PIAA football playoffs: 30 years in 30 days — Upper St. Clair captures state crown

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, November 12, 2018 | 4:51 PM

The PIAA had been hosting state playoffs in all but one fall high school sport since 1976. Soccer, volleyball, tennis, golf, cross country and field hockey all crowned state champions once the district playoffs concluded.

The lone exception to the fall state playoff slate was high school football.

It wasn’t until 1988 when PIAA officials finally pulled the trigger on the idea of having a yearly state football playoff.

From George Novak and Woodland Hills losing in a mud pit to Bob Palko and West Allegheny finding the third time really was the charm to Neil Walker and Pine-Richland competing in a heartbreaking overtime loss in a snowstorm and to Tyler Boyd and the golden Bears of Clairton winning four straight state championships.

There have been a lot of thrills and heartbreak in three decades of state championship football. Leading up to the 2018 state finals, the TribLIVE High School Sports Network will look back at how WPIAL teams have fared in the PIAA championships with 30 years in 30 days.

The Year: 2006

The Site: Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey

The Champs: Upper St. Clair, General McLane, Wilson, Southern Columbia

The Headline: USC golden while Jeannette heartbroken

The Lowdown: One legendary coach was back on top of the state championship mountain while an iconic player would have to wait his turn to return from Hershey as the golden boy.

Since winning the program’s first PIAA football championship in 1989, Jim Render had led Upper St. Clair back to the state finals twice. In 1992, Upper St. Clair lost 28-12 to Cumberland Valley, and five years later, the Panthers fell to Central Bucks West, 44-20, in the 2007 title game.

Nine years later, after edging Penn Hills, 18-12, in the WPIAL finals, Upper St. Clair rolled past Cathedral Prep and State College to reach the Class AAAA championship contest against District 11 winner Liberty out of the Bethlehem area.

The Hurricanes were led by Dan Persa, a Northwestern recruit who had thrown for nearly 2,000 yards and rushed for over 1,100 yards in leading Liberty to a 14-1 record. Win No. 14 came in a PIAA semifinals thriller, 45-38 over Pennsbury in a game that lasted four overtimes.

A Dane Conwell touchdown, a blocked punt tor a safety and a field goal gave USC a 12-0 lead early in the second quarter.

Then the Panthers’ great Dane took over, scoring on a pair of touchdown runs in the second quarter and adding two more in the third quarter.

Adam Chrissis added a 61-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter as Upper St. Clair closed out a perfect 16-0 season with a 47-13 blowout of the Hurricanes.

The Panthers rushed for 346 yards, as Conwell led the way with 189 yards on the ground on 30 carries.

The USC defense was brilliant, holding Persa to 96 passing yards and minus-17 rushing yards, thanks to eight Panthers sacks.

• In the Class AA title game, Terrelle Pryor and Jeannette ended up on the short end of a 29-28 heartbreaker against District 11 champion Wilson.

The Jayhawks led 20-16 at halftime as Pryor scored on a 52-yard run in the first quarter and tossed a 61-yard scoring strike to Nick Spino in the second quarter.

Pryor, who ended up with 139 yards rushing and 93 yards passing in the Jayhawks first PIAA title game, scored in the third quarter on an 8-yard run to put the Jayhawks up by 12.

The fourth quarter was all Wilson.

Warriors’ quarterback D.J. Lenehan threw a 6-yard touchdown pass early in the quarter, then capped the comeback with a 39-yard scoring pass to Justin Scerbo to make it 29-28 Wilson.

Jeannette would not be able to come close to scoring again in the game’s final seven minutes.

Lenehan finished with 229 yards passing and 100 yards rushing with three touchdown tosses.

“It’s going to take a while to get over this,” Jeannette safety Shaw Sunder said after the game. “It was a tough loss. We let the city and coaches down. It’s going to be tough.”

The Jayhawks would rebound in a big way in 2007 to claim state gold.

Don Rebel is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Don at drebel@tribweb.com or via Twitter @TheDonRebel.

Tags: Jeannette, Upper St. Clair