Random Facts and Thoughts on the 2025 State Championship Games

Tagged under: News, pfn, Playoffs

Phil Myers | December 10, 2025

Well, the 2025 version of the PIAA football state title games are in the history books.  This was the 38th year that the PIAA has held official championship games in football.   Without further ado, here are some facts and thoughts on each game followed by a note from me to all you high school football aficionados out there.  

Class 1A – Clairton 35 Bishop Guilfoyle 3 – The Clairton Bears won their 5th title in convincing fashion by holding a good Guilfoyle Marauder team to only three points.  In fact, Clairton had the best statistical defense in PA, only allowing 5.5 points per game.  The line play on both sides of the ball, their speed, and swarming to the ball style of defense were deciding factors in this game with Guilfoyle.

Their offense was no slouch either scoring 47.4 points per contest, good enough for 5th best in the state.  Jeff Thompson, Clairton’s QB, completed 14 of his 17 attempts for 195 yards and a pair of TDs to lead Da Bear offense.  

Clairton began the season with a loss to Imani, but rattled off 15 straight W’s after that.  Jeannette and Laurel threw a scare into Clairton during the playoffs but, as good teams do, the Bears overcame the adversity.  Clairton has now made it to eight football championship tilts, winning four in a row from 2009 through 2012. 

The Marauders of Bishop Guilfoyle were the defending state champs in 1A.  They have also won gold five times, including three straight from 2014-2016.  BG was making their 7th title appearance and had beaten Clairton in the other two championship game meetings between these two schools. 

Class 2A – Southern Columbia 43 Farrell 22 – Pennsylvania’s most dominant high school football program won their 15th state gold medal in 23 appearances by defeating Farrell who many considered a shoo-in to win it all this year.  The SoCol Tigers are coached by the legendary and winningest coach in PA history, Jim Roth.  Coach Roth’s record in his 42 years as head coach is an unbelievable 521-74-2.  Southern Columbia’s football program has a total of 608 wins.  So, Roth has accumulated 86% of the wins in the school’s history.

By winning states, the Tigers won their 15th game in a row after an opening loss to Wyomissing.  Southern rushed for 352 yards and was led by Grady Garcia who had 108 yards on the ground and scored 3 touchdowns.  SCA held a potent Farrell running game which featured Juelz Johnson, a Nebraska recruit, to a minus 28 yards rushing.  

Farrell had defeated Southern Columbia in the finals twice in the 90s by scores of 6-0 and 14-12.  The Steelers quarterback back then was Anthony Pegues who is their current head coach.  Farrell is now 4-2 in final game settings.  Farrell was #16 in scoring, averaging 43 points a game, but Southern had one of the top defenses throughout the playoffs and as they say defenses win championships.

3A – Avonworth 31 Northwestern Lehigh 7 – In the only game that featured two undefeated teams, the Avonworth Antelopes won their first ever state football championship by downing a very good NW Lehigh team that had beaten the Antelopes the year before.  For the year, Avonworth’s dominating defense gave up an average of 8.6 points a game which was 6th best in PA.  They were led by RB Luca Neal and QB Mason Bellinger.  Neal ran for 118 yards, scoring 3 TDs.  Bellinger went 9 for 11 passing the ball for 249 yards and a touchdown.  

The three F’s is the motto of Avonworth head coach Duke Johncour.  “Faith, family, and football” is what is heard over and over.  It is refreshing to hear that in society today where faith and family take a back seat many times over.  Avonworth is now 1-2 in state final contests.

For the Tigers of NW Lehigh, they were making their third straight final appearance.  They won last year beating Avonworth in overtime.  They lost to a powerful Belle Vernon eleven in 2023.  Northwestern Lehigh was the only team to beat 4A champ Southern Lehigh during the year.   The Tigers are the first D-11 team to make the state final three years in a row.  Bethlehem Liberty made it three out of four years. 

4A – Southern Lehigh 43 Twin Valley 21 – This game had all the ear markings of a real battle between two teams making their first ever title game appearance.  And it was for a half as SoLehi held a 17-14 edge at the intermission.  

Twin Valley, though, had no answer for stopping one of the best running backs in Pennsylvania in 2025 in the person of Sean Steckert.  Mr. Steckert put Southern Lehigh’s Spartans on his back and ran for a class 4A record 301 yards, scoring four touchdowns along the way.  Southern Lehigh had only one loss this year and that was to Northwestern Lehigh, the 3A finalist.

The Twin Valley Raiders were led by their school record setting RB, Drew Engle.  He ran for 176 yards and a TD which was most of his team’s offense.  Twin Valley came into the game with one of the best statistical offenses in the state.  Their head coach, Brett Myers, has now been in four title tilts as he was head honcho at Middletown in three straight final games from 2016 to 2018.

5A – Roman Catholic 28 Bishop McDevitt 6 – Roman Catholic became the third first time winner this year by exacting revenge on McDevitt who beat them in overtime last year in a nail-biter.  QB Semaj Beals completed 18 of 25 passes for 232 yards and tossed three touchdown passes to show the way for the Cahillites.  He accounted for all four scores when he ran for the other Roman TD.  

Roman is the only team to beat 6A champ LaSalle College this season and two of their three losses were by one point, including the one to Providence Point, NC in the first game of the year.  Providence Point won the North Carolina state championship never having a game closer than 21 points except to Roman.  By the way, Cahillites is the name given in honor of founder Thomas Cahill whose dream was to provide free Catholic education for young men in the city of Philadelphia.

Jeff Weachter’s McDevitt Crusaders are the first D-3 team to ever make the state championship three times in four years.  This was McDevitt’s 8th final game and their record is now 3-5.

6A – LaSalle College 34 Pittsburgh Central Catholic 20 – LaSalle made the most of their third appearance in a championship contest and first since 2010.  LaSalle is now 2-1 in gold medal games.  Notre Dame 5-star recruit Joey O’Brien led the way for the Explorers as he had himself quite a game.  O’Brien caught 10 passes for 99 yards  and threw a touchdown pass on offense.  He actually caught 13 passes for the game as he intercepted three passes on defense, taking one to the house 95 yards which is a 6A championship game record.

The Vikings of Central Catholic opened the season with a loss and then won 13 straight coming into the finals.  Their loss was to LaSalle College by a score of 23-6.  So, both teams’ schedules were book-ended by playing each other with the same result.  LaSalle’s only loss was to Roman Catholic, the 5A champs.  Central Catholic’s record in title tilts is 3-5.

This year marked the 10th year that there were six classes.  Before that, there were only four state champs each year.  PFN was instrumental behind the PIAA moving to six classes and it has worked out unbelievably well despite a dwindling number of naysayers.  

The move to six classes has given some very good programs and football teams an opportunity to showcase themselves, their coaches and their talented players that otherwise would have lost out to the powerhouses in Pennsylvania football.  In those ten years, there have been twenty-four teams that have made their only appearance in a state title game, with nine winning gold!  In just the past two years alone 6 of the 12 state titlists won for the first time in school history!  

There is, of course, talk of games being blowouts, but the percentage of games that were decided by more than 10 points was 6 out of 10 under the four class format and is 7 out of 10 with six classes.  Plus, you have to remember offenses are much more explosive and different now than in 1988 when running the ball and controlling the clock were at the forefront.  Other factors include the allowance of teams from Philadelphia to participate in state championships (which actually happened a few years before the PIAA went to six classes) and transfers which are becoming a bigger part of the landscape.

Let’s talk about Southern Columbia football for one more second.  Southern Columbia is so dominating that rumors about recruiting and stealing kids from Columbia Montour Vo-Tech have picked up.  Read Matt Herring’s article on ‘Dispelling the Southern Columbia Vo-Tech Myth.’  He lays out the facts that destroy all that nonsense.  The jealousy and hatred is astounding and much of it stems from ill-informed or ignorant media sources who fan those flames.  No one seems to want to give the greatest high school football coach in the history of Pennsylvania football credit for his handling of the program.  The offense changes from time to time based on talent.  Generally, it is the Wing-T.  I’ve heard people say the Wing-T is boring.  Over the years most of his teams have averaged 40 points or more a game.  How is that boring?  No one cares at Southern, that’s for sure.  They just keep on winning.  Roth’s defensive coordinator, Andy Mills has been with him the whole time and Coach Mills is a genius when it comes to defensive scheming the opposition.  Don’t let jealousy, and yes hate, come between the appreciation of what Coach Roth, his staff, and the players have accomplished over the years.

I did an interview with Coach Roth for my ‘Conversation with Coach’ series a few years back.  He took the time one night during the season to talk with me for over an hour.  That was one of my favorite and best interviews.  I will repeat a factoid that is legendary to Southern Columbia football.  A couple years before Roth took over as head coach, Southern was so bad that the school board contemplated axing the program in favor of soccer.  They had lost something like 27 games in a row and finally won a game on a Thursday.  The school board was so happy that they gave the kids the next day off from attending school.  And, of course, they did not axe the football program.

Protime stepped back this year and did not do any predicting that anyone knows about.  HaHa.  He only covered 21 games as opposed to 48 in 2024, plus he was purposely absent from the state finals.  Next year he still plans to go to high school games across the state, but will not be doing stories per say.  Maybe on the following Monday or Tuesday he will do a synopsis with some pictures.  But the time has come to reel it in for good.  Let the younger, tech savvy generation take over.

Protime wants to publicly thank the owner of PFN, Billy Splain, for his friendship all these years and for allowing Protime to do ‘his thing’ each week.  Protime would like to give shouts out to @PFN_Luxy @circlewsports @Sykotyk @CCHastings1863 @KAR120C6 @PFNDan570FB @jaredsamuelpfn @WilliePAFN and all the others he’s had the privilege to work with over the years.  God bless you all.

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