Belle Vernon next test for undefeated Thomas Jefferson
By Ray Fisher
Published: Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013, 9:00 p.m.
After two long road-trips, Thomas Jefferson (6-0, 5-0) returns home Friday to host rival Belle Vernon at 7:30 p.m. in a Big Nine Conference game.
It also is the homecoming game on the 2013 schedule for the Jaguars, who have won 48 consecutive contests at TJ Stadium, as well as 75 of their past 77 games in conference play.
“This is a big game for us as we continue our goal of another undefeated season and (winning) the conference championship,” Bill Cherpak, TJ's head coach, said.
The Jaguars cruised past Laurel Highlands last week, 58-21, while Belle Vernon (2-4, 2-3) snapped a four-game losing streak by blanking Trinity, 28-0.
“We have a very young team, and a small senior class,” Aaron Krepps, Belle Vernon's head coach, said. “The kids we do have are extremely battle-tested.”
The Leopards opened the season with a 48-20 win against Uniontown, then lost games against West Mifflin, Ringgold, Elizabeth Forward and a nonconference matchup with Franklin Regional.
“We will have to execute well and be very sharp mentally,” Cherpak said. “They give a lot of different looks on defense, so we will have to be focused on what we are supposed to do.
“We must improve on special teams if we are to be a championship team.”
Thomas Jefferson and Belle Vernon met last year in an identical situation. The Jaguars were 6-0 and 5-0 and had clipped Laurel Highlands, 45-6, the previous week.
The Leopards were 2-4 and 2-3 and had ended a four-game losing streak with a 26-17 win against Trinity.
Thomas Jefferson belted Belle Vernon last season, 57-20, and has won 12 consecutive games versus the Leopards since 2001.
Belle Vernon has been outscored 173-116 this season and is surrendering an average of 28.8 ppg.
The Leopards' quarterback is freshman Mike Fine, who has stepped in for the injured Travis Snyder and completed 20 of 41 passes for 287 yards and two scores.
Snyder, a junior, was a third-year starter at the quarterback position.
Senior WR Cody Menges (15-379), sophomore WR Derek Verkleeren (14-176) and senior TE Jake Sweitzer (12-142) are the team's leading receivers.
Verkleeren, sophomore RB Luke Durigon and junior RB Bradley Sloan have combined for 443 yards on the ground.
Austin Fields, a 6-foot-1, 250-pound senior lineman, is a four-year starter who was an all-conference selection on both sides of the ball a year ago.
“Belle Vernon has the ability to make big plays with some speed guys on offense,” Cherpak said. “Their wide receiver and running back both run well and make a lot of plays for them.
“They have a freshman quarterback who replaced the injured starter a few weeks ago. He is coming along well, and is a threat to throw the ball downfield.”
Thomas Jefferson clipped Laurel Highlands last week after spotting the Mustangs an early 7-0 lead. LH was the first team this season to score a touchdown in the first quarter against the Jaguars.
TJ has outscored the opposition by a 269-50 difference this year, and is averaging 44.8 ppg — behind only West Mifflin's 45.5 ppg average in Class AAA — and 8.3 ppg defensively.
“We will have to play very well on defense (versus Belle Vernon),” Cherpak said.
Junior running back Austin Kemp rushed for 159 yards on 12 carries last week and scored four times.
Kemp has accounted for 781 yards and 10 touchdowns on 86 carries in 2013. He is averaging 9.1 yards per carry.
TJ's Christian Breisinger, a senior quarterback/linebacker, hit on 7 of 9 passes for 148 yards, and also scored on a 33-yard fumble recovery.
The Jaguars' leading receiver on the year, senior Dalton Dietrich, had seven receptions for 148 yards to boost his season totals to 22 catches for 473 yards.
Dietrich, who has scored six touchdowns, is averaging 20.6 yards per catch.
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Thomas Jefferson looking to stay in Big 9 title race against Belle Vernon
By Dave Mackall
Published: Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013, 10:33 p.m.
These high school football teams are worlds apart. But back in the day — not really that long ago, though — Thomas Jefferson had its hands full against Belle Vernon.
Do you think Aaron Krepps had something to do with the Leopards' past success?
During his days as a multi-faceted player at Belle Vernon, Krepps helped the program post back-to-back, 11-1 records, narrowly misfiring on WPIAL championships in 1999 and 2000.
“Aaron was one of the best players I've ever coached against,” longtime Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak said. “He's doing a good job coaching that team now. They lost their tailback and their quarterback, but they've still won some games. We need to be ready to play.”
Cherpak and surging No. 2 Thomas Jefferson (6-0, 5-0) play host to Krepps and injury-stricken Belle Vernon (2-4, 2-3) in a Class AAA Big Nine Conference game on Friday night.
Another Thomas Jefferson victory would impact at least two items of note.
First — and likely more important to Cherpak — the Jaguars would tie No. 3 West Mifflin for the conference lead with two regular-season games remaining. The two teams meet in the finale Oct. 25 at West Mifflin (6-0, 6-0), which plays a nonconference game Friday at Indiana.
Also, Cherpak would inch closer to the revered 200-victory mark as a coach in the WPIAL. His record is 197-37-0, all at Thomas Jefferson, where he began coaching in 1995.
Only 21 names currently appear on the WPIAL list of 200 career victories, and just four coaches are active.
Upper St. Clair's Jim Render is the all-time leader with 370, while Joe Hamilton of Blackhawk is second with 337; Woodland Hills' George Novak is fourth with 272; and McKeesport's George Smith has moved into a tie for 19th with 203 after returning to the sideline this season to lead the Tigers to a 6-0 mark following a three-year absence.
Predictably, Cherpak isn't watching the coaching list. He's more concerned with coaching his team. Judging from the lopsided scores in favor of the Jaguars, something's going right.
Thomas Jefferson is led on offense by running back Austin Kemp, who has rushed for 781 yards (9.1 average), and on defense by senior linebacker Chase Winovich, a Michigan recruit.
The Jaguars are averaging 44.8 points per game and are yielding an average of just 8.3 following a 58-21 rout of Laurel Highlands on Friday in game that saw the Mustangs score two fourth-quarter touchdowns after Thomas Jefferson had built a 51-point lead.
“The big thing that we concentrate on is to try to play to our level all the time and not focus on the other team,” Cherpak said. “We've played teams that we have overmatched, but we still need to play the game and watch how we execute. We just want to try to focus on our level of our play as opposed to who we're playing. For the most part, the focus has been good. These guys always play hard.”
Krepps, who went on to become a two-time NCAA Division III All-American as a wide receiver/kick returner at Washington & Jefferson, is trying to revive his high school alma mater in an effort to emulate those glory days when he was a player at Belle Vernon.
The losses of quarterback Travis Snyder and running back Anthony Levis to season-ending knee injuries has forced Belle Vernon to use inexperienced players in those key positions.
Freshman Mike Fine passed for 156 yards and sophomore Derek Verkleeren rushed for 160 on Friday to help Belle Vernon end a four-game skid with a 28-0 victory over Trinity.
“It's a step in the right direction,” Krepps said. “Obviously, to win is a very positive thing. It's something to build off and helps to reiterate our stance in the playoff hunt.”
Krepps is well aware of Thomas Jefferson's success with Cherpak at the controls. He referred to the Jaguars as “the cream of the crop when it comes to our conference.”
Judging from the results, you could say that TJ is among the best in the WPIAL.
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By Mark Kaboly
Published: Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013, 12:15 a.m.
Updated 9 hours ago
Sure, Thomas Jefferson never was threatened by Belle Vernon. The Jaguars scored on their first three possessions and never looked back in a 35-0 Big Nine Conference victory over Belle Vernon.
But all Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak could think about afterward was how the Belle Vernon offensive line powered his team off the line of scrimmage for sophomore tailback Luke Durigon to gain big chunks of yardage.
Cherpak's reason: Jimmy Wheeler and the run-happy West Mifflin Titans are the only ones standing in the path of Thomas Jefferson's 13th consecutive conference title two weeks from now.
“We are going to have to be able to defend that kind of play because Wheeler likes to run it up in there,” said Cherpak, who raised his career record to 198-37. “We have to be better than we were today. I am not happy with this at all. They ran the ball right up the gut on us, and we have to find a way to sure that up.”
Durigon finished with 132 yards, including three runs over 25 yards, but they were inconsequential in the outcome of the game because of the quick-strike ability of the Jaguars' offense.
TJ, which ran its dominance over its Route 51 rival to 13 consecutive wins, scored three touchdowns on its first 14 plays to open a 21-0 first-quarter lead. After that, the Jaguars cruised to their 49th consecutive home win.
“We couldn't let them get out early, and that's what we did,” Belle Vernon coach Aaron Krepps said.
Thomas Jefferson (7-0, 6-0) got a balanced attack from five running backs who gained at least 35 yards: Ricky Daley (53), Chase Winovich (46), Braden Pahanish (45), Ryan Scanlon (41) and Austin Kemp (35).
Christian Breisinger completed 7 of 10 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown, while Dalton Dietrich caught six passes for 107 yards and a score. Thomas Jefferson outgained Belle Vernon, 396-156.
“When you have as many injuries as they have, your options are limited,” Cherpak said. “Their line was good, and that kind ran nice for them, but they got in a hole early. We made some big plays early and kind of got up on them and took them out of the game.”
Belle Vernon (2-6, 2-5) was playing without quarterback Travis Snyder and running back Anthony Levis.
“We shot ourselves in the foot a lot of times offensively, and you can't do that against a team like them,” Krepps said. “Then we blew a couple assignments defensively, and three of them were on touchdowns. We had to play our ‘A' game, and we didn't do that.”
While Belle Vernon couldn't catch a break, Thomas Jefferson couldn't seem to miss one.
Leading 21-0 midway through the first quarter on touchdowns by Kemp, Dietrich and Russell Siess, the Jaguars picked up their first break when Winovich missed a handoff to Kemp.
Winovich pulled the ball down and raced around the right end untouched for a 46 yard score.
The breaks continued late in the first when Breisinger fired the ball up into the end zone while trying to avoid pressure. It turned out to be a perfect strike to Frankie Langan in the back of the end zone for a 35-0 lead just before halftime.
“It turned out well but that's one he needs to hold onto,” Cherpak said. “We just didn't play well at all but it is tough for them because they were just outmanned. Still, I am not happy with it at all. We have to be better than this.”
Thomas Jefferson now leads the all-time series 29-18.
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Thomas Jefferson 35, Belle Vernon 0
Christian Breisinger threw for two touchdowns as the top-ranked Jaguars (7-0, 6-0) recorded their third shutout of the season in a Big Nine Conference victory against the visiting Leopards (2-5, 2-4). Breisinger completed 7 of 11 passes for 116 yards. Chase Winovich threw for one touchdown and ran for another for the Jaguars.