to your coaching and we will see what Penn Cambria has for us.” 

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