Jeannette unable to break Clairton’s defense as Bears post another shutout

By: Josh Rizzo
Saturday, September 28, 2024 | 6:35 PM

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Clairton junior defensive back Donte Wright is watching all of his teammates in practice. Just like everyone is watching him.

The Bears defense has set a standard it doesn’t want to let slip. Clairton stretched its streak of not allowing an offensive touchdown to six games when it bullied Jeannette, 43-0, for an Eastern Conference win Saturday at Thomas Jefferson Stadium.

During the week, Wright said that anyone who misses a tackle must do 10 pushups in practice. If an assignment is missed, that also results in 10 pushups.

“It’s really like our first two years: We started off bad, and we weren’t doing so good,” Wright said. “We are flying around in practice, talking, getting on each other and all that. We’re doing pushups if we miss an assignment. It’s really hard.”

The only points the Bears have allowed this season came in Week Zero when Steel Valley returned a fumble for a touchdown.

Jeannette, which was scoring 32 points per game entering the game, never found a way to crack the Bears defense. The Jayhawks (4-2, 1-2) picked up only one first down, the result of a Clairton pass interference penalty.

“The kids fly around, and we have seven or eight kids on defense who can run a 4.6 or under,” Bears coach Wayne Wade said. “They are flying around, having fun and doing their job. You see the results.”

Jeannette’s longest play from scrimmage was an 18-yard pass from Kymon’e Brown to Jayce Powell in the second quarter. The Jayhawks offense was limited to 7 total yards.

Jeannette coach Tommy Paulone Jr. said Jeannette was hoping to control the ball on the ground.

The Jayhawks’ plans were crushed when Jeannette fumbled the opening kickoff. Clairton recovered on the Jeanette 11 and scored three plays later on a 3-yard run by Drahcir Jones.

“Everything went out the window when we turned the ball over on special teams,” Paulone said. “We wanted to control the game. They deferred, but it was our plan to take the ball to try to establish a run game, which we did not. A lot of things changed early for us.”

The Bears increased their lead to 14-0 on their second drive.

Jeff Thompson threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Wright with 6 minutes, 15 seconds left in the first quarter. Wright finished the game with two receiving touchdowns and also intercepted a pass.

Even when things went well for Jeannette, they didn’t last long.

Intense pressure from the pass rush forced Thompson to throw the ball away late in the second quarter for an intentional grounding and push Clairton (6-0, 3-0) back for a 3rd-and-31 from its own 24.

Thompson found Wright for a 76-yard catch-and-run to extend the lead to 28-0 with two minutes left in the first half.

“It could be fourth-and-45,” Wright said. “We were going to get the first.”

Michael Ruffin also scored two touchdowns in the second half for the Bears. Jeannette played without linebacker Eli Jones, who was out because of a suspension.

“I’m proud of the way we handled it,” Paulone said. “I thought Nicholas Mendoza going to inside backer helped. We stopped them on defense a little bit. We didn’t play well last week on defense, but we found ourselves on defense against a good offense.”

Tags: Clairton, Jeannette