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Thomas Jefferson ends Aliquippa’s championship streak

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

| November 9, 2024

For the first time since 2007 the WPIAL Finals won’t feature Aliquippa. Thomas Jefferson put an end to Aliquippa’s 16 straight championship appearances with a 38-21 win. “I didn’t even know that honestly, they’re a great program so it doesn’t surprise me that they got that many, we’re excited to be able to get back to the championship game and just move on” said Coach Cherpak.

Thomas Jefferson got the ball to start the game and it was a great looking drive, on the second play they were already into Aliquippa territory. However in the red zone the drive ended with an interception.

Aliquippa started their first drive on their own 20 yard line. The drive was a three and out and on punt the ball was blocked and Thomas Jefferson started the second drive on Aliquippa’s 24 yard line. “We saw that on film and we felt there was no way we weren’t gonna block it just something we saw on film we put that block together” said Coach Cherpak.

It didn’t take Thomas Jefferson long to capitalize on the blocked punt when Tyler Eber scored on a 7 yard run to make it 7-o Thomas Jefferson with 5:44 in the first quarter


Aliquippa’s second drive was looking good and got into Thomas Jefferson territory. One run got them down to the Thomas Jefferson 25 yard line. After that penalties stalled the drive and they ended up punting it away.

Thomas Jefferson started with the ball on their own 10 yard line on the third play Luke Kosko found Brayden White for a 88 yard touchdown pass making the score 14-o Thomas Jefferson with 2:35 in the first quarter. “It was a switch route I was wide open, I had to make a couple people miss and found the end zone” said White.

In the second quarter the onslaught continued Aliquippa went to punt and the ball was mishandled and Thomas Jefferson recovered at the Aliquippa 7 yard line. On the third play Tyler Eber scored on a 1 yard run making it 21-o Thomas Jefferson with 11:19 in the second quarter.

Tyler Eber was one of the key players in the win for Thomas Jefferson. He had 211 yards rushing on 43 carries. “It was just another awesome ground and pound game, I thought I had a little more longer plays today which made me happy, I like to showcase me breaking tackles and getting out into open space” said Eber.

Later on in the quarter the mistakes continued for Aliquippa another punt was muffed and this one was recovered for a touchdown by Luccas Patterson which made the score 28-o Thomas Jefferson with 9:37 in the second quarter.

Before the first half ended Aliquippa got on the board when Marques Council found Tikey Hayes for a 22 yard touchdown pass.

Despite the loss Marques Council had a big night he was 16 of 31 for 284 yards in the game. The score at halftime was 28-7 Thomas Jefferson.

Aliquippa got the ball to start the second half. The drive started with decent field position at their own 43 yard line. On the fifth play of the drive Tikey Hayes scored on a 1 yard run making the score 28-13 Thomas Jefferson with 10:20 in the third quarter. The run was setup by a deep pass play down to the 1 yard line.

Thomas Jefferson started their first drive of the second half at their own 30 yard line. After getting to midfield the drive stalled and they punted the ball away.

Aliquippa got the ball back with the opportunity to make it a one possession game but after three incomplete passes they punted it away.

Thomas Jefferson started the next drive at their own 32 yard line. It was a long drive. It took only one play to get into Aliquippa territory. The drive was capped off on an 8 yard run by Tyler Eber. That run made the score 35-13 Thomas Jefferson with 45 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

The 8 yard run was Tyler Eber’s third touchdown of the game. The drive took up 7 minutes of the third quarter. “He’s just a machine, he wants to run the ball, he wants to put the team on his shoulders, the thing is it’s a group effort, they’re on the side of line like let’s run it, let’s pound it down their throat, and once we got it into the game that we wanted to be like that using the clock and running it, it really affected them, they had to try and make big plays” said Coach Cherpak.

Aliquippa wasn’t ready to go away. Early in the fourth quarter Marques Council found Qa’Lil Goode on a 33 yard touchdown pass making the score 35-21 Thomas Jefferson with 11:45 in the fourth quarter.

Thomas Jefferson started with the ball near midfield but went three and out. Aliquippa again had another opportunity to make it a one score game but on the very first play the ball was intercepted by Brayden White. “He’s just an incredible player, he’s just so competitive, he practices like that, he plays like that, even the interception the kid was open, ball was tipped and he intercepts it, he’s our guy” said Coach Cherpak.

“Corner 20 Jarrett Becoate made a great pass breakup the ball popped up, I had to get it” said Brayden White.

After the interception the drive ended on a 30 yard field goal by Samuel Wessel and that made the final score 38-21 Thomas Jefferson.

Next week Thomas Jefferson will play McKeesport for the WPIAL 4A Championship at Norwin at 12pm next Saturday. The two teams played earlier in the season and was an overtime thriller.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
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