Wade, Clairton end Fort Cherry’s run
Fort Cherry’s Ryhan Culberson is tackled by Clairton’s Kijafi Fuqua and Anthony Rice Friday night during a WPIAL Class A quarterfinal game at Peters Township High School.
Fort Cherry’s Scott Miller breaks the tackle of Clairton’s Kijafi Fuqua Friday night.
Fort Cherry’s Nicholas Rogers carries the ball Friday night against Clairton.
Fort Cherry’s Logan Higham celebrates after teammate Ryhan Culberson scored a touchdown Friday night against Clairton.
Fort Cherry’s Ryhan Culberson carries the ball Friday night against Clairton.
Fort Cherry’s Nicholas Rogers walks off the field after the Rangers were knocked out of the WPIAL playoffs Friday night by Clairton.
McMURRAY – If you’re wondering about the injured knee of Clairton High School running back Lamont Wade, the top recruit in the WPIAL this year, and if it would hurt the Bears during the Class A playoffs, then you’re wasting your time.
Less than two weeks after undergoing surgery on the meniscus in his right knee – similar to the procedure the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger had last month – Wade was back on the field and showing he’s a quick healer.
Wade scored four touchdowns, including a 96-yard run and 100-yard interception return, as top-seeded Clairton broke open a close game by scoring 30 third-quarter points to defeat Fort Cherry 46-8 Friday night in the quarterfinals at Peters Township High School.
Wade injured his knee two weeks ago in Clairton’s regular-season finale against Jeannette and had the surgical prodcedue a few days later. He did not play in the Bears’ first-round playoff win last week against Avella and it wasn’t until 24 hours before kickoff that Clairton knew he would play against Fort Cherry.
“He went through half a practice Tuesday. He was cleared by the doctor Thursday and went through practice, then was cleared by the trainer,” Clairton coach Wayne Wade explained.
Fort Cherry coach Jim Shiel admitted he was surprised to see Wade in uniform and running with Clairton’s offense in pregame warmups.
“I didn’t expect him to play,” Shiel said. “We had heard (Friday) morning that they were talking about playing him only on defense.”
Wade made his presence felt on both offense and defense. He rushed for 205 yards 17 carries, and that included a 14-yard loss on a backward pass he threw on Clairton’s first offensive play. He scored on runs of 13, 50 and 96 yards and offered the exclamation point in the win with the 100-yard interception return in the fourth quarter for the game’s final touchdown.
The backbreaker for Fort Cherry (9-2), however, was an 84-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Clairton’s Tre’sean Howard to start the second half. Fort Cherry had tied the score at 8-8 on a six-yard run by quarterback Ryhan Culberson with 45 seconds left in the first half.
“That kickoff was such a momentum-changer,” Shiel said. “We went into halftime finally believing we could beat them. We saw their returners were sneaking up, so we tried to kick the ball deep over their head.”
The return came after Fort Cherry booted the original kickoff out of bounds. Instead of taking possession of the ball, Clairton (11-0) made the Rangers kick again. Johnson had to run back to field the kick at his own 16-yard line, broke free of a tackle, ran across the field and then raced up the left sideline for the score to give Clairton a 16-8 lead.
“At halftime, tied 8-8, you would think I would go off on my team,” Wayne Wade said. “It wasn’t like that. We were calm. All we needed to do was make some adjustments. We wanted to get more pressure on their quarterback and that kickoff return got us going.”
Before the third quarter would end, Wade would score on two TD runs and Kijafi Fuqua had an 11-yard score.
The first 24 minutes featured two safeties, four turnovers and a fake punt that led to Fort Cherry’s first touchdown.
The game started well for the Rangers as they took a 2-0 lead less than two minutes after the opening kickoff. On Clairton’s first play from scrimmage, Wade took a shotgun snap and threw an errant backward pass that rolled out of bounds at the Clairton one-yard line. On the next play, a bad snap caused Clairton quarterback Noah Hamlin to scramble in the end zone. Defensive end Logan Higham forced Hamlin to step out of the back of the end zone for a safety and a 2-0 Fort Cherry lead.
Clairton took the lead on its next possession. A 58-yard run by Hamlin on third-and-two set up a 13-yard touchdown run by Wade.
Clairton made it 8-2 midway through the second quarter when a high snap on a punt sailed over Culberson’s head and out of the end zone. The Bears couldn’t take advantage of good field position from the ensuing free kick and punted on fourth-and-22. Fort Cherry then drove 71 yards in 13 plays to tie the score. The drive was aided by three costly Clairton penalties.
The Rangers converted two fourth downs in the drive. One came at their own 43, when Clairton jumped offside one fourth-and-one following a timeout. The Rangers also converted on a fake punt, when Culberson fielded another high snap but passed to Matthew Staley for a 16-yard gain and first down at the Clairton 26. A penalty for a late hit by Clairton, followed by an unsportmanslike conduct call, gave FC a first down at the bears’ six. On the next play, Culberson rolled right, cut upfield and fought off a tackle en route to the goal line that tied the score at 8-8.