Clairton continues to keep opponents scoreless, blanks Monessen in WPIAL opening round

By: Adam Brewer
Friday, October 31, 2025 | 10:19 PM

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Clairton hasn’t allowed a point since August, and that scoreless streak has continued in the WPIAL Class A playoffs.

The No. 2 Bears blitzed No. 15 Monessen, 50-0, with another stout defensive effort and an explosive offensive performance in the first round Friday night at Tyler Boyd Stadium. After suffering a 19-12 loss to Imani Christian in Week 0, Clairton has outscored its next nine opponents by a staggering 519-0 margin.

“Our speed just takes over games,” Clairton coach Wayne Wade said. “We just take away holes and gaps. We are going to load the box and hope that our speed will track down teams on the outside. No team can simulate that speed in practice.”

Clairton, which hasn’t lost in the first round since 2002 against Fort Cherry, had a strong postseason start to a potential 15th WPIAL championship.

“Clairton has had a lot of great defenses over the years,” Wade said. “But I have never seen a defense that does their job from the nose guard to the safety. They are difference-makers. They play with a chip on their shoulders. Everyone is doing their job and running to the ball.”

The Bears (9-1) outgained the visitors by a 339 to negative-12 margin. Monessen made it past midfield only once, and that was because of a couple of penalties by the home squad late in the second quarter.

The first-round exit is the seventh straight for the Greyhounds (6-5). The last postseason victoryfor Monessen was against West Shamokin in the opening round in 2013.

“Clairton is a great team,” Monessen coach Wade Brown said. “We knew it was going to be a hard ask for us tonight. Clairton is so fast and so strong. They are aggressive. We knew that coming in, but seeing it live is very different.”

After the Greyhounds went three-and-out on their opening drive and managed only a 9-yard punt, the Bears had the ball at the 30-yard line. Six plays later, Donte Wright rumbled for a 6-yard touchdown at the 7:29 mark of the first period.

Monessen did get a first down on its next possession — via an 11-yard halfback pass to Rodney Johnson from Kayden Kolbeck — but was forced to punt later in the drive.

A couple of plays later, Jeff Thompson connected with Wright for a 28-yard touchdown. Rheyjon Williams added his second PAT, as the home team carried 14-0 lead at the end of one.

Short drives for the Greyhounds and chunk plays by the Bears continued, as Clairton put together a 22-point second quarter.

Sandwiched around a pair of touchdown passes from Thompson to Michael Ruffin (45) and Brandon Murphy (38) was a Deon Lovelace-Pompey 2-yard plunge into the end zone. Clairton led 36-0 at halftime, and the second half began with the mercy rule in effect.

The Bears capped the scoring with a 43-yard touchdown dash by Lovelace-Pompey in the third quarter and a 1-yard quarterback keeper by Thompson at the start of the fourth quarter. Lovelace-­Pompey led Clairton on the ground with 112 yards on only nine carries.

“Our offensive line has been solid,” Wade said. “We can pass or run effectively because of the play of our line. Monessen is a tough, scrappy team that has some athletes. We just attacked them with our talent, and they had no answers.”

Thompson finished with 159 yards through the air on 7-of-11 passing with three scores. The Bears’ leading receiver was Ruffin with two catches for 81 yards.

Clairton now will have its sights set on a quarterfinal matchup with rival No. 10 Jeannette, a 38-24 winner over Bentworth, next Friday with a site and time to be determined.

The Bears beat the Jayhawks, 57-0, in the regular season, but the last time these two squads met in the postseason was when Jeannette upended Clairton in the 2020 final.

“The message is pretty clear for our team,” Wade said. “We have to execute on offense and be dominant on defense. We talk about it all the time. That’s our motto this fall.”

As for Monessen, the Greyhounds did win two of their final three games to get into the playoffs and have qualified for the postseason under Brown the past five seasons.

“We want to be like Clairton,” Brown said. “They play with a winning edge and are just confident in all three phases of the game. They are really confident in what they do, and Coach Wade always has those guys prepared. Hopefully, this game makes our program better.”

Tags: Clairton, Monessen