Warriors blank Jaguars
Thomas Jefferson football had 30-35 players miss practices this week because of various illnesses.
Friday night at North Allegheny, however, it was Jayvin Thompson, Bret FitzSimmons, Denior Simpson, Antwon Johnson and the rest of the Central Valley Warriors who left the Jaguars feeling sick.
The two teams met with a trip to the WPIAL Class 4A championship game on the line and Central Valley’s “dudes” made the big plays that constituted the difference in a 19-0 win by the Warriors. Central Valley has won three consecutive WPIAL titles but those were in 3A. Now they will attempt to continue that title streak only this time with the 4A crown.
It won’t be easy, however, as they will face Aliquippa (11-0) next Friday at 8 p.m. at Acrisure Stadium in a rematch of an Oct. 28 contest won by the Quips, 35-24. Aliquppa beat McKeesport, 42-7, at Canon McMillan in the other 4A semifinal Friday.
“[Next week] we are just going to have to make more plays than they do,” Central Valley coach Mark Lyons said. “We gave them some easy quick strikes and you can’t do that against that kind of explosiveness. We have to finish drives, we didn’t finish enough drives the first time.
“We will get back to work tomorrow and I know our guys are going to be excited [to play Aliquippa]. And for us, as a staff, that is an easy week to prepare because if you have to get motivated for that game, there is something wrong with you, that’s your backdoor neighbor.”
Thompson added, “this is a short and sweet victory [celebration] and we will get focused on next week. We came out flat in the second half the first time and they rolled with the momentum.”
The story of Central Valley’s win against Thomas Jefferson was big plays on both offense and defense. And Thompson was in the middle of almost all of them as he had a 12-yard touchdown pass for the Warriors first touchdown and a 24yard interception return to the 1 that set up their second touchdown, a quarterback sneak by Johnson.
The final touchdown was a wide receiver screen from Johnson to Simpson in which Simpson caught the ball, did a little shake, rattle and roll, made three Jaguars miss and then sprinted 40 yards for the touchdown.
Simpson’s nickname is “Money” and that was appropriate because he cashed his lone reception in big time.
Those big plays were enough to carry the Warriors as their defense was stifling and limited Thomas Jefferson to only 109 total yards. Thomas Jefferson (84) had 23 carries for only 30 yards and couldn’t get anything going offensively the entire night. But in between the big plays the Warriors (11-1) were able to grind the clock and grind out yards by feeding the beast otherwise known as their workhorse running back FitzSimmons, who ran 31 times for 114 yards.
Lyons said he isn’t surprised those four players were the difference because at this time of year it often comes down to which teams’ big-time players make the key plays to win the game. He said it was a total team effort on both sides of the ball but the Warriors skill position players on both sides of the ball really showed up.
“Absolutely, we thought we were going to get some shots with our skill guys in the right positions,” said Lyons, who has won five WPIAL titles. “I don’t think in the second half we were in much of a rhythm other than Deniro [Simpson] catching that wide receiver screen and splitting a couple would be tacklers.
“It is November football, it is deep into the playoffs, your dudes are supposed to be making plays, that’s why they are dudes, that’s why they get the ink.”
Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak said his team has a lot to feel good about after rebounding from a 3-3 start to win five consecutive games and their conference title. He said they came up a little short of their ultimate goal but tipped his cap to Central Valley and said there is no shame in losing in the semifinals. The Jaguars had a tough week as they had a bunch of players battling sickness all week long.
“We just played a team that played better than us,” said Cherpak. “Half of our varsity didn’t practice all week and we looked like a team that didn’t practice. You have to show up to play. I don’t think it was our effort, we just weren’t sharp.
“We just couldn’t get anything going on offense, we struggled to run the ball, but they are really good. You get to this point in the season, everybody’s good.”