PIAA football playoffs: 30 years in 30 days — Thomas Jefferson repeats in ’08 final

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 | 7:00 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: 2008

The Site: Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey

The Champs: Bethlehem Liberty, Thomas Jefferson, Wilmington, Steelton-Highspire

The Headline: Thomas Jefferson repeats, Bethel Park falls in OT and Clairton get steamrolled

The Lowdown: Twenty years of PIAA championships and only two WPIAL teams won back-to-back state championships, Farrell in 1995 and ’96 and Rochester in 2000 and ’01.

Thomas Jefferson helped celebrate the state tournament’s two decade anniversary by becoming the third District 7 team to repeat as state champs.

The Jaguars rolled past Archbishop Wood, 34-7, to win the program’s third PIAA crown in five years and their most recent state title.

Thomas Jefferson finished a 15-1 season with 15 straight wins and won by seven postseason games by an average of 24.7 points.

A program that has traditionally run the ball leaned on quarterback Tyler Wehner, who connected on 8 of 13 passes for 156 yards and three touchdowns, plus he rushed for 37 yards and two scores.

The Vikings dropped the ball and the Jags made them pay immediately. After fumbling the opening kickoff, Thomas Jefferson went 27 yards on two plays with Wehner scoring on a 5-yard run.

Later in the opening quarter, Wehner connected with Dan Virgin on a 13-yard scoring pass.

After the Vikings cracked the scoreboard in the second quarter to cut their deficit to seven, Wehner threw a couple of touchdown passes to Brock DiCicco in the final six minutes of the half, one of 33 yards and the other of 18 yards to up the Thomas Jefferson lead to 28-7 after two quarters.

Wehner capped off his big day with a 1-yard score in the fourth quarter for the final points of the evening.

“This is the greatest feeling I ever had,” Wehner said after his big game. “I never thought it would feel this great. It’s a lot more fun on the field than off it.”

It also marked the first year for District 12 schools in the PIAA finals, and while the Vikings lost on this night, they would later win five state crowns between 2011-18.

• Bethel Park went from euphoria to heartbreak in a span of three weeks.

The Black Hawks upset Gateway in the district finals for their first WPIAL football championship and followed up with three-point wins over both State College and West Lawn Wilson.

District 11 champion Bethlehem Liberty was the opponent for unbeaten Bethel Park on a bone-chilling evening in Hershey.

Bethel Park had no answers in trying to stop junior quarterback Anthony Gonzalez in a 28-21 loss. The Hurricanes signal caller rushed for 205 yards and scored three touchdowns, plus he threw for 97 yards and another score in only the sixth state championship game to go into overtime.

Lyle Marsh led the Black Hawks with 26 carries for 195 yards, but he and his Bethel Park teammates came up five yards short.

With the scored deadlocked, 21-21 at the end of regulation, Liberty go the ball first and Gonzalez scored on a 1-yard sneak to put the Hurricanes up 28-21.

On Bethel Park’s possession, Marsh gained 5 yards on two runs, but on third down the game ended with Black Hawks quarterback Erik Olson’s pass in the left corner of the end zone picked off by guess who … Anthony Gonzalez.

The title was the first state title for Liberty and it was only the second PIAA Class AAAA championship for a District 11 team. Parkland won in 2002.

• It would become the norm over the next decade, but 2008 was the first state championship game appearance for Clairton.

Troy Webb scored on a 2-yard run with only 35 seconds left in the first quarter and a successful two-point conversion pass from Deontae Howard to Kevin Weatherspoon made it 8-0, Bears.

It took Steelton-Highspire 13 seconds to tie the game on a 92-yard kickoff return by Jordan Smith. Andre Campbell scored on a 2-point run to tie the game at 8 after one quarter.

The score remained the same into halftime but would drastically change in the third quarter when the Steamrollers lived up to their nickname.

Steelton-Highspire scored 27 unanswered points on three runs by Campbell and a 59-yard scoring pass from Campbell to Smith.

Webb scored on a 1-yard run with only 2 seconds left in the game to make the final score more respectable at 35-16.

Howard ended up leading all rushers with 104 yards for the Bears, who would lose their 2009 season opener at Laurel and then win a district and state record 66 straight times, including the next four PIAA Class A championships.

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

Tags: Bethel Park, Clairton, Thomas Jefferson