Clairton fends off Bishop Canevin to earn a shot at a return to WPIAL glory

By: Liam Belan
Friday, November 14, 2025 | 11:34 PM

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The Clairton football program hasn’t won a WPIAL championship since 2019.

While that is fairly recent and not a huge deal to most schools, the standards are simply different for the Bears. With 14 titles, the second-most in WPIAL history, rings are expected to be a yearly reward.

After Friday night’s 42-22 win over Bishop Canevin, marking the second year in a row that the Bears knocked off the Crusaders in the district semifinals, the orange-and-black outfit will have another crack at adding to its trophy case next Saturday at Acrisure Stadium.

“Our performance was excellent tonight,” Clairton coach Wayne Wade said. “That’s a good football team that we beat. We watched them pretty much all year, and we knew that they were a good football team from last year. To come back and play them in the semifinals again, they had to get there, so credit to them. We knew what this game meant, and we showed it tonight.”

For the No. 2 Bears (12-1), who will face No. 4 Laurel for the WPIAL championship at 11 a.m. next Saturday after the Spartans’ massive upset over defending champions Fort Cherry, Deon Lovelace-Pompey led the way with 134 rushing yards and three scores while Donte Wright added 89 more yards and two touchdowns.

Also scoring was Taris Wooding, who led the Bears through the air with three catches for 62 yards. Jeff Thompson went 8 for 16 for 105 yards while Mike Ruffin threw the touchdown pass to Wooding on his only attempt of the game for 22 yards.

No. 3 Bishop Canevin (9-4) made a relatively easy run to the WPIAL semifinals despite missing quarterback Brady Wagner for the entire postseason as he was ruled ineligible due to his transfer from Mt. Lebanon. Damar Olds, the team’s second-leading receiver in the regular season, took over at quarterback for the WPIAL playoffs and performed admirably.

“We knew this time was coming because of the (WPIAL ruling),” Bishop Canevin coach Rod Steele said. “We worked with him at practice starting at the beginning of the year because we knew that Wagner would be out. But he stepped in like a senior and made some big plays for us. He did a great job over the last three weeks, so hats off to the kid. He’s a great athlete, a great student, and he’s going to play ball somewhere.”

Steele was more than happy with his team’s effort against a tough squad.

“Unfortunately in the first half, we just had real bad field position,” he said. “Field position really hurt us in the first half, and then we got in a rhythm a bit in the second half moving the ball methodically. We even cut it to one score, and then credit to them because they ate the clock and ran it on us when we were looking for a stop.

“We just needed a stop, and we didn’t get it. But give credit to Clairton. It was a hard-fought game. I’m proud of our kids. Under five minutes left and we made it a one-score game with an opportunity to win and get to the finals.”

Olds finished 10 of 19 for 111 passing yards, adding 28 rushing yards and a 3-yard touchdown run. His leading target was Justin Melvin, who caught four passes for 67 yards. Myontae Mott, who was one of the top rushers in the WPIAL this season, was bottled up by the stout Clairton front as the Crusaders managed just 51 rushing yards. Mott tallied 17 yards and a score on 12 rushes.

After Clairton forced a quick three-and-out from Bishop Canevin, it got great field position on its 49 to begin the night for the offense. The Bears managed two first downs before a hold stalled things out a bit, but Thompson connected with Ruffin for a 19-yard screen on third-and-20 to set up a fourth-and-1. However, it was 6-foot-6, 330-pound Charles Butler blowing up a run from Lovelace-Pompey to cause a turnover on downs.

From there, the Crusaders marched 77 yards to the end zone as Olds connected with Melvin and made plays with his legs. He moved the chains on third-and-10 with a bootleg to set his squad up near scoring distance. Mott was bottled up, but a personal foul from Clairton backed the defense up to its own end zone.

From there, BC went back to the bootleg for Olds as he ran 3 yards to make it 6-0. A botched snap prevented an extra-point attempt.

The Crusaders, who were oft-penalized in their quarterfinal win over Frazier, committed kick-catch interference during the ensuing kickoff to give the Bears good field position again.

This time, they took advantage of it as Murphy caught passes for 23 and 19 yards to rumble down to the 1 when the first quarter ended. On the first play of the second quarter, Wright found paydirt, and a pass from Ruffin to Thompson for a two-point conversion gave the Bears an 8-6 advantage.

Things seemed to be swinging in favor of Clairton from there as its ferocious defense forced another three-and-out, but the talent of Bishop Canevin continued to shine as Johnson came up with a massive play to stop a good Clairton drive and give the Crusaders another lead at 14-8.

The Bears didn’t trail long, though, as they responded in just under two and a half minutes as Thompson made a great throw to Wooding on a third-and-7 to set up a 14-yard touchdown run from Lovelace-Pompey. After Ruffin was stuffed on the two-point try, the game was tied at 14-14.

Both defenses then came up with picks as Clairton’s Jaece Booker and Bishop Canevin’s Chris Smith each took the ball from the opposition, but it was Clairton that struck again before halftime following a great punt return to the BC 15 from Murphy.

A hold backed the victors up, but Ruffin faked the defense out by seemingly running a sweep before he slowed down and threw a pass to Wooding, who went 22 yards to the house to make the halftime score 22-14.

Neither team managed to score in the third quarter until just 24 seconds remained as Lovelace-Pompey powered across the goal line from 5 yards out to give Clairton a commanding 30-14 lead heading into the fourth.

Bishop Canevin wasn’t done yet, coming up with its first scoring drive on offense since 2:03 in the first as Olds did the majority of the work with his legs to set up a 4-yard plunge from Mott. The 74-yard drive made it just a one-score game at 30-22, but that was the last of the scoring for the Crusaders.

Taking over with 7:41 remaining, the Clairton rushing attack went to work and grinded out the hard yards to get the job done, eventually scoring on a counter play that completely fooled the Bishop Canevin defense. Lovelace-Pompey went 38 yards untouched before Wright scored from 2 yards out just a minute later when the Bears forced a turnover on downs at the Bishop Canevin 2.

“That drive was a testament to our guys up front on both sides of the ball because we have 27 players out there in uniform, so those guys are playing both ways,” Wade said of the scoring drive that took up 4:42 and iced the game. “That’s a testament to how hard those guys work in the weight room, staying in shape and being ready.

“I have a couple 300-pound guys up front. (Avaughn Pompey) is 338. (D’Kota Harris) is 320. (Ny’ree Scott-Evans) is 310. So it’s a testament to those guys up front, because Bishop Canevin might be the biggest team we see all year.”

Now, the Bears will turn their sights to Laurel, a squad that holds one WPIAL championship near and dear to its heart from 1980. Forty-five years later, they’ll be hoping to slay Goliath one more time a week after ending the season of Fort Cherry and the career of Matt Sieg.

“We’re gonna turn on the tape and see what Laurel does,” Wade said. “We’re going to try and take that away on defense, and then try to continue executing on offense. It’s going to be a hard matchup for them, just because of our speed. … Fort Cherry is a good football team, so we’re not going to take Laurel lightly. But we feel we’re the best team in single-A.”

Tags: Bishop Canevin, Clairton