Port Allegany Drops the Finale to Bishop Guilfoyle

Tagged under: District 6, District 9, Gameday Hub, News, pfn, Playoffs

Phil Myers | December 5, 2024

The Port Allegany Gators dropped their state title game to the Bishop Guilfoyle Marauders at Chapman Field, home of the Cumberland Valley Eagles, Friday by a score of 41-22.  It was not for lack of effort.  That was there.  The kids were ready and raring to go, but they just ran into a solid effort by the BG eleven on a cold and windy afternoon.

Port Allegany fell behind 14-0 at the seven minute mark of the second quarter and then kicked it up a notch battling back.  Aiden Bliss scored late in the second and then again after a 7:28 drive to start the second half.  That tied the game and one could feel the momentum switch, but to Guilfoyle’s credit they stormed back, scoring four unanswered touchdowns to win going away.  Bliss added another TD, his third of the game late in the fourth to set the final score at 41-22.

Aiden Bliss with room down the sidelines.

Aiden Bliss led the offense with 250 yards rushing on 47 carries.  His three touchdowns gave him 57 rushing scores for the year and 60 total.  He leads the nation in points scored and he got 22 more with his trio of touchdowns and two 2-point conversions.  He is second in the United States in total touchdowns going into this weekend.

Bliss fumbled on the first drive in BG territory and the Marauder defense, which made Port earn every yard, stopped the Gators on 4^th down on the second PA possession.  That resulted in a short scoring drive by Guilfoyle and Consiglio scored his first of four touchdowns.  BG was controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides and in the second quarter Consiglio scored his second touchdown.

Then Port Allegany drove 70 yards on all runs by Bliss and his 3-yd TD run plus Bliss 2-point conversion run put the score at 14-8 at halftime.  It was now a game and Port Allegany had the momentum.

The second half saw Port do it again with Bliss running every play save a key 7-yard carry by Kellen Veilleux.  The short TD run by Bliss tied the game at 14 as his 2-point run failed.  It was then that Guilfoyle took charge by scoring on four straight drives to secure their 5^th straight title in 6 tries.  The first BG Marauder state championship was in 2014 when they beat Clairton.

One of the key events in the game came when Tristan Kiser went down with an injury.  He was already missed on offense but was playing defense effectively, plus he is probably more important on defense.  “It hurt quite a bit,” said linemen Carson Neely, “We had Isaac Postlewait who is also another stud step up (on defense) and then Kellen Veilleux stepping up on the offensive side, but Tristan, he’s not labelled as a captain, but he’s one of those leaders out there.  Not having him really hurt.”

But give credit to Guilfoyle.  “Those guys were one heck of ball players.  They were really good at football for sure,” commented Neely.  But the big lineman and his teammates have nothing to hang their heads about as this was only the fourth D9 team to ever make it to states and they were undefeated until this finale.  The Gators finished the 2024 campaign 14-1.  “This year was incredible.  As a young kid I dreamed of making it in two sports.  Hershey for wrestling and now here for football,” said Neely.

“Unbelievable atmosphere, PIAA puts on a good show.  We didn’t play our best football today,” stated Port’s head coach Justin Bienkowski.  He continued, “We’ll own that.  It is what it is.  It doesn’t take away what this season was.  It doesn’t take away what these kids did to get here.  We will hold our heads high and be proud of the product we put on the field this year.  We just didn’t get it done in the most important game.  Bishop Guilfoyle was the better Class A team today.  But I’ll go play with our team every day of the week.”

Game Highlights:

Score by Quarters:

Bishop Guilfoyle – 7 7 14 13 – 41

Port Allegany – 0 8 6 8 – 22

Scoring Summary:

First Quarter:

2BG – Taurean Consiglio 12-yard run, (Michael Cacciotti PAT), 2:07

Second Quarter:

BG – Consiglio 6-yard run, (Carter Boland), 7:06

PA – Aiden Bliss 3-yard run, (Bliss run 2-pt. conversion), 1:26

Third Quarter:

PA – Bliss 2-yard run, (2-pt. run failed), 4:32

BG – Hamilton Gates 65-yard run, (Cacciotti PAT), 3:29

BG – Consiglio 26-yard run, (Boland PAT), 0:09

Fourth Quarter:

BG – Braden Reilly 27-yard pass from Gates, (PAT no good), 10:10

BG – Consiglio 15-yard run, (Boland PAT), 4:01

PA – Bliss 19-yard run, (Bliss run 2-pt. conversion), 0:36

Individual Stats:

Rushing: BG – Taurean Consiglio 15-161, Chase Kissell 6-43, Hamilton Gates 7-100, Team 1-(1). Totals: 29-303.  PA – Aiden Bliss 47-249, Kellen Veilleux 4-20, Nick Wilfong 1-(7), Brennan Fillhart 1-(1), Team 1-(10). Totals: 53-261.

Passing: BG – C. Kissell 4-6-0, 21 yards, Hamilton Gates 1-1 27 yards 1 TD. Totals 5-7-0, 48 yards.  PA – Brennan Fillhart 0-2-0, Nick Wilfong 0-1-0.  Totals 0-3-0.

Receiving: BG – Gates 1-1, Braden Reilly 1-27, Consiglio 3-20.  Totals: 5-48.

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