Apollo-Ridge turns tables on Leechburg, scores late for comeback victory

By: Michael Love
Friday, August 22, 2025 | 10:48 PM

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In last year’s Week Zero rivalry game between Leechburg and Apollo-Ridge, the Blue Devils rallied from a touchdown behind in the fourth quarter to score a five-point victory.

Friday night, the Vikings returned the favor.

Trailing by nine in the third quarter, Apollo-Ridge fought back, scoring the final 13 points of the game to come away with a hard-fought 20-16 victory.

“We didn’t have that fight that we needed last year,” Vikings coach John Skiba said. “But we saw that tonight. I am so proud of the guys. They fought and made plays at big times.

“We shot ourselves in the foot at times with some turnovers and penalties, but those are things that can be cleaned up. Leechburg is a well-coached team, and their kids up front played really well. They fought extremely hard, and that is why this is such a great rivalry.”

The last four meetings between Apollo-Ridge and Leechburg have been decided by a combined 17 points.

“I’ve been there four times with John in this game, and each game has gone like this,” Leechburg coach Randy Walters said. “It was another hard-fought game, and we expected that. Both teams played with a lot of grit. Somebody has to win, and somebody has to lose.”

The deciding score came from the feet of Vikings quarterback Alex Clawson with 4 minutes, 16 seconds left in the fourth.

He kept the ball and scampered to the right and down the sideline for 36 yards to the end zone.

Beck Andree added the extra point to make it 20-16.

The Apollo-Ridge defense then made plays as Leechburg tried to answer in the final minutes.

An incompletion on fourth-and-24 from the Blue Devils 43 with 1:44 left turned the ball back over to the Vikings, who ran out the clock to seal the victory.

The winning TD from Clawson came exactly two minutes after the Apollo-Ridge defense made another big stop, stuffing a Leechburg fourth-and-2 keeper at its 31.

“That was a great stop,” Skiba said. “They loaded up in that heavy package with extra big guys in the backfield, and they were finding a lot of success with it and were moving the ball. The kids battled, and we made a couple of adjustments. They showed a lot of heart right there.”

Walters tipped his cap to the Vikings defense for making the stop.

“They buckled up, made the play,” he said. “That was just one example of how tough this game was played. They got us by a half a yard there.”

Clawson had a big night as he finished with 72 yards on eight carries and completed 9 of 18 passes for 148 yards.

Seven of the completions went to Jayden McCray for 122 yards. It included a 31-yard TD completion with 1:38 left in the third quarter.

The scoring strike answered a Leechburg score that turned a one-point halftime lead into a nine-point advantage six minutes into the second half.

Blue Devils defensive back Jaxon Vargo, also the team’s quarterback, intercepted a pass from Apollo-Ridge quarterback Chris Dailey and took it back 38 yards for a touchdown.

A 2-point conversion pass from Vargo to junior Kaedyn Joris made it 16-7 with 5:48 left in the third.

“We were a little deflated after that pick-6,” Skiba said. “Things weren’t going well, and we needed a spark. Alex got into a rhythm, and things started working for us. Jayden made some nice catches like we know he can make.”

Leechburg senior tailback Tim Andrasy finished with 16 carries for 87 yards.

“We’re going to see some breakdowns on film, and that is going to happen in a first game, but I know we are going to see our heart, our work ethic and how much we care,” Walters said.

“This game is going to help us later on down the season. Apollo-Ridge is a big, physical team that is well-coached, and we played them tough.”

Both teams struggled to get into a flow throughout the first half as penalties and other miscues slowed the offenses.

The first-half touchdowns for each team came in the first quarter.

Apollo-Ridge came out firing as Clawson found McCray for 42 yards on the first play from scrimmage. But four plays later, Preston Clemons fumbled at the Leechburg 18. Geno Grenata fell on the loose ball, and the Blue Devils took over.

But on third-and-12 from the 16, Vargo’s pass attempt was intercepted by Nathan Fryer and returned to the 9.

Set up with a first-and-goal, the Vikings needed just two plays to punch it in. After McCray carried it to the 1, Dailey came in and took it in on a quarterback keeper at the 7:39 mark of the first.

Andree converted the point-after kick, and Apollo-Ridge was ahead 7-0.

The teams traded punts after the Vikings score. Kaedyn Joris returned the Vikings’ punt to the A-R 37.

On the first play of the Leechburg drive, Andrasy ripped off a run up the middle to the end zone.

The scamper pulled the Blue Devils to within one. A 2-point conversion pass from Vargo to Joris put Leechburg ahead 8-7 with 4:30 still remaining in the first quarter.

The first 12 minutes took 45 minutes of real time, but the second quarter was much quicker, clocking in at 23 minutes. But A-R and Leechburg were not able to put additional points on the board.

A long Andrasy run to the Apollo-Ridge 2 midway through the second quarter was nullified on a holding penalty.

Apollo-Ridge’s final drive of the half reached the Leechburg 40, but a pair of holding penalties pushed the Vikings back into their own territory, and they were not able to make up the lost ground.

The Blue Devils entered halftime with 52 yards, while Apollo-Ridge had 125. Of the Vikings yardage over the first 24 minutes, 75 came on four pass completions from Clawson to McCray.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Leechburg