WPIAL Class 5A championship game by the numbers: Pine-Richland 20, Peters Township 9

By: Bill Hartlep
Saturday, November 23, 2024 | 11:26 PM

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Pine-Richland 20, Peters Township 9

Peters Township 0-9-0-0—9

Pine-Richland 0-10-10-0—20

Scoring summary

P-R: Grant Argiro 24 field goal

PT: Eli Prado 23 pass from Nolan DiLucia (run failed)

P-R: Tanner Cunningham 64 pass from Aaron Strader (Argiro kick)

PT: Anthony Maiello 29 field goal

P-R: Jay Timmons 22 pass from Strader (Argiro kick)

P-R: Argiro 47 field goal

Team statistics

PT … P-R

First downs 16 … 9

Rushes-yards 32-72 … 30-95

Passing yards 161 … 147

Passing Comp-Att-Int 16-27-1 … 7-15-1

Total offense plays-yards 59-233 … 45-242

Punts (number-avg.) 5-39.8 … 4-40

Fumbles-lost 3-1 … 0-0

Penalties-yards 4-30 … 13-111

Possession time 24:22 … 23:38

Individual statistics

Rushing: PT: Nolan DiLucia 21-61; Nick Courie 5-6; Darius McMillon 2-5; Cole Neupaver 4-0. P-R: Maclane Miller 19-57; Aaron Strader 7-26; Jay Timmons 1-21; Dayne Wilden 1-1.

Passing: PT: DiLucia 16-27-1, 161 yards, 1TD. P-R: Strader 7-13-1, 147 yards, 2TDs; Sam Heckert 0-1.

Receiving: PT: Nick McCullough 6-86; Eli Prado 2-38, 1TD; Lucas Shanafelt 3-1; Jeremy Poletti 2-44. P-R: Timmons 4-81, TD; Tanner Cunningham 2-71, TD; Elijah Wentz 1-(-5).

Climbing the ladder

Pine-Richland captured its ninth WPIAL football championship Saturday with a 20-9 victory over Peters Township. That moves the Rams into a tie for sixth most in district history with Central Catholic. Aliquippa leads with 20 championships, followed by Clairton (14), New Castle and Thomas Jefferson (11) and Jeannette (10).

The Rams’ other titles came in 1969, ’70, 2003, ’14, ’17, ’18, 2020 and ’22.

Pine-Richland also is the only school to win WPIAL football championships in five classifications. The Rams’ 1969 and 1970 championships were in 2A; the 2003 title was in 3A; 2014 was 4A; 2020, 2022 and this season were in 5A; and 2017 and 2018 were in 6A.

Different story a year later

Peters Township defeated Pine-Richland, 43-17, in the 2023 WPIAL championship game held at Norwin Knights Stadium. In that game, Peters QB Nolan DiLucia threw for 184 yards and three touchdowns and also ran for 81 yards and a score. The Indians outgained Pine-Richland, 482-151, including rushing for 298 yards.

It was certainly a different story Saturday as the Pine-Richland defense held Peters Township to just 242 total yards, including 95 on the ground.

LeDonne adds another ring

Pine-Richland head coach Jon LeDonne led a team to a WPIAL championship for the third time. He also guided Penn Hills to the 2018 crown and shepherded the Rams to the title in his first season in 2022.

Argiro’s leg

Pine-Richland senior kicker Grant Argiro made a noticeable impact in Saturday’s victory. He booted a 24-yard field goal to start the scoring in the second quarter and then connected on a 47-yard field goal to make it 20-9 with 4:57 left in third quarter into the open end of the stadium where fireworks were exploding across the river in Downtown Pittsburgh as part of Light Up Night.

In addition, he averaged 40.0 yards on four punts to help the Rams force Peters Township into unfavorable field position. Of his five kickoffs, three resulted in touchbacks. In all, they averaged 57.2 yards.

Key stat

The Pine-Richland defense produced 13 tackles for loss, resulting in a loss of 56 yards. That total included four sacks of DiLucia — one each from Sam Heckert, Josh Smith and Dustin Edwards and a half sack apiece for Grant Pillar and Joshua Nindl.

Captain Williams

Pine-Richland’s captains saw a familiar face at midfield during the pregame coin toss. Former Steelers linebacker Vince Williams was the game’s honorary captain. He’s also a member of Pine-Richland’s coaching staff. Williams is in his third season as linebackers coach for the Rams.

Williams was one of Florida’s top linebackers at Ridge Community High School. He was Polk County’s Defensive Player of the Year as a junior and an all-state selection as a senior. He had nearly 300 tackles in three varsity seasons before heading to Florida State. He was selected in the sixth round of the 2013 NFL Draft by the Steelers and spent his entire eight-year pro career in Pittsburgh.

Acrisure attendance

WPIAL administrator Vince Sortino said attendance for the four championship games at Acrisure Stadium was 10,763 on Saturday. That total is down from last season when 12,911 were admitted to the North Shore facility and up from 2022 (9,572). Temperatures hovered in the low 40s and there was off-and-on rain throughout the day and into the evening.

Next up

District 3 champion Bishop McDevitt (12-2) awaits Pine-Richland (11-1) in the PIAA Class 5A semifinals next week.

Bill Hartlep is the TribLive sports editor. A Pittsburgh native and Point Park graduate, he joined the Trib in 2004, covering high school sports. He held various editing roles before assuming his current position in 2019. He can be reached at bhartlep@triblive.com.

Tags: Peters Township, Pine-Richland