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Thomas Jefferson tops Montour to defend WPIAL Class 4A championship

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, November 18, 2017 | 10:36 PM

Bill Cherpak wore a rain jacket, but not even the torrential downpour at Heinz Field on Saturday kept him from donning his customary shorts.

“This was awesome,” Cherpak said. “In the rain, on grass, the way it’s supposed to be. It was great. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Neither would Thomas Jefferson, which won its third consecutive WPIAL championship behind a dominant defensive effort, swamping Montour for a 27-0 victory at a waterlogged Heinz Field.

“I thought it was fun,” senior lineman Devin Danielson said. “I love playing in the rain. It wasn’t too cold, and it was just the perfect amount of slippy out on the field.”

The resodding of Heinz Field was scheduled to begin after four WPIAL championship games Saturday.

Thomas Jefferson’s defense gave it a head start. The Jaguars (11-1) posted their third shutout of the postseason and seventh overall, holding Montour to 65 yards of offense and five first downs.

With a defensive line anchored by Pitt recruits Danielson and Noah Palmer, TJ harassed Montour quarterback Kavon Morman, sacking him three times, and forced three Spartans turnovers. Senior Logan Burnsworth led the way with seven tackles — three for a loss — and a sack, and Danielson added five tackles, including two for a loss.

“I think the biggest thing is the defensive line,” Cherpak said. “They put so much pressure on the other team in terms of the quarterback once they want to run the ball. When you’re in second-and-10 or second-and-12, you can never get ahead of the chains. It’s tough, and our defensive line has been great all year.”

The Jaguars also got a 67-yard punt return touchdown from Garret Fairman and a pair of long touchdown passes between sophomore quarterback Shane Stump and sophomore wide receiver Daniel Deabner.

The eighth WPIAL title — seven under Cherpak — moved Thomas Jefferson into a tie with Jeannette, Rochester and West Allegheny for the fourth-most in WPIAL history.

“I’ve said this five times already, but it’s amazing,” Danielson said.

Thomas Jefferson, which came into the postseason as a motivated No. 3 seed after a regular-season loss to Belle Vernon, took quick control against Montour (9-3) with a pair of touchdowns in a 22-second span of the first quarter.

First Fairman gathered in a punt, burst up the middle and beat punter Brandon Lipford to the pylon for a 67-yard touchdown midway through the first quarter. Jack Mich sacked Morman on Montour’s next play from scrimmage, forcing a fumble that Logan Danielson recovered, and Stump hit Deabner for a 32-yard score on the next play.

“We were really expecting to come in and pound the ball, but they were putting nine in the box and really trying to stop our run game,” said Stump, who passed for 86 yards. “We just tried to hit a couple passes behind them, and we did. (The ball) was slippery; it was pretty hard to grip it, but we just made do with what we had.”

Despite forcing two turnovers and starting a pair of drives in Thomas Jefferson territory in the first half, Montour couldn’t take advantage. The Spartans’ best scoring chance was thwarted when Thomas Jefferson senior Nick Urbanowicz stepped in front of a Morman pass at the goal line for a second-quarter interception.

“Probably the rain was our enemy tonight (with) some of the stuff we like to do,” Montour coach Lou Cerro said. “I think our defense played tremendous tonight. I think we had our chances, and when we had our chances, we didn’t capitalize on them.”

TJ made it a three-score game just 57 seconds before halftime when Stump found Deabner again, this time from 25 yards.

Justin Vigna rushed for 125 yards for TJ, many of them coming in the second half as the Jaguars wore down Montour. Stump added a 3-yard rushing touchdown with 4:45 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Thomas Jefferson will meet a familiar opponent in the PIAA Class 4A first round Friday — Erie Cathedral Prep, which ended the Jaguars’ season in 2015 and 2016.

“(There’s) lots of competition, lots of hatred,” Stump said.

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

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