PIAA football playoffs: 30 years in 30 days — Rochester opens new millennium with state gold in 2000

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, November 19, 2018 | 3:03 PM

The PIAA had been hosting state playoffs in all but one fall high school sport since 1976. Soccer, volleyball, tennis, golf, cross country and field hockey all crowned state champions once the district playoffs concluded.

The lone exception to the fall state playoff slate was high school football.

It wasn’t until 1988 when PIAA officials finally pulled the trigger on the idea of having a yearly state football playoff.

From George Novak and Woodland Hills losing in a mud pit to Bob Palko and West Allegheny finding the third time really was the charm to Neil Walker and Pine-Richland competing in a heartbreaking overtime loss in a snowstorm and to Tyler Boyd and the golden Bears of Clairton winning four straight state championships.

There have been a lot of thrills and heartbreak in three decades of state championship football. Leading up to the 2018 state finals, the TribLIVE High School Sports Network will look back at how WPIAL teams have fared in the PIAA championships with 30 years in 30 days.

The Year: 2000

The Site: Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey

The Champs: Cathedral Prep, Strath Haven, Mt. Carmel, Rochester

The Headline: New century begins with Rochester golden while West A and Aliquippa return home with silver

The Lowdown: Three district veterans of state finals headed east to Chocolate Town for the first football championships of the new millennium, but only one returned with a golden mission accomplished.

Rochester got the weekend started with a 22-14 triumph over perennial power Southern Columbia.

The year 2000 was the first season current coach Gene Matsook took over the program from his brother Dan, who guided the Rams to three WPIAL championships and a state crown in the 1990’s.

In the 2000 WPIAL finals, Rochester edged rival Monaca, 13-6, in the final year of Three River Stadium. Then the Rams cruised past District 10 champion Sharpsville, 27-3, to reach the state finals for the third time in program history.

The Rams took control early, scoring on their first possession by going 68 yards on 11 plays and scoring on a Jermaine Moye 3-yard run.

Moye would leave the game in the first half and not return with a hip injury as he was held to 47 yards rushing.

That left the Rochester ground game in the capable hands of senior running back Kirby Griffin, who ended up with 101 yards for the game.

Southern Columbia answered and took its only lead at 7-6 on a 2-yard run by Nate Richard.

The game turned late in the second quarter when Richard fumbled and Griffin recovered at the Southern Columbia 43.

Griffin then raced 42 yards to set up his short score two plays later that gave the Rams the lead for good.

Then on the second play of the third quarter, Javonn Bradley raced 61 yards to pay dirt. Bradley led the Rams with 107 yards rushing.

With only a handful of starters back from 1999 and after the team struggled out of the gates to a 1-2 start, Rochester won its final 12 games to become the fifth WPIAL Class A Big 8 Conference team to win state gold in the last six years.

• It marked the second straight year West Allegheny met Strath Haven in the Class AAA finals. The Panthers rolled past the Indians by two touchdowns in 1999.

Strath Haven junior wide receiver Josh Hannum had a big game with four catches for a then-record 170 yards. A 44-yard reception in the first quarter set up the Panthers first touchdown and later in the second quarter, Hannum caught a 75-yard touchdown pass from Mike Conner.

His biggest play came on his final catch with 22 seconds left in the fourth quarter with the game tied, 28-28. Hannum caught a short Conner pass and raced 37 yards to the West Allegheny 22.

That set up a Carl Schoenman game-winning field goal to cap off the Panthers state championship repeat, 31-28.

That game-winning sequence for Strath Haven was in response to Tyler Palko’s second touchdown pass to Chris Leonard, a 3-yard connection with a half-minute left that tied the game at 28.

Palko, a junior, hit on 9 of 16 passes for 149 yards, two touchdown passes and a pair of 1-yard scoring runs.

The loss left the WPIAL 0-13 in the PIAA Class AAA finals.

• Aliquippa was 14-0 heading into the 2000 PIAA Class AA title game, but the Quips were no match for a natural disaster.

The Mt. Carmel blew away the Quips, 26-6, as the Red Tornado bounced back after losing the 1999 finals, 13-6 to Tyrone.

With starting quarterback Josh Lay unable to start with a broken hand suffered in a 14-6 win over Waynesburg in the WPIAL championship game two weeks earlier, Quanear Gaskins got the call under center for the Quips.

Gaskins was 2 of 7 passing for 43 yards and was replaced by Lay in the second quarter, who struggled as expected and finished 6 of 15 for 62 yards.

Aliquippa twice drove deep into Mt. Carmel territory in the opening quarter but failed to score both times.

Mt. Carmel scored late in the second quarter then added two more touchdowns in the third quarter for a 20-0 lead.

Early in the fourth quarter, Lay hit Jon LeDonne on a 9-yard touchdown only to have Mt. Carmel answer with a 60-yard drive that ended with Jon Veach scoring on a 16-yard run to seal the deal on a fourth PIAA championship in seven years.

Don Rebel is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Don at drebel@tribweb.com or via Twitter @TheDonRebel.

Tags: Aliquippa, Rochester, West Allegheny