Belle Vernon advances to second straight PIAA State Championship with win over Hickory

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

Andrew Schaffer | December 2, 2023

Belle Vernon relied on their dominant run game to earn a trip back to the PIAA 3A State Championship game. They defeated Hickory 42-16 to earn a trip back to the chap. “It feels great, again I hate to say it, I said it last week, it’s just a relief, there is just so much stress, so much grind that goes into this, again it is just a relief you know finally being able to get back there, finally able to get those key cards, get everybody ready to roll, it feels good, no doubt about it” said Coach Humbert.

Belle Vernon got the ball to start the game and the drive started at their own 35 yard line. Belle Vernon got past midfield on a big third and long conversion. Eventually they would score on a 3 yard run by Braden Laux. That made the score 7-0 Belle Vernon with 5:20 in the first quarter. The drive took 14 plays and took up over half the quarter. “We wanted to be simplistic in our approach, get the ball to Q, it was a big pass completion to Q, Braden was able to pull the trigger, he had a read on the outside backer, our tailback did a good job running the vertical up the backfield which he was the primary target and he was able to pull the outside backer toward him, and we had free access to Quinton, and you know when you have free access to Quinton, Braden makes the throw it is going to be a good dynamic play” said Coach Humbert.

Hickory started their first drive at their own 20 yard line. They did get a first down but the drive didn’t even get to midfield and they had to punt it away. Belle Vernon got the ball for a second time but went three and out. The score at the end of the first quarter was 7-0 Belle Vernon.

Hickory had a good drive going to start the second quarter. They were moving the ball with success but they didn’t find the end zone but settled for a 40 yard field goal by Lukas Jones. That made the score 7-3 Belle Vernon with 8:20 in the second quarter.

It was after that field goal where Belle Vernon took control of the game. They scored 21 points in basically a 5 minute span. “The goal was keep away, we didn’t want them to get comfortable with the football, because they have some playmakers 2, 12, 8 and they’re all real good kids they can make plays out there number 9, we saw a little bit of him on offense, we haven’t seen a ton in that retrospect, that’s a good football team, they’re very athletic, and I told everyone from the jump there was no secret to it, if we’re gonna be able to win this game, we gotta have strong line play up front and I think that’s the key, we’ve been very hard and very critical of our offensive line, because we’ve got a repertoire of guys back there, we knew all year, you just gotta let those guy do what they can do they’re pretty special and pretty talented, they punctuated this victory tonight” said Coach Humbert.

The onslaught started a little over a minute later. That drive started around midfield and it was finished off on a 20 yard run by Quinton Martin. That made the score 13-3 Belle Vernon Martin played a key role in the win for Belle Vernon he had 65 yards on 8 carries and he also had 70 yards on 5 catches.

The next drive was looking like a good one for Hickory but the drive ended on an interception. Eventually Belle Vernon capitalized on the turnover when Jake Gedekoh scored on a big 60 yard touchdown run. He had 110 yards on 11 carries. That score made it 21-3 Belle Vernon with 5:32 in the second quarter.

Hickory got the ball back again but really couldn’t move it much at all and punted it back to Belle Vernon. Belle Vernon started the drive at the Hickory 39 yard line and on the first play Braden Laux found Quinton Martin for a 39 yard touchdown pass making it 28-3 Belle Vernon. “We’re trying to lineup Quinton in 50 different ways and see where we can get a mismatch or where we can get a kink in the armor defensively and we knew we had that, we had the matchup that we wanted over there, as much as that is a Quinton run, which it was and he was able to shake a defender” said Coach Humbert. That would be the score at halftime.

Hickory got the ball to start the second half and they decided to go for it on fourth down and they didn’t convert which gave the ball back to Belle Vernon at the Hickory 40 yard line. Eventually they would score on a 1 yard run by Braden Laux. Laux was another key factor in the win for Belle Vernon he had 82 yards rushing and was 9 of 13 for 115 yards passing. That 1 yard run made it 35-3 Belle Vernon with 6:32 in the third quarter.

On the following kickoff Kelvin Morrison returned it 91 yards for a touchdown. Hickory did try to get back into the game in the third quarter but the deficit was just too much they added another score later in the third quarter when Zander Telesz found Parker Hillard for a 10 yard touchdown making it 35-16 Belle Vernon with 2:21 in the third quarter. That would be the score at the end of 3.

Belle Vernon added one more score before the game ended when Kole Doppelheuer scored on a 10 yard run which made the final score 42-16 Belle Vernon.

Next week Belle Vernon will play Northwestern Lehigh in PIAA 3A State Championship the game will be at Chapman Field on Saturday at 1pm.

Game photos by Ryan Thielet