Beaver reloads in pursuit of another winning chapter in program’s storied history

By: Antonio Rossetti
Tuesday, August 12, 2025 | 6:01 AM

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Beaver is the ninth on the WPIAL all-time wins list and is the fourth-oldest football program in the district, starting in 1899. Beaver has a winning culture.

Coach Cort Rowse hasn’t missed the playoffs since taking over in 2021. Rowse took home Western Hills Conference coach of the year honors and guided his team to a 28-13 record and four playoff appearances through his first four seasons.

The Bobcats have recorded four straight winning seasons, including last year’s 9-3 record and share of the conference title. Given the rich winning culture, a fifth winning season in a row would be the standard.

Beaver, however, lost several key players to graduation, including all-conference picks Gabe Lutton and Blake Thompson as well as two Division I athletes in Amari Jackson, who was West Hills Conference player of the year, and Brady Mayo.

Nevertheless, senior defensive back and wide receiver Junior Marino and the rest of the class of 2026 is prepared for action. After a fourth straight second-round playoff exit, Marino and the 13 others seniors took the initiative to lead the younger classes.

“Going to Beaver, we have a strong foundation, especially through most of our coaches,” Marino said. “We have that foundation set. We’ve been building it the past couple of years. Ten years ago, we were not the best. … For five years, we’ve been trying to build a foundation that’s finally set, and it’s that time to build to the next level.”

Rowse said Beaver reloads rather than rebuilds and that every player understands that and knows their role. He has been impressed by the team’s discipline and hard work.

“I’m happy with where our kids are with their progress and the work they’re putting in,” Rowse said. “We lost a lot last year. When you’re trying to build great programs, that’s going to happen. You’re going to lose good classes. It’s part of your culture just to rebuild those classes, and I like the way the senior class has handled their first step in the leadership this year.”

One of those seniors is quarterback Travis Clear. Rowse said that he will have an outstanding year.

“Travis has been there forever,” Rowse said. “It’s hard to believe it’s his senior year. It’s his third year as a starter. We’re going to run the offense through him, and he’s earned that right.”

Clear threw for 1,321 yards last season, tallying 12 touchdowns and six interceptions. Rowse loves his winning attitude.

“I’ve always said he’s like a kid that was born a generation too late,” Rowse said. “He’s just a throwback kid that does his job. He doesn’t get all hype on social media and all that. He just comes in, he works out. He does his job quietly. He leads. He leads with a quiet sense of himself by showing up and doing his work every day.”

Clear loves leading the team and is excited to showcase the depth of this year’s Bobcat squad.

“Everybody’s extremely excited, especially with how young our team is this year, to prove to people that it wasn’t just the senior class last year really helping us out,” Clear said. “We get to spread the ball out a little bit more this year, run heavy right down the middle and prove people wrong this year. That’s our goal.”

Clear loved throwing to both Jackson and Mayo last year. Clear had thrown to a number of players through the years and his experience is an advantage.

“You get to see a lot of new faces on the field,” Clear said. “With all the mindsets we got too, it could be a game changer. The mentality of having three years of being a starter, the game slows down, then you can definitely judge people’s confidence and stuff. You pick players up real easily.”

This season, Clear has a new cast to throw to.

Marino and senior Micah Pupi are his top two targets. Senior Alex Korcinsky is a three-year starter at tight end.

Beaver has retooled successfully before. Marino, who caught eight passes for 109 yards and a touchdown last season, is ready to make an impact and deliver yet again.

“We’re going to keep trying to produce these athletes who can fill in from the people before,” Marino said. “We don’t want it just to be like a one-time thing, where you have athletes everywhere and you can do whatever you want and then the next year, you’re down and don’t have any athletes. We’ve been trying to build up the next people up, including the people who are playing right now.”

All-conference running back Qualan Cain, who notched 1,307 rushing yards, and Drey Hall, who tacked on 500 rushing yards, were the top running backs last season and both graduated. Jackson also tallied 522 rushing yards.

Senior Jonah Justice and sophomore Avery Scales will be the 1-2 punch at running back this season and will be the next men up, filling in for Cain, Hall and Jackson.

“Jonah’s a 6-1, 215-pound kid, and we trust his athletic ability,” Rowse said. “He’s getting better every week. Avery Scales, he reminds me a lot of a young Amari. We put him at wideout. We put him at running back. He’s going to be a sophomore, so we’re just really looking for him to take the big steps as well. He’s shown a lot of promise through the 7-on-7 stuff this summer, and just his work habits and his leadership were pretty good for a sophomore.”

They will be running behind a line that Rowse considers to be the key to the team’s success in previous seasons with Tony Rabatin and JT Pashuta. Nevertheless, the offensive line is young with three newcomers, including Quynton Hullihen, who is 6-6, 270.

“I have all the trust in the world in them,” Clear said. “If we have to change a few things up, we have to change a few things up, but I have all my trust in them. I believe in them. I have no doubt that we could still win the same amount of games with the line that we have. Yeah, they’re young, but they can prove people wrong.”

On the other side of the ball, Rowse said that Justice will anchor the D-line. Colton Robinson and Korcinsky will also play key roles on the line. Sophomore Brennan Kostyak stood out last season on defense and also took another leap in the offseason.

Isaac Sessie and Pupi, both all-section linebackers, return this season. Sincere Sly rounds out the linebackers.

Rowse said Sessie took another step forward and is in the best shape of his life.

“He’s our leader on defense,” Rowse said. “I always tell these guys, you can’t be a great linebacker without great eyes. He’s got really great eyes for a high school kid. He does a great job of seeing things, recognizing things, calling our defense, getting guys in the right formation and in the right alignment.”

Rowse loves the experience in his 4-3 defensive package.

“That front seven is where we’re going to hang our hat on stopping the run and getting pressure,” Rowse said. “I’ve got to find a couple of guys in the back, and we’re going to probably play some younger guys in the secondary to start and let them just keep gaining that experience.”

Marino is one player they’ll look to in the secondary. He said that for the front seven, Sly slid in perfectly to fill in for Lutton. He said he’s confident in leading the secondary; they’ve been helping the younger classes through trial and error.

“We’ve been pushing the kids, but not only showing them what to do or just telling them what to do, we also show them what to do on the field,” Marino said. “In my opinion, learning from words is way harder than learning from actions. You don’t learn how to swim by reading about water. You’ve got to do the work. … We’ve been throwing them into the fire, and they’ve really been picking it up.”

Marino enjoys winning seasons and seeing the community come out in support. He loves donning the maroon and gray. However, he and the team want more.

“I’ve been looking forward to this since the basketball playoffs ended,” Marino said. “Right after basketball started, we were getting in the weight room, knowing that we have something to prove this year. We can be something, and it’s not just like a one-time thing.”

Marino added that the winning foundation is there. Their focus has been on doing the little things right.

“I watched my brothers and cousins play here,” Clear said. “Growing up, seeing the coaching and leadership when I was in sixth to eighth grade as a manager was amazing. Playing for Beaver is all I dreamed about.”

Rowse embraces Beaver’s culture and said it’s his responsibility to keep it strong. He said the coaches and players understand the culture and are doing it for those who played before them and for those after them.

“It’s gratifying when you tell them to trust the process and see them showing up, working and running and lifting and doing all those things,” Rowse said. “It’s a gratifying feeling to see that. We’re just going to keep going and doing our thing. We expect nothing but the best from our kids and our coaching staff. Every single game we’re going to line up and go.”

Beaver

Coach: Cort Rowse

2024 record: 8-3, 5-1 in Class 3A Western Hills Conference

All-time record: 653-425-55

SCHEDULE

Date, Opponent, Time

8.22 Mars, 7:30

8.29 at Blackhawk, 7

9.5 Imani Christian, 7:30

9.12 at Hopewell*, 7

9.19 Central Valley*, 7:30

9.26 at McGuffey*, 7

10.3 Deer Lakes, 7:30

10.10 North Catholic*, 7:30

10.17 at Quaker Valley*, 7

10.24 at Avonworth*, 7

*Conference game

STATISTICAL LEADERS

Passing: Travis Clear

87-137, 1,321 yards, 12 TDs

Rushing: Quay Cain*

107-1,307 yards, 18 TDs

Receiving: Amari Jackson*

35-735 yards, 22 total TDs

*Graduated

FAST FACTS

• Beaver won back-to-back WPIAL titles in 1981 and 1982 and was the only team to win consecutive WPIAL titles in separate classifications (3A in ‘81 and 2A in ‘82) until Thomas Jefferson did so in 2015-2016. Beaver won its first WPIAL title in 1972.

• Pat Tarquinio is sixth winningest coach in WPIAL history with 241 wins and was with the program for 34 years. Current coach Cort Rowse played for him.

• Coaches Jeff Beltz and Tarquinio account for 403 of Beaver’s 653 victories.

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