TJ 27 vs. Pine Richlands 14

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Thomas Jefferson vs. Pine-Richland

Thomas Jefferson (11-0) is looking to make it to Heinz Field for the fifth consecutive year and will have to get past Pine-Richland (10-1) at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at Moon to do it.  It is the 10th consecutive year the Jaguars have advanced to the semifinals. Thomas Jefferson won titles last year and in 2004, and lost in '05 and, in '03, stumbled against Pine-Richland at Heinz Field.  This season, Thomas Jefferson withstood the loss of starting running back Brian Baldrige and has been led by running backs Arthur James (964 yards and 13 touchdowns) and Orlando Torres (529 yards.)  Pine-Richland is tremendously balanced -- running back Ian Hennessy has rushed for 1,537 yards and 19 touchdowns; quarterback Vinny Nittoli has thrown for 1,322 yards and 15 scores. "I look at [Thomas Jefferson coach] Bill Cherpak and he has been in the semifinals 10 years in a row," said Pine-Richland coach Clair Altemus. "His program simply reloads with athletes. I don't know how much better you can run a program than the way Bill does it over there."

WPIAL Class AAA: Thomas Jefferson beats Pine - Richland, 27-14

Tailback punishes Pine - Richland, defense does rest

Saturday, November 17, 2007

By Colin Dunlap, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The temperature has plummeted below the freezing mark.

Snow has fallen and Thanksgiving is less than a week away.

The football season is 12 weeks old, but Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak understands many don't know much about one of his top weapons, senior running back Orlando Torres. "I like it that way," Cherpak admitted, flashing a coy smile.

If Pine-Richland was part of the populace that didn't know about Torres, they most certainly do now.

Behind Torres' 207 yards on 33 carries, coupled with a stout defense, Thomas Jefferson (12-0) rolled to a 27-14 victory against Pine-Richland (10-2) in a WPIAL Class AAA semifinal last night at Moon Area Tiger Stadium.

Thomas Jefferson gained a spot in the WPIAL Class AAA championship for the fifth consecutive season, where the Jaguars will play Montour (12-0) Friday at Heinz Field. Montour was a 32-6 winner against Knoch in the other semifinal last night.

Thomas Jefferson is just the third school in WPIAL history to reach the championship five consecutive seasons, joining Upper St. Clair (1991-95) and Braddock, doing it six times between 1954-59.

Torres' career-high output last night was, to put it lightly, unexpected. Torres entered the season as Thomas Jefferson's No. 3 option on the ground. A season-ending injury to top back Brian Baldrige in the second game and a decision by Cherpak to have Torres supplant Arthur James as the new No. 1 back last night paid monumental dividends.

"We knew this was a game where we'd have to make some yards in the middle," Cherpak said. "Orlando is the kind of back who can get us those yards between the tackles."

Torres' squatty 5-foot-9, 178-pound frame bulled through the line of scrimmage again and again, choosing to do things directly into the path of most resistance.

In stark contrast to Torres' ability to chew up yards, Pine-Richland running back Ian Hennessy, who rushed for 317 yards in a win last week against Chartiers Valley, had just 57 yards last night.

"I don't know if [Hennessy] was a little hurt or what it was, but they kind of went away from their running game earlier than I thought they would," Cherpak said.

"I don't think they were comfortable when we got to them early and made them use their passing game as the first option."

The Jaguars sustained one drive, hit a big play on another and bottled up the Rams' defense in the first half to take a 13-0 lead.

In the waning seconds of the first quarter, on first down from the 18, Thomas Jefferson offensive lineman Lucas Nix locked up a Pine-Richland defensive lineman, and running back Nate Bota rocketed through the hole, cruising into the heart of the Rams' defense to put the Jaguars ahead, 7-0.

The Jaguars pushed it to 13-0 early in the second quarter on an electrifying 90-yard touchdown run by Torres.

That scoring play came on a jet sweep. Torres took a handoff at full speed, got to the corner and flew through the Rams' defense without being touched.

While Torres ripped through Pine-Richland's defense, Hennessy struggled finding alleys to accelerate through, gaining only 17 yards over the first 24 minutes.

It wasn't just Hennessy who had trouble getting going. The entire Pine-Richland offense struggled to make a dent in the Jaguars' defense in the first half. Over that span, Pine-Richland had three first downs -- one coming on a penalty -- and accumulated 27 yards of offense to Thomas Jefferson's 125.

Torres added two second half scores -- one from 17 yards and the other from 5.

Both Pine-Richland scores came in the fourth quarter, after it was 27 points behind. Brett Matson caught a 21-yard touchdown with 8:24 remaining and Hennessy had a 9-yard scoring grab six minutes later.

Pine-Richland's offensive inadequacies had to do with the Thomas Jefferson defensive line play of Nix, Matt Hufford, Cory Smith, Brock DeCicco and Rob McCall.

"To be perfectly honest with you, they dominated us," Pine-Richland coach Clair Altemus said.

One would think that because the trip to Heinz Field has become a late-November ritual for the Jaguars, that they'd draw off the experience.

Not so, said Cherpak.

"This is a different group," he said. "And I know this sounds strange, but we don't think about what we accomplished in the past."

A different team indeed, but the same results.