Top-ranked Clairton delivers early knockout at Leechburg

By: George Guido
Friday, September 18, 2020 | 10:25 PM

After scoring 55 points in the season opener last week, Leechburg was hoping to win five straight games for the first time since 1988 as the Blue Devils won their final three games of 2019.

But top-ranked Clairton quickly stopped that notion.

The defending WPIAL champion Bears scored three touchdowns within the game’s first seven minutes and rolled to a 59-14 victory at Leechburg Veterans Stadium.

Senior Dontae Sanders rushed for 213 yards on seven carries and scored three touchdowns — all in the first half. Classmate Isaiah Berry contributed 166 yards on eight tries and scored twice as Clairton built a 53-0 halftime advantage.

After Leechburg’s Tyler Foley recovered a squibbed opening kickoff and the Blue Devils were held to a punt, junior receiver Brooklyn Cannon hauled in a 69-yard pass from Jonte Sanders on the Clairton’s first play from scrimmage.

On the next series, Jonte Sanders scored on a 6-yard run through the defense and, in the following series Dontae Sanders tallied on a 27-yard run as the Bears raced to a 20-0 lead with 5 minutes, 27 seconds left in the first quarter.

“Coming in after looking at them on film, they had runs of 40, 50, 60 yards,” Clairton coach Wayne Wade said of Leechburg. “From our performance last week, we knew we had to come out and fight better. We had to tackle better and execute better.”

The barrage continued as Berry and Dontae Sanders added touchdowns in the final 75 seconds of the first quarter to put the Bears in front, 32-0.

The final touchdown of the first quarter was set up by Andre Henderson’s pass interception.

Dontae Sanders scored from 45 yards out, Berry scored on a 10-yarder and Cannon scored on a 32-yard pass to give Clairton a 53-0 lead.

“We did some good things last week, but we didn’t do very many good things in the first half this week,” Blue Devils coach Randy Walters said. “We’ve just got to play 48 minutes of football.”

While the Bears pulled off a number of electrifying plays on offense, the Clairton defense was stellar, holding Leechburg to 2 yards during the first half before Wade gave his starters the rest of the night off.

The Blue Devils managed just two first downs during the first half.

Said Wade: “On defense, we try to dominate. We try to take a team’s will, and I think we did that early and we continued to steamroll.”

Senior quarterback Dylan Cook guided Leechburg to a pair of second-half touchdowns.

A 33-yard pass play to Thomas Burke was the highlight of the first scoring drive and a 22-yarder to Eli Rich paced the second drive.

Leechburg only has three seniors, but Walters didn’t blame youth and inexperience for his team’s woes against the long-time powerhouse.

“When you’ve got some young kids on the field, you’re going to make some mistakes,” the veteran coach said. “Trust me, we had a lot of people make mistakes. It wasn’t just young kids. We just got to keep coaching, and they’re trusting what we’re trying to do.”

The Blue Devils, who defeated Greensburg Central Catholic last week, travel to Springdale on Friday.