Jeannette had to tackle old foe to get to PIAA

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Heading into the final week of the WPIAL regular season, undefeated Jeannette was favored against Clairton.

Despite beating the Jayhawks six consecutive times in Class 1A, the Bears had lost two regularseason games and didn’t look like the team that had dominated their classification for years.

Then, Clairton hammered Jeannette, 40-6.

Three weeks later, though, the Jayhawks got their revenge via an 18-7 semifinal win en route to their WPIAL gold. Another three weeks and they were PIAA Class 1A champions.

“Some of us coaches talk about if that one hadn’t happened, maybe we wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we’ve done,” Jeannette coach Roy Hall said. “It was a very big wake-up call.”

“Clairton knocked it off and brought us back down to earth.”

It was that semifinal win, though, that made Hall realize the door was wide open in Class 1A.

Jeannette seized that opportunity, beating HomerCenter, 42-12, in the championship Dec. 7 at Hersheypark Stadium. Senior quarterback Robert Kennedy ran for 114 yards and two touchdowns, passing for 143 yards and another two touchdowns.

“If I ever was a defensive coordinator, I would dread that I had to meet Robert Kennedy,” Hall said. “He can run the ball, he can throw the ball and we’ve used him in the last several games … as a decoy. You don’t realize until you look at it on film. As soon as he touches the ball, bam. There’s five, six players on him.”

The Jayhawks defense held the Wildcats to 163 total yards and forced two turnovers.

Homer-Center was no weak opponent, having ended Bishop Guilfoyle’s 59-game win streak in the quarterfinals. Jeannette’s 34-point loss, then, may look a bit odd in retrospect.

But the Jayhawks were able to rally and channel it into something positive.

“We’ve had peaks and we’ve had valleys,” Hall said. “Especially after the first time we played Clairton and they beat us, 40-6, let’s be honest, you’re thinking ‘Oh my gosh, what is it going to be like?’ But yes, it’s very surprising, I would say, in a sense. But I knew we had a lot of talent, if we got it together.”

Kennedy may have been the team’s superstar, but they’ll return a wealth of skill players in his stead including junior wide receiver Isaiah Winters, junior running back Zack Berginc and junior quarterback Seth Howard. Howard spent time at quarterback for the latter half of the season but Jeannette used him all over the field when Kennedy was taking snaps. Howard rushed for 54 yards and a touchdown and caught a 44-yard pass in the PIAAchampionship.

Despite the loss of Kennedy, Hall feels confident about Jeannette’s future, especially considering the Jayhawks finally broke the “Clairton Curse.”

“Yes, you’re going to lose Robert Kennedy, but we’ve still got a lot of talented players coming back,” Hall said. “So I would assume the expectations are going to be pretty high next year.

“There’s no question we expect it to carry it on.”