Hollidaysburg vs TJ

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Top seeds Clairton, Thomas Jefferson have challenging road to final

Published: Monday, October 29, 2012, 10:54 p.m.

Updated: Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Clairton and Thomas Jefferson, the respective No. 1 seeds in the upcoming Class A and Class AAA WPIAL playoffs, find themselves with difficult draws to Championship Friday at Heinz Field.

They remain, of course, favorites to add to their legacies.

Clairton will be looking for a fifth consecutive WPIAL championship. Should the Bears claim another title at Heinz Field, they will have won 60 straight games, setting a new Pennsylvania record.

“I know that our players are really confident,” Clairton coach Tom Nola said. “And, of course, our fans are always extremely confident.”

What about the coach?

“You always get nervous this time of year,” Nola said. “But yeah, I’m pretty confident, too.”

Clairton (9-0), which will play Frazier (7-2) in the first round Friday, struggled in its season opener against Chartiers-Houston before rolling through its schedule with ease, outscoring its opponents 431-62. Many members of the Clairton faction at the Green Tree Doubletree on Monday night were furious that Brentwood and Monessen — the second and third place teams in the Black Hills Conference — found themselves on the same side of the bracket as the Bears. Brentwood is the No. 8 seed and could face Clairton in the quarterfinals.

Monessen, meanwhile, is the

No. 4 seed and could be waiting for the Bears in the semifinals.

Many on Clairton’s coaching staff believe Monessen is the second best team in Class A.

“I couldn’t believe when I saw both of those teams on our side,” Nola said. “Those are both really, really good teams. I wasn’t expecting that. But, you know, you see things that surprise you every year.”

Also on Clairton’s side of the bracket are a Springdale team that historically gives Nola’s team fits and Neshannock, an explosive offensive team, which was given the No. 13 seed despite being a co-conference winner.

“It’s never easy,” Nola said. “And we aren’t expecting this to be easy. We’ll have to go through a lot of good teams.”

Clairton hasn’t lost since the season-opener in 2009 against Laurel and hasn’t lost a WPIAL playoff game since the 2007 semifinals against Springdale.

Thomas Jefferson is another school with a remarkable amount of success.

The Jaguars (9-0), coming off an undefeated season and a feel-good victory in a Week 9 showdown against West Mifflin, are hungry to claim their first WPIAL title since 2008.

This TJ team isn’t quite as experienced as most of coach Bill Cherpak’s teams, but the coach doesn’t mind.

“If we get to Heinz Field, I might worry about the lack of experience playing in that kind of a venue,” Cherpak said. “But we’ve got a pretty mature team. I feel good about them.”

Much like Clairton, the Jaguars did not receive an easy draw.

Pending a first-round win over No. 16 seed Hollidaysburg, TJ could have a quarterfinal meeting with No. 9 Elizabeth Forward (6-3) or No. 8 Franklin Regional (7-2). Franklin Regional historically plays TJ tough, and Elizabeth Forward nearly upset the Jaguars in a 21-19 contest earlier this season.

Class AAA powers West Allegheny and Montour also are in the bottom of TJ’s draw.

“Wow,” Cherpak said, as he scanned his side of the draw.

One break for TJ, though, is that West Mifflin found itself on the other side of the bracket. Despite going 8-1, West Mifflin was surprisingly given the No. 7 seed.

“They’re pretty good,” Cherpak said, “for a No. 7 seed.”

The high-powered Jaguars are pretty good, too.

But Cherpak, who is looking to claim his fifth WPIAL championship, knows the road isn’t easy.

“I can honestly say that there are seven teams in Class AAA that can win this thing,” Cherpak said. “I don’t know if there have ever been that many. But I feel really good about our team.”

Inside the Program: Thomas Jefferson football

By Craig Meyer / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

With plenty of rivalry games taking place, the final week of the 2012 WPIAL regular season was one loaded with meaningful contests between some of the area's top teams. Perhaps no single squad benefitted more from last week than Thomas Jefferson. Throughout the entire season, the Jaguars ran neck-and-neck with their rival, West Mifflin, for the top spot in the Class AAA Big Nine Conference standings, with the winner of their week nine game taking the conference's top seed for the playoffs. Riding their customarily high-octane offense and a defense that gave up just 13 total yards in the second half, Thomas Jefferson notched a season-defining 28-14 victory, defeating the Titans for the sixth time in their past seven meetings. Most importantly, the win allowed the undefeated Jaguars to claim the top overall seed in the Class AAA playoffs, which will begin tonight when they play host to a 3-6 Hollidaysburg team that they defeated, 55-0, in the third week of the season. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

A POTENT PASSING COMBO

Much has been made this season of Thomas Jefferson's offense, and understandably so. Coach Bill Cherpak's teams have always had a penchant for lighting up scoreboards and his team this year has exemplified that trend. The Jaguars averaged 42.9 points per game in the regular season, making them the top scoring offense in Class AAA and the fifth-best in the WPIAL. Only once this season did they fail to score 28 points or more (a 21-19 victory against Elizabeth Forward in their second game of the season). Much of the offensive success can be attributed to what is arguably the best pass-catch combo in the WPIAL -- quarterback Joe Carroll and wide receiver Zach Schademan. Carroll led all WPIAL passers with 33 touchdowns (to only three interceptions) and was fourth in passing yards with 1,737. Schademan, also an excellent punt returner, was sixth among WPIAL wide receivers with 926 yards, and had 21 touchdowns along with a yards per catch average of 21. Although Cherpak's teams have often had potent offenses, Cherpak said this team has "thrown the ball a little more this year" using a no-huddle, spread formation.

CHANGE IN PATH

For much of the early part of his working life, Cherpak was far, far away from a football field, working at funeral homes after graduating from Pitt, where he was an offensive lineman, and spending two years in mortuary school. After spending time as an assistant coach for several seasons, Cherpak was hired as the head coach at Thomas Jefferson, where he began in 1995. In that time, he has established himself as one of the best coaches in the WPIAL, guiding Thomas Jefferson to a 189-36 record, a winning percentage of 84 percent. Cherpak has also led the Jaguars to two WPIAL and PIAA Class AAA titles in the past six seasons.

BEWARE OF HISTORY

Entering the postseason with an unblemished record is far from new territory for Thomas Jefferson under Cherpak. Just three years ago, the Jaguars entered the postseason with a similarly high-powered offense and a 9-0 record, with the team winning those games by an average margin of victory of 31.2 points per game. After winning its first two games against Laurel Highlands and Franklin Regional, however, Thomas Jefferson was knocked off by a West Allegheny team that went 7-2 in the regular season. This season has marked the first since 2009 that the Jaguars finished the regular season undefeated, but Cherpak said that what happened three years ago won't have much of a bearing this year. "Honestly, the kids here don't even remember that," he said. "We've had plenty of undefeated seasons here. That wasn't their goal -- it was always to get to the playoffs and win a championship."

YOUTH IN RESERVE

Thomas Jefferson's resume undoubtedly reads like one of a team with a strong veteran presence -- which is true, as top players such as Carroll and Schademan are seniors, and running back Jake Farrell is a junior -- but the team has a surprisingly high number of players with little experience in WPIAL football. Of the 77 players on the Jaguars' roster, 50 of them are freshmen or sophomores.

Thomas Jefferson 63 Hollidaysburg 19

The top-seeded Jaguars (10-0) remained the only unbeaten team in Class AAA with their domination of the Golden Tigers (3-7).

Zach Talley and Luke Deanovich each scored twice for the Jaguars. Talley returned a kickoff 70 yards for a score, then returned a punt 61 yards for another score. Deanovich scored on runs of 25 and 41 yards.

Thomas Jefferson accumulated 380 yards in total offense, while Hollidaysburg had 194 yards. The Jaguars scored nine touchdowns, all 25 yards or longer.